Campground Help

We are planning a July 2007 visit to Denali and would like to stay in the park for 7 nights. We will be pulling a 18 ft travel trailer. What are the pros and cons of the Riley Creek and Savage River campgrounds?

We will have our bikes, kayaks, and hiking boots ready to go. We are seasoned tent campers (many trips to the Boundary Waters, long term Florida State Park beach camping, and many trips around Minnesota). The trailer is a new addition for our 4 month long trip to Alaska.

Are there any campground layout maps online? - to see the sites

When we make reservations, do we get to select the site?

Any site recommendations?

We look forward to any help, advice, or suggestions that anyone has.

May will be here before you know it!!!!!!

Campground Help

More from PJG - we will also have our fishing gear and waders.

Campground Help

We stayed at Riley Creek with a 22 foot motor home and were very happy. We were within walking distance of the visitor center and our site was under trees. I can%26#39;t answer your questions about reserving particular sites. We were there in September and although we had reserved, there weren%26#39;t a lot of people in the campground, so I assume that if we had wanted to change sites that would have been possble.

I would suggest you try a google to see if there is a website, or call the reservation people to get some definitive answers.

One more question --

The reservation site asks for vehicle length - do they want the combined lenght of the trailer and vehicle or just the length of the trailer?

Thank-you.

You know? I just don%26#39;t know the answer to your question. We had plenty of room.

We need to have an Alaska expert come in here and give some details...or you will need to contact the park service. Somewhere on this site recently I saw some contact information on another thread.

Hi there! Well, if I were you, I would probably choose to stay in two campgrounds - stay east either at Riley Creek or Savage to be closer to things near the entrance, and then stay 3 days at Teklanika. Then you would really be able to explore the park. All of these sites are well spaced, but I don%26#39;t know if the NPS website has actual layout maps - I haven%26#39;t checked that. Go to www.nps.gov/dena for further info. You can also call (907) 683-2294 for further answers to your specific questions regarding the campgrounds. The great thing about having a trailer is that you can leave the trailer and drive around to do other activities in the area - like go kayaking on Otto Lake in Healy, You can also explore the park on your bikes - that would be great fun! I haven%26#39;t checked for some years, but in the past you could put your bikes on the shuttle buses - one great ride is from Eielson Visitor center to Wonder Lake, but you can go anywhere along the park road. I hope that helps you some. Make sure you stock up on groceries in a larger town before coming to Denali. Best of luck! :)

I heartily second Coalminer%26#39;s comments! Take 3 nights in Teklanika Campground right off the bat and schedule your bus trip for the first full day there. Tek gets you about 30 miles into the park and saves you an hour on the bus going in and coming out,(i.e., the 6:30 bus picks you up at 7:30 with your seat reserved, and it drops you off an hour before the other passengers get off at the Visitor%26#39;s center.

You also get to drive into Tek, but just once - so you will be there with permission to drive out only once. On one trip with visitors we stopped by a stream to sneak up on a caribou for a close up photos that would have been impossible from the bus.

Tek also limits your bicycle and kayak possibilities, as you are camped on a shallow, rocky glacier river. There is a clear water stream to the east of the campground where you can bathe, if you chose. On the other hand, you can catch the bus a second time the next morning (which almost all of my visitors have chosen to do) on a stand-by basis (no reservations) for a second go at watching animals. Another alternative is to take the bus up to a chosen location (Igloo Peak is a great choice) for a hike up a mountain or along an interesting way you wish to explore.

After the third night you can move to a campground closer to the entrance - Savage for some degree of remoteness, where you can drive out days to surrounding starting points, or Riley campground if you go for more sociable (crowded, noisy) surroundings.

7 nights in and around the park is a great choice. Check out the different parts of the Nenana River to get the degree of challenge you can handle and enjoy - from the bridge south to Glitter Gulch is smoother than the gorge starting at Glitter Gulch. Rating of the river, naturally, changes with water level on any day.

Yes, you get to reserve a specific campground, but not a specific parking place within the campground. Length requested should be the length of the trailer alone.

71

The suggestion to stay a few nights further into the park at Teklanika sounds like a good idea (it can save you quite a bit of driving time). I checked Denali%26#39;s website and found some information about reservations:

nps.gov/dena/…campground-reservations.htm

I looked around the site but couldn%26#39;t find any maps! I wonder why they wouldn%26#39;t have any…

There is also further information about the campgrounds, reservations, etc, in the Alpenglow Planner:

nps.gov/dena/…Summer06AlpenglowPlanner.pdf

When I visited Denali I stayed in a smaller 20 something foot camper in Riley Creek Campground. The site was nice, pretty isolated; several (wooded) meters between each of the sites. The campground is also near the visitor%26#39;s center which has slide show presentations. Also nearby are the park%26#39;s only trails, as well as the doggie demo.

Blue

Thank-you for all of the good advice on this thread and the Tek Pass thread. We have decided on 5 days at Tek, 5 at Savage River and then another week at Denali State Park. How does that sound?

Any tips for stay at the state park?

Byers Lake at mile 148 of the highway screams out for attention. You have the lake, great trails with fine views of Denali from a distance. It is a great place with a wide variety of possibilities.

www.dnr.state.ak.us/parks/units/denali1.htm

www.allgetaways.com/view_destination.asp…

There is a visitor%26#39;s kiost at the adjacent roadside rest area where you can stop %26amp; have a cup of coffee and look at Alaska books %26amp; chat with the informative people (volunteers, I believe).

a chance for revenge