free camping for a van with a rooftop tent?

[RossAndHaley]

Hi there
My boyfriend and I are going to be on a road trip in Canada and Alaska with our van and roof top tent in June & July this year. We are going to be in Alaska over the 4th of July long weekend and have a few questions. We are staying in Skagway, Fairbanks, Homer and Seward.

1) Is it legal to camp on the side of the road in Alaska?
2) With our set-up can we just pull over anywhere, set up our tent and sleep? Or does it have to be in designated areas?
3) Does anyone have any suggestions for free camping in Homer and Seward or do you think we would need to book ahead in actual RV & campgrounds?

This is our first time on a road trip with our rooftop tent so any advice is much appreciated.

Thank you in advance
🙂

[PA12DRVR]

MORSNOW answered the key questions, so just to offer a thought, free advice worth what you pay for it, whatever:

The 4th of July Weekend, unless you absolutely need to be "camping", would be a good time to splurge a bit, get a couple of nights in a motel somewhere along the road system (but not Homer or Seward, possibly not Valdez) and avoid camping at the various state park campgrounds.

Seward is an absolute zoo over 4-July and Homer and Valdez get amped up a bit as well, but not as much as Seward. Blanket statements are all wrong.... 🙂 ....but any state campground near a road system population center will attract the loudmouths and drunks.

[Yeti_plus]

Seward is over run with campers in the summer. When we were there last summer they had taken a baseball diamond out of baseball service and marked out RV parking spaces on the diamond, put a solar powered parking ticket dispenser by the gate and charged by the night to park/ camp on the ball diamond. There were a couple other places in town that had the same setup.
Homer wasn't as bad. We were able to get into a campground on the spit with great views of the water, but it was very windy. That might be a problem for your tent.But there were tents set up not out as far on the spit.Pretty noisy near them from the flapping in the breeze.
Fairbanks--- the Walmart had every conceivable type of RV in the parking lot, except for a van with a tent on it!
Skagway is a pretty small town, but I think there were some pulloffs near the town.
Have a great trip.
Valdez puts on a super 4th of July event. All day free events free Supper and City sponsored campfire complete with do it yourself Smores. Then fireworks. Although fireworks just aren't the same when it isn't dark!!:)
Brian

[MORSNOW]

RossAndHaley wrote:
Hi there
My boyfriend and I are going to be on a road trip in Canada and Alaska with our van and roof top tent in June & July this year. We are going to be in Alaska over the 4th of July long weekend and have a few questions. We are staying in Skagway, Fairbanks, Homer and Seward.

1) Is it legal to camp on the side of the road in Alaska?
2) With our set-up can we just pull over anywhere, set up our tent and sleep? Or does it have to be in designated areas?
3) Does anyone have any suggestions for free camping in Homer and Seward or do you think we would need to book ahead in actual RV & campgrounds?

This is our first time on a road trip with our rooftop tent so any advice is much appreciated.

Thank you in advance
🙂

1) Is it legal to camp on the side of the road in Alaska?
Yes, there are many pullouts and gravel pits that are free open camping.
2) With our set-up can we just pull over anywhere, set up our tent and sleep? Or does it have to be in designated areas?
In Alaska, as long as it isn't private property or marked No Camping.
3) Does anyone have any suggestions for free camping in Homer and Seward or do you think we would need to book ahead in actual RV & campgrounds? Nothing is free in these two towns except for the views! Avoid Seward on the 4th of July weekend, they have a Mount Marathon race that draws in thousands of people and finding a camping spot is crazy. In Homer, the city owned campgrounds along the spit are inexpensive.

[rexlion]

Much of that will be grizzly bear country, I think, so at a minimum you will have to maintain very clean tent contents (no snacking in bed, and no food odors on the clothing & bedding. Keep any coolers covered and out of visibility even inside the van. I'll leave the rest to the more knowledgeable folks who've driven that route.