Best Tent Camping near Soldotna, AK

The stunning lake view and access made the campsite worth dealing with the bugs and bears.

We arrived at Upper Skilak Lake Campground on a sunny Friday afternoon and managed to get the last site available. The campground was packed, including all the RV sites. We ended up in one of the walk-in tent sites. There are a total of 10 walk-in tent sites, with six right on the lake and the rest just a short walk away.

Each campsite is equipped with bear-proof storage for food, which is essential considering the active bear presence in the area. There is enough space for two tents, and the fire pits are new with adjustable grill racks, which made cooking easy. Buckets were provided to safely extinguish fires.

The campsites are a short walk from the parking lot, involving a small hill, except for one (maybe two) handicap-accessible site that offers easier access.

During our stay, we saw black bears and grizzly bears every day. Bear scat was common on the trails and beach, adding to the sense of adventure but also requiring constant vigilance regarding food storage and safety.

The park rangers were friendly and stopped by our site each night to check in and talk about bear sightings. However, one morning, a ranger accompanied by a few volunteers walked into our site while we were eating, which felt somewhat invasive.

The main downside was the state of the bathrooms. They were extremely dirty, with one stall that didn’t lock and another that had no toilet paper. The smell was terrible, and overall, the facilities were not well-maintained.

By the time we left on Monday, we were the only campers remaining, which offered a peaceful end to our stay.

Overall, Upper Skilak Lake Campground offers a beautiful location and a genuine wilderness experience, the poor condition of the bathrooms and significant amount of bugs were the only drawback.

Be prepared for bears and lots of bugs. The lake, the trails, and experience were definitely worth the trip.

Hidden Lake canpground is made up of three sections. Skyview loop the furthest from the lake is the largest with sites large enough for any rig. #6, 10 15 and 20 are handicapped only, do not park here unless you have tags or hanging proof. Ridge Loop and Lake Loop are both tighter and have signs warning of limited manuverbility. Sure #6 on lake loop is ADA and #1 on Ridge loop is ADA. There are trails down to the lake from the upper two, ridge and skyview. There is a free boat launch to access Hidden lake which has trout, dolly garden, kokanee and land locked salmon. Seven day limit at only $10 a day. There are day use covered picnic pavilions, an amphitheater, hiking trails and camp host. The walk in tent area is very private and tree covered. All sites have tables and fire rings. Love this place!

The Cooper Creek sites are a nice alternative to when the Russian River campground is full. This campground is right off of the Sterling Highway. We didn't make online reservations for Memorial weekend so many of the Cooper Creek sites were reserved, but we managed to find one open. It featured a campfire ring with adjustable grilling rack, picnic table (with bench cutout for wheelchair access) and a bear-proof locker. The campground road and site pads are not paved, but all is well-maintained. We didn't notice any highway noise, which was nice! Lots of foliage and tree cover between sites. The camp hosts were super friendly. We saw them making the rounds of sites in late afternoon and also tidying up the restroom in the morning. Our site, #12, was right across from the start of a little trail that runs parallel to Cooper Creek for a little while. 2017 fees are $18 for single sites, $28 for doubles and $7 for firewood. There were a couple pull through sites that would be perfect for large campers/motorhomes, folks pulling boats, and multiple vehicles.

My family loved our weekend away at the Russian River Campground. It was super easy to make a reservation online (reserve early!), our loop was a short walk to the boardwalk to get down to the river. However, we ended up with a pull through spot that was a pain to get our rig into (26' pull behind). Luckily it was the first spot in the loop so we were able to back it in and have the door open to the footprint and the slide towards the road (friends in 69, the next spot over) had the same issue. Also, if you have a second vehicle it's going to be horrible to park at the site as well (unless you have two smaller vehicles and are tent camping). But we had a massive wheelchair friendly picnic table, a fire pit with a decent size grate and a bear box.

This is a dry campground, so all us camper/RV folks make sure to charge your phones up before coming out! The campgrounds are in numbered groups, with sites positioned in loops on each side of the road. Far enough apart for privacy, but close enough to know if wildlife is around. We have very spotty service when we’re out here, but we don’t mind because the views are far more note worthy than our phone screens. There are water fill up stations and dump stations at every camping loop, which was very convenient. The sites are very big (room for our 26ft camper, F-250 and trailblazer to fit) with a separate open area beside it with a fire pit, picnic table, and bear proof container to place our dogs food and portable grill. Quiet hours are from 10pm-6am so we were able to run our generator long enough for our boys to watch a movie before bed. Great sites, great price, great place to fish for salmon!

Camping is basically anywhere on the beach where you can find a spot (within signposted designated area). It's dispersed. While it was busy, we had no trouble finding a spot that wasn't too crowded. I said the cost is 0-$10 as I don't remember how much we paid. I recall we had a permit that we fixed to our tent, but it was very cheap.

There were about 8 to 10 porta-potties all in a row at the where the beach meets the road. They were disgusting and nearly full. In fact, it has been 2 years since we were down there and that is my biggest memory. Others who frequent the campground bring a tall "privacy" tent with their own portable toileting system- probably a bucket.

A little loud at night with a few raucous drunk people on ATVs. We parked our car in front of our tent as a deterrent. There were no problems, luckily.

It was beautiful, being on the ocean and a short drive or 20 min walk to the popular dipnetting area. And convenient to get up for early morning dipnetting sessions without the crowds. The weather was great but I imagine it would be rough camping on the beach if windy with flying sand everywhere.