Best Glamping near Fairbanks, AK

Chena Hot Springs offers a full resort experience with hotel rooms, cabins, restaurants, and a host of activities including soaking in the infamous hot pools. It also offers camping with and without electrical hook-ups in either creek side privacy or open lot RV parking. It is a world-famous destination with shuttle buses to and from Fairbanks daily. You will meet people from all over the world. 

Camping and soaking are charged separately, as are any extra experiences like the Ice Museum (glad I did it, not sure I would again).  Vault toilets, rubbish and recycling bins, and potable water are all available in the campsite, flush toilets and showers are a part of the pool/hot springs facility. Hiking, biking, boating and fishing are all available close by in addition to the experiences offered by the resort. 

The nearest services for groceries are about 45 miles back down the road toward Fairbanks, or North Pole, AK. We camped in the primitive area, which was lovely, forested and right along the creek, but the opportunity for solar power collection was limited by the trees, so plan ahead.  We parked in the main lot for awhile to recharge, then took our rig back into the campground.  Worked well!

Harding Lake State Recreation Area is a shady and scenic site about twenty minutes from North Pole. The lesser-known and elder cousin of the many water-themed state recreation areas that trace the Richardson Highway from Fairbanks to Delta Junction.

This large and accommodating campground boasts a boat launch into Harding Lake, a baseball field, a large group recreation area near the water, a self-guided nature trail, a trailer dump site, and unpotable bulk water--along with various bathrooms with trash receptacles. 

Our family of 5 tent camped in May and had a fantastic weekend. The sandlot-reminiscent baseball field was a rare and magical find that suited our family's wiffleball addiction perfectly. It's like wandering through a moss grove and emerging into a boreal. baseball field. A subarctic Field of Dreams. I also hit two first-pitch homeruns off my 9 and 5 year old--which may or not be related to the magic of this field--but I choose to believe.

The spacious and thoughtfully-designed campground certainly feels beyond its prime--old, unserviceable water pumps (perhaps not yet operable for the season); aspen saplings dotting the baseball infield; and many downed spruces over the nature trail. The posted maps are a little outdated. However, the campground boasted some of the cleanest bathrooms I've ever seen, anywhere-with a very friendly on-site host who came by to chat and kept the facilities in pristine condition.  The camping spots are well-placed along the loop to allow for varying degrees of privacy between sites.

Mosquitoes are everywhere in springtime Alaska--please let me know when you find a campground in a birch forest without them. That said, bring all the bug repellant and preventative measures you can muster. I was swarmed by a biblical cloud of man-eating Culicidae when we first pulled in--but they soon dispersed and only became annoying for intermittent periods. 

Overall this was a magnificent campground, quiet and clean, with plenty for the kids to do. Fantastic and memorable experience.

Campground Review:

This was the first two nights of our 8 night Alaska trip. The campground is called Rosehip, but it's apart of the Chena River State Recreation Area. We arrived late (midnight) and were surprised that even a week before July 4th, that there were only 3 other campers at the campground (all RV's). The wooded areas are composed of mostly white birch which we took its bark when we saw downed trees. Birch bark is great for starting fires. The pit toilets are maintained and do not smell. For water, there are several pumps that you have operate yourself, but our only issue with it was the color of the water, which comes out a little yellow/orange. For two days, we used this site as a base camp to venture out to hiking (Angels Rock) and to Chena Hot Springs, which is about an hour away. Both are worth it. No encounters with wildlife except for the mosquitoes. This site is your typical state run facility and was clean, equipped, and cheap.

Product Review:

As a Ranger for The Dyrt, I get to test products. At Chena River State Recreation Area, I tested gear from Snapbuds.

The Snapbuds are magnetized clips that, when attached to your headphones, aim to make it easier to coil the headphones up and make them tangle-free. I give the Snapbuds a 2/5 for a couple of reasons:

1. The instructions were a little difficult to follow; it took me awhile to realize that there are two versions of the Snapbuds, but the instructions include both, and I only had the one kind.
2. When I attached the snapbuds to the headphones in the locations that were specified, I tried to clip the snapbuds together, but several of the clips wouldn't close; the tiny plastic wings that help close it permanently, would easily bend the other way, making it impossible to secure the clip. Out of the ten clips that come in one package, I could only attach 6. (see picture below)
3. After attaching as many of the clips that didn't break, I tested out the tangle-freeness of the product. I found that after attaching the buds together via their magnets, that the headphones still weren't effectively secured with the buds attached (see last picture).

I understand how this product works and in some cases, why it's needed, but the Snapbuds were shipped to me with the white Apple headphones. I've been using these headphones for several years now and really haven't had them tangle, even if I bunch them up in my hand and stuff them in my pocket. Perhaps the Snapbuds would be more effective on non-Apple headphones?

We camped here just this past week and it was wonderful. There are a variety of campsites, some large enough to accommodate an RV, as well as well-maintained restrooms, well-water, a dumpster, and every site had a picnic table and fire pit with grate. Some of the campsites are on the river and some are across the street from it, but there is access to the Clearwater river from the day use area for all visitors. The campsite is still close to town if you need supplies, about a 20 minute drive. This is now one of my favorite sites in the state. A quiet, beautiful spot to camp, engage in water sports, and fish.

I’m not sure if we planned the trip around the largest mosquito outbreak ever but this is the first time I wanted a head net! :) the bugs were terrible but the campsite wonderful. The campsites were private, plenty of site options, bathrooms conveniently located and water to play in near by. This campground had a roped off beach area where people played, lounges, kayak/canoe and spent all day. If we came again I would bring more beach appropriate items. The playground and bike/walking trails were great. The kids thought it was fun to watch the many tadpoles!

We've been here twice. Once in late August in 2014 and again in July 2016. We were delighted how this campground (in a city) feels like wilderness. In late Aug it was getting cooler and sparsely populated. In July, it was pretty crowded but the camp sites aren't right on top of each other and there is foliage around. The flush toilets, drinking water and picnic tables was great. It's close to supermarkets too.

While we only have good things to say about our stay in August, There were some shady people hanging around in July just kind of...lingering. There were 3 of us and all felt that our cars/tents were being scoped out occasionally. Perhaps that was the case, or perhaps we were just paranoid but throwing it out there so you all know that opportunists seem to be lurking about here.