Reservations???????

[garyemunson]

How on earth can anyone really make reservations on their first Alaska trip? Trying to plan I get confused by how long we'll be stopped looking at things. Can any of you multiple trip people shed some light on campground availability WITHOUT reservations? If you just stop really early do you have a chance of getting a spot or in the summer is it likely most campgrounds are fully reserved? We kind of hate reserving campsites as then we are locked into a schedule and lose a lot of spontaneity but don't really enjoy having to dry camp every night.

[Veebyes]

Generally no reservations needed anywhere in The North. Lots of no reservation provincial parks & state parks. Beware of Canada Day, July 1st & the July 4th holiday. If not reserved somewhere for thosse dates, get where you want to be early to beat the locals getting off work & rushing to the CG.

Teklaneka in Denali is always wise to reserve as soon as you can nail down a date.

[PghBob]

You might want to consider reservations for Denali and the tours in Denali (if you plan to go deep into the park). We made our bus (tour) reservations last April and we got the last seats on the tour we wanted.

Consider reservations for July 1 (Canada Day), if you are traveling through Canada on your way. Ditto for July 4 in Alaska. Remember the Kenai Penn. is the playground for many Alaskans, especially on weekends, as it is reasonably close to Anchorage. This is true with Banff National Park and Calgary in Alberta as well.

Finally, if you are using the Alaskan State Ferry for any part of your trip, I would recommend making a reservation for that as well. BTW, strongly agree with the book recommendations. One addition, if you belong to the AAA, get their tour book for Western Canada and Alaska. Enjoy your trip!

[Caysea]

Hi All

I also made ferry reservations. The only firm planing I will do because of the scheduling involved. Being a boater and knowing boats and weather i realize these plans can change at any time.
I have seen it all to often at ferry docks those that just drive up expecting to get on not realizing to get a reservation. Actually if you talked to my wife she will tell you that only planes and ferries make me plan. Everything else welllll lets see what happens as we go along. Kind of the cruisers attitude.

KC

[rag-ftw]

Ditto on 2gypsies comments!

Suggest buying all three books they recommend as they will pay for themselves quickly. If you purchase The Milepost and Mike and Terri Church's 'Alaskan Camping' you will need no other reference material!

We made advanced reservations on holiday weekends and at major attractions while in Alaska. Otherwise we would check our references while on the road sometime during the morning and call ahead for a reservation for that evening, once we knew what time we wanted to stop driving while in Alaska. Since phone service was expensive for us in Canada we made no reservations there except at Toad River. (We want a spot on the lake and they fill up quickly.)

We do fair amount of boondocking as we like to not be surrounded by other folks and you can't bet the price.

It may be a bit more crowded this year as people shouldn't have to contend with $6.00 a gallon diesel fuel, as we did in the Yukon in 2014, but I would say go into it knowing this will be the trip of a lifetime!

[Ozlander]

We made reservations for the ferry and staterooms because it only runs once a week. None other.

[garyemunson]

Thanks to everyone!

[RangerJay]

Only made one reservation on our Alaska trip - that was in Denali and we made it just a few days in advance - never had any problems.

Have a great trip.


Jay

[pulsar]

It has been 9 years, since we traveled to Alaska; may the situation has changed.

We made two reservations, before we left home. We left home at the end of may and the reservations were in July. One was in Anchorage - the granddaughter of our traveling companions was flying in to spend a week with us. The second was in Homer - we had booked a fishing trip from there.

We took a month to reach Alaska, enjoying the trip. Since our phones did not work in Canada, we showed up at campgrounds to see if they had two sites available. Only once were we turned down. We found another campground in the same town. That was in Dawson Creek, the start of the AlCan Highway.

Other than what I mentioned above, we had no set itinerary. While in Alaska, where our phones did work, we would decide on our next destination and call ahead to make reservations at our next stop.

Have a great trip. We're planning to go back next year.

Tom

[2gypsies1]

The only reservations we made for our all-summer trip was the July 4 weekend when we thought we'd be around Palmer and Denali's farthest campground you can drive - Teklanika. For those we only made them 3 weeks prior.

As it turned out, we were a bit early for Denali so on a whim we boondocked at a lovely spot nearby and drove in the next morning when folks were leaving. We easily secured an additional 5 nights for our 40' motorhome in Denali's front campground - Riley Creek. We saw 'THE' mountain 7 of 10 days and viewed every big animal of the park over and over again. We easily filled the 10 days in the park in both areas.

For RV parks, if you get there early afternoon and sometimes, at any time of day, you will get a spot. The tour groups reserve because they need room for 20 or so RVs. You don't have that problem. I know some folks panic if they don't know where they'll be that night but we don't feel that way. It makes for a more relaxing trip to just mosey along.

We use public parks or boondock as we like that kind of site. There are also many wonderful boondocking spots, some with views of lakes or rivers. We didn't have any problems. We also didn't try moving around on Thurs through the weekend unless we were really in the boonies - never around the Kenai Peninsula.

I'd highly recommend you purchase online Mike and Terri Church's 'Alaskan Camping' which includes Canada and the Yukon, also. They lived in Alaska and traveled back and forth to the lower 48 constantly so they know the parks and areas. It includes great boondocking spots up to RV parks and gives you information on all the surrounding area.

Purchase the Milepost for history and road information, not for camping information. Purchase the TourSaver 2/1 Coupon book online. One glacier cruise will pay for the book and you'll want to do at least one! There has been a special going on for the book - don't know if it's finished or not. Get it before your trip as there might be things you'd want to do before you even get to Alaska.

We rarely use reservations even in the lower 48. That's not the way we like to travel. There are so many things that can happen while traveling and we don't want to rush to get to the next spot. Yes, you can cancel but then it means every other reservations needs to be changed. What a hassle!

Have fun planning. It's an awesome trip!

[joe_b_]

As John said, not too necessary to have reservations most of the time. During salmon runs on the Kenai, 4th of July in Seward, Denali NP campgrounds and if you have a specific place you want to be on a specific date. Seldom do we make reservations more than a week out, most of the time it is a day or so ahead of arrival. A few times over the years we have had to find a dry spot to camp but not too often.
There is a music festival that takes place in Dawson Town in the summer and reservations might be needed. When you get into the north country stop at the different visitors centers and pick up brochures of the different towns. They often will have the dates of festivals, etc that can fill the campgrounds. Ferry reservations tend to be needed on some of the runs but often a day or so ahead is plenty.

[cruiserjs]

When we made the trek - JUne-Sept. we only had reservations once -1st - 4th of July weekend in Dawson City. Never any trouble finding space.