Alaska Highway Campgrounds

Any ideas from the regulars on how to strategize to visit as many National Parks as possible with a travel trailer?

And if you can include the best season or month to do it (read so far that winter is impossible and middle of summer have slushy roads/tundra.

Went last summer, made no reservations except for Valdez staying a week, twice. Valdez is very popular. I would also recommend reservations in Seward and Homer. Didn't even book at Denali and stayed at Riley Creek for two nights. It was early in June. Spent quite a few nights in pullouts, by choice, not of necessity. In Canada stayed mostly at Provincial Parks.

FWIW,

- As noted, lots of pullouts to use along the way.
- Except for a holiday weekend, most "campgrounds" don't get too busy. If there's only one campground with power/ water etc for 200 miles, it might get hit heavy, but most of the power only or "just a spot" CG's aren't heavily used as the norm.
- As MORSNOW indicated, avoid Seward during 4th of July. FWIW, in general, Alaska CG's near to what passes for population centers (Los Anchorage, Squarebanks, Seward, Talkeetna, Kenai) tend to get pretty ugly around Memorial Day, the 4th, and Labor Day (Memorial and Labor days depending somewhat on weather). I think Seward's the worst, but I avoid camping near Talkeetna and Fairbanks over the 4th as well.
- Purely anecdotally, an increasing number of the pullout spots on the road system in Alaska are getting some sort of signage that purportedly bars "overnight" or "camping"....don't know if it's being enforced or not.

Your choice as to what you need as far as an RV park. We've driven from Delaware to Alaska and back 9 times and have NEVER had a reservation and have NEVER stayed at an RV park. Lots of pullout areas to overnight in.

The most popular camping time for both Americans and Canadians is July 1st and 4th week for Independence Day celebrations, so many campgrounds are full everywhere. The absolute worst place to camp on the 4th is anywhere near Seward AK, as they have the Mountain Marathon that day and it's a huge drunkfest/party.

On both of our drives to Alaska I made a reservation at every stop on the way. That was difficult because 99% of the campgrounds were closed for the winter. What I liked about that experience was that none of those taking the reservations asked for any deposit or credit card information. That was refreshing. But when we arrived many of those campgrounds had no record of our reservation and explained that they were never full so reservations weren’t necessary. But during holidays and at popular destinations reservations were a must.

Yosemite Sam1 wrote:

Do you have access to visit all the Alaska National Parks through it's roadways pulling an RV/trailer?

Several of the Alaska national parks have no road access of any kind. The only options for them are flying in, boating in, and/or hiking in...or I suppose perhaps snowmobile/dogsled in the wintertime.

With limited roads everyone is headed the same way. We left before 9 AM to be ahead of the pack. CG sites can be limited due to Caravans.

swphotobug wrote:
We were there last summer. No reservation except for Denali. You can always park in a pullover spot on the roads. Plenty of Provincial parks in Canada. We would try to get into campgrounds around 2-3 each day.

Do you have access to visit all the Alaska National Parks through it's roadways pulling an RV/trailer?

We were there last summer. No reservation except for Denali. You can always park in a pullover spot on the roads. Plenty of Provincial parks in Canada. We would try to get into campgrounds around 2-3 each day.