Probably one of my favorite  family vacations was to Alaska.  In keeping with the theme of traveling where there are less people and for less money, we decided to rent an RV and drive to the innermost campground option for Denali National Park.  For my husband and two teenage boys, this was a great way to experience Alaskan nature in an intimate setting. One of our hikes  from the Eielson visitor center took us to Thorofare ridge where we had majestic views of Mt. McKinley. While coming around the corner we stumbled on some caribou.  It was a moment  to enjoy all to ourselves…

Below you will find my trip report:

August 2014:  Alaska is a very RV friendly state with plenty of campsites and roads that accommodate an RV. We chose to rent from GAH (Great Alaskan Holiday) and were very impressed. We flew in after hours and had arranged to stay in our RV on the parking lot that night. They had the beds made up, water tanks filled and a generator so it made it very easy to arrive late. It was great to be able to unpack just one time! There was a coffee shop within walking distance to grab breakfast from.  It was a little hectic the next morning as over 20 RVs were trying to check in at the same time but GAH was efficient and we were finished by 9:00am. We rented a few extras like lawn chairs and the larger inverter, which was worth it! I also rented some extra sheets because the linen package only allowed one blanket and sheet per bed. I wasted my money on renting a coffee machine because most campgrounds  didn’t allow you turn on the generator early. The coffee pot requires a generator to work. Thankfully, we had brought a backpacking French press, which worked nicely. I also wasted my money on renting a fishing pole. While Denali National Park allows you to fish for free, there are very few fish in that park. Fishing elsewhere required a rather pricey fishing license. We did not elect to purchase the prefill package on gas and propane. It was much cheaper not to. There is a gas station near GAH that makes it easy to fill up prior to  return. Warning, allow plenty of time for the check out procedure which takes an hour. Otherwise, they will charge  a late fee.

Couple of items I purchased that were handy: An over the door organizer to help store smaller items. A pop up hamper-which worked great to store clothes in the closets. Extra plastic coat hangers and a sharpie-I wrote everyone’s name on the hanger and we used it to hang towels and keep them organized through the week. Pair of scissors, duct tape, foil and black trash bags-we used all these items to block the sun lights so the rv would be darker at night. Paper towels, baby wipes, hand sanitizer were useful when trying to dry camp since water becomes very precious. Lots of paper products for eating to minimize washing dishes. A metal 9X13 pan-for baking (there were no baking dishes in the rv).  Gallons of water-useful when dry camping and we used the empty jugs to fill up with water at the dry campgrounds. Ziploc bags for storing food and organization. Any extra spices-it does come with salt and pepper. Foam soap dispenser for kitchen and bathroom. Laundry supplies for doing laundry on the road.

After checking out, we headed north to a nearby Fred Meyers, which had a fantastic selection of groceries and home items. I wish I had bought more here because the grocery prices were much higher outside of Anchorage. A bag of chips in Denali was $10! Keep in mind groceries in Anchorage are about twice the price as in Texas. I was also pleasantly surprised by the selection of organic produce and how reasonable those prices were.

After shopping and unloading groceries, we were on our way towards Denali by noon. We checked into the Riley Creek Mercantile and were able to get all our passes for the week and shuttle bus tickets. We also bought shower tokens/towels for $5 for that night. It was great to be able to take a ten minute shower since we knew we would be dry camping after that. The mercantile has a pretty decent selection of basic food items. The laundry room was great and took quarters. The wifi only worked if you were  at the mercantile. The rv site was nice but not too quiet since you could hear road noise, trains, and helicopters. We brought a battery operated noise maker which helped drown out some of the noise. We left the next morning with our TEK pass to camp 3 nights further in Denali. We were disappointed that you  had to drive straight to the next campground. You are not allowed to stop and hike along the road. You cannot arrive before 11am to the road checkpoint leading to TEK. We set up the RV, had lunch and than caught the shuttle bus to the Polychrome area for the afternoon. Gorgeous hiking there! The next morning we had our reserved seats on the first shuttle to Wonder Lake. It picked us up at 6:25am. Unfortunately, it rained most of the day so we didn’t get off the bus very much. I highly recommend grabbing the early shuttles because you definitely see more wildlife. The third day we also took the first shuttle to Eielson visitor center to hike the trail ridge there. Mount McKinley was out so the views were stunning from there! We never had any problem hopping back on a shuttle. Although I did hear on rainy days they tended to be more full. We had no problem with dry camping for 3 nights since we took “navy” showers. Definitely the biggest water usage was washing dishes! We had to check out the next morning and vacate by 11am so there was not time to hike on the last day at TEK. Looking back, I wished we had booked one more night at TEK before heading back to Riley Creek to allow more time for hiking. Our last night in Denali we stayed back at Riley Creek which allowed us time to explore the front end and go the sled dog show.

 

We did venture into Denali one day to shop and eat lunch but parking an RV was a challenge in the small town. On our way out of Denali, we chose to drive Denali highway. GAH does allow you to take the RV on the gravel road if you promise to drive slowly. It was a spectacular drive and so worth the day! We stayed at Tangle Lake Campground which was very nice and even had wifi. The next day we drove to Valdez-another beautiful drive! We wished we had planned to spend two nights here because of how much there is to see in Valdez. We headed back to Anchorage the next day to turn in the RV. It took about six hours to get back in town.

I would highly recommend GAH and using an RV to see Alaska. We did an Alaskan cruise our second week but we all agreed the time in the RV was our favorite!