Mat-Su Valley RV Parks & Campgrounds

The Mat-Su Valley region features many great RV parks and campgrounds. Diverse campsites cater to all types of adventurers, whether you prefer the comfort of a public use cabin, the simplicity of tent camping, or the convenience of parking your RV. Nestled in prime locations, such as the towns of Talkeetna, Palmer, Wasilla, Willow, and Glacier View, these campsites serve as gateways to thrilling outdoor activities. Explore hiking trails, fish in lakes, or simply soak in the natural beauty surrounding your campsite.

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RV Parks & Campgrounds

There’s noth­ing quite like camp­ing in the woods with the fam­i­ly when you’re a kid. The crack­ling camp­fire and gooey s’mores. Bik­ing around the camp­ground loop. Run­ning through the for­est and gath­er­ing wood. Catch­ing (and land­ing) that first fish. Here we offer details for nine great pub­lic fam­i­ly camp­grounds with­in a 90-minute dri­ve from Anchorage.

Locat­ed on an isth­mus between a shel­tered cove and the main body of a vast back­coun­try lake, Red Shirt Lake Cab­in 2 offers a basic, easy-to-heat base for explor­ing 1,186-acre Red Shirt Lake regard­less of weath­er. It gives a small par­ty no-fuss access to water, fuel and ski trails — a cozy space to relax when the day is done and the light begins its dying slant.

Red Shirt Cab­in 3 cel­e­brates the ancient spir­it of Red Shirt Lake as a gath­er­ing place. The lake once fea­tured large salmon runs and sum­mer camps for Dena’ina Native groups, and still hosts pri­vate cab­ins on its south­ern half. The cab­in may be per­fect for large par­ties in quest of lake action, a plat­form for those who want stren­u­ous days of pad­dling, fish­ing, swim­ming, and motor­ing fol­lowed by rous­ing evening campfires.

Be care­ful, it’s easy to miss this turn-off as you drop down the hill, but look out for the sign Cari­bou Creek Recre­ation­al Area.” This sel­dom-used camp­ground is a qui­et place to camp, away from high­way noise. It has fire rings and pic­nic tables, and there’s a trail to the creek. It’s a one-mile walk to the water. It’s a nice stream and it’s part of the State Recre­ation­al Gold Min­ing Area. So bring a pan and try your luck!

The camp­ground is pret­ty open, since bark bee­tles killed the big, old spruce trees. The camp­sites attract RVers and campers, and each of the 24 sites has a fire ring and pic­nic table. There’s potable water at a hand pump. 

Bald Lake Cab­in is a great choice for peo­ple who want to stay at an Alas­ka wilder­ness cab­in on a pris­tine lake, but don’t want to trav­el far to get there. On the hill­side over­look­ing iso­lat­ed Bald Lake, the cab­in offers seclu­sion and pri­va­cy only a short walk from your vehi­cle. It’s a best of both worlds” kind of place — where you can spend the day explor­ing a vir­tu­al­ly pri­vate lake with inter­est­ing bays, or quick­ly dash back to your vehi­cle to  ...more

Camp­ing by this 108-acre lake inside the Nan­cy Lake State Recre­ation Area near Wil­low feels like you’ve reached the end of the road. To the west stretch­es unbro­ken wilder­ness to the Alas­ka Range and beyond. And yet, the 97 sites in this friend­ly, heav­i­ly treed camp­ground offer all the reg­u­lar camp­ground ameni­ties of out­hous­es, fire rings, pic­nic tables and water pump. South Rol­ly con­tains pike and stocked rain­bow trout. 

Ide­al for those pad­dling, boat­ing, fish­ing, hik­ing as well as those look­ing for seclu­sion away from the lake’s more pop­u­lar routes for ski­ing and snow­mo­bil­ing. The cab­in faces the sun­set and may be the per­fect locale to string a ham­mock for long sum­mer after­noons lis­ten­ing to for­est birds.

These two almost iden­ti­cal cab­ins (only 200 feet apart) are aimed toward adven­tur­ers and fam­i­lies who want to include both pad­dling and hik­ing in their dai­ly adven­tures. They offer direct access to two lakes as well as the park’s trail sys­tem. Though rel­a­tive­ly close, each cab­in is col­ored by a slight­ly dif­fer­ent atmos­phere. Lynx 2’s porch faces the sun­set, with good after­noon sun and a view of Lynx Lake. It feels open, more exposed. Lynx 3  ...more

This hand­some, well-sea­soned log cab­in is the post­card for your pub­lic use cab­in dreams. If they filmed Alas­ka Pub­lic Use Cab­ins — The Movie,” the pro­duc­ers would have a hard time find­ing a bet­ter place than James Lake for the setting.

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