Savage River Campground — Denali National Park

This campsite is stunning. It’s easily accessible, the last campground in Denali National Park by motor vehicle (the others you need to take a bus from the station at the visitors center near the entrance.) Make sure you book your tours in advance, the earlier the better! You could spend a day hiking around the savage river which is located at the end of the camp site. The site is walkable, quiet, and clean.

Straight out of a fairytale 

This was one of our all-time favorite campgrounds! The campsite was spacious and had lots of privacy, with a picnic table, fire ring and plenty of space for a large tent. Our site backed up to woods that were filled with spongy, mossy ground coverings and "evidence" of moose presence. Our family loved exploring this area! We walked to the savage river at the back of the campground and explored this area, attended a great ranger talk and had some fabulous mountain views. We also loved the location of the campground, as we could drive our car but were further away from the crowded front areas of the park. We absolutely loved our hike on the savage alpine trail, which we took the free shuttle to get to the start and ended outside of our campground. If you have kids, be sure to check out a discovery backpack filled with activities and science kits they can use. Our 9-year-old loved it so much she asked for a science kit for Christmas!

Gorgeous scenery and great park access

This was out second campsite of our 8 night Alaska trip. We were there for two nights. This campground has a family campground feel with all the RV's and family groups; not that that's a bad thing! The campground was probably 80% full, but still quiet and enough solitude. The campground is right on the Denali park road where all the shuttles and buses pass through the park. We reserved a spot to take us all the way to the Eielson Visitors Center which is a ~4 hour one-way trip from Savage River Campground. Anyone reading this and considering going to Denali - you WILL see wildlife. We saw a family of foxes, caribou, grizzly bears, a marmot, ground and red squirrels, moose, bald eagles, and a variety of other birds. There is a popular short hike from the campground down to Savage River, and the camp host told us that people see moose and bear a lot in the morning on that hike. Other things to note are: Denali Education Center (outside of the park) - we went to yoga here; Healy - check out 49th State Brewing ( they have the "Into the Wild" bus from the movie).

Always fun camping in a National Park

You can get out of tourists views if you just keep hiking past the regular trail for the savage loop. But it will take a long while. If you don’t want to travel far into the National Park and you don’t mind hanging around more people than this is the place to camp.

Close to tourists

Savage River is an amazing location in Denali National Park offering details of the river during the winter period.  The river does not completely freeze leaving cracks that provide a new perception to the pristine conditions. Drive across the bridge and take a photo opportunity with the jaw-dropping scene. 

Amazing Scenery 

Savage river is a nice campsite that you can drive to in Denali National Park. It is also possible to see Denali from here. Mixture of tents and RVs

Nice Campsite

My dad and I camped in B-20 for 2 nights. It’s was a great site, close walk to bathrooms, close to the water supply to refill water containers, the Mountain Vista Trailhead, and just perfectly placed. We camped in a tent under constant daylight and got down to 40s between 3-5am. You can pick up whatever wood you see on the ground but can’t cut fresh stuff. It was my first time staying in this campground.

Savagely Bright

This campsite was in the Savage River Campground in Denali National Park, just outside the bus station for the park transit and close to the bathrooms. We had a great tent site and firepit with a large picnic table. You can hear the river flowing and it can lull you to sleep despite the near constant daylight. This site was peaceful and the Mountain Vista Trail was a short walk away.

Denali in Summer

We spent 2 nights and used the Savage River Campground as a jumping off point to travel further into the park. We had a our best hikes from the campground. We enjoyed hiking along the river. We were lucky to have a grouse pair come into our campsite. We also took advantage of the ranger talk that was given in the evening. The bathrooms were clean.

Beautiful Campground Near Great Hikes

Drive through the site going into denali. As soon as we get there we spot caribou right at the river. It was very Smokey due to wildfires so we couldn’t really see much 