Chief Shakes Hot Springs Site

Free day-use facility (U.S. Forest Service).

Soakplanet describes the short trail from the landing to the tubs as manageable for children and notes the tubs can be temperature-adjusted to a safe level, but says parents should have backcountry experience because reaching the site means navigating ~28 miles of the tidal, glacially-fed Stikine River. USFS also flags that the source water arrives very hot and must be tested/mixed before entering, so kids should be supervised at the tub taps.

A hike is required, about about 0.3 mi one-way from the landing to the soaking tubs to the water (roughly 5-10 minutes to walk the 0.3-mi boardwalk once you've landed; the real time cost is getting there, about 1.5-2 hours by motorboat each way from wrangell (per hotsprings.co), less by floatplane). Wear real shoes, since approaches to natural swim spots are often rocky or rooty.

No road or vehicle access exists at all; hotspringsguides.com states plainly there is 'no vehicle access of any kind.' The site is reached only by private boat, chartered water taxi/jet boat, or floatplane, so there is no parking lot or pullout.

hotspringsguides.com notes kayakers do make the trip, but says it 'requires multi-day planning given the distance and river dynamics', this is a multi-day wilderness paddle, not a casual put-in. In practice, most visitors arrive via commercial jet-boat charter or floatplane rather than personal watercraft.

Officially described as busiest on summer weekends, holidays, and sunny days; aggregator sources describe it as open/reachable year-round but recommend spring-summer for easier water travel.

Located within the Stikine-LeConte Wilderness (Tongass National Forest); no overnight lodging at the site itself, though tent camping is reportedly allowed within 100 feet of trails and two nearby Forest Service rental cabins (Shakes Slough 1 and 2) are available upriver by reservation.