Best Tent Camping near Denali National Park

A perfect Campground for your stay in Denali National Park. Beautifully wooded sites allow for you to hear nature and feel like part of the wilderness. Nightly Ranger talks add to your experience and education of the park. Walking trails help you explore the area and also connect you with the Mercantile, showers, and laundry. Picnic table and firepit with little leveling required in our site. Limited generator times but we didnt mind as it helped keep things quieter and let us hear the nature around us. Shuttle bus service is available to help get around the park. Treated as a first come first serve for site choice, check in then go select the site you like best. You are able to reserve online and it is highly recommended as they fill up quick during the summer months.

Wonder Lake Campground is one of those campgrounds that you may be surprised by. We were! First Wonder Lake is the last campground on the long and only road in Denali National Park. The bus stops by several campgrounds during the long 5.5 - 6 hours bus ride to wonder lake, but don't be tempted by a shorter bus ride. Wonder Lake is the only campground that you can actually see Denali from and is well worth the extra bumpy few hours on the bus to get there.

Once we arrived we were surprised to see bathrooms with flush toilets, potable water easily accessible and large walk-in bear storage areas along with picnic tables in a common area and at each campsite. All of the campsites face Denali and will have a view of the Alaskan Mountain range as long as it is not clouded in. Unfortunately for campers, we were told the mountain is only visible about 20% of the time. We were lucky enough to be the 20%, but I would recommend reserving a few days to give yourself a better chance of seeing the great views the campground has to offer.

There is a short path behind the common area that leads to Wonder Lake. The lake is also a great spot to view wildlife and if you are into fishing i recommend bringing a fishing pole. The fish in the lake are very active and will bite on anything since there are very few people who actually fish in the lake. The nice thing about fishing in Denali is that you do not need a permit or license to actually fish. There is also a great, and one of the few, hiking trail called the McKinley Bar Trail that is well worth the hike is the mountain is out. It is a pretty flat and well marked trail that is only about a quarter mile from the campground entrance.

The entire area is very buggy and you will want to bring mosquito nets or very strong bug spray at the very least.

One of the other things that we wish we would have known is that with the large bear lockers and picnic tables you don't have to skimp on the food packing. There were a couple of campers that actually brought an entire large yeti cooler with them and they ate like kings the few days they were there We had packed light, but wish we would have known about the ample storage area so we could of had at least one nice dinner instead of a couple of Clif Bars.

All in all I would rate Wonder Lake my favorite non back country campsite that I have visited as long as you can see the mountain. If you can't it is still a great spot just not as awe inspiring.

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!