Now for something completely different.
Yes, I’m going to review a campground. Not a hotel or Airline and certainly not boring but it’s travel so I’m going with it.
While it might not be well known, I love to go camping. We enjoy it on the weekends here in South Carolina during the Spring and Fall. For our Alaska vacation I really wanted to go camping. It’s September so it’s not exactly warm out, but not cold yet in Denali.
I’m not much of a backpacker, we like to camp with a vehicle to carry our gear. We chose the Savage River Campground as it’s the farthest campground into Denali National Park that you can still drive to. Everything further needs to be hiked or bussed to. This campground also has bathrooms, no showers, but that’s perfect for us. There’s also potable water at the Savage River Campground in the summer and that’s fantastic.
While this review is certainly not my usual purview, I couldn’t find a good review of the Savage River Campground here at Denali National Park. So, hopefully this Savage River Review can help someone else make their decision on where they want to stay.
Date of Stay: September 2022
- Savage River Campground Denali Location
- Savage River Campground Denali Check-in Process
- Savage River Campground Denali Camp Site Review
- Savage River Campground Denali Cooking Facilities Review
- Savage River Campground Denali Bathroom Review
- Savage River Campground Denali Campground Amenities
- Savage River Shuttle Bus Review
Savage River Campground Denali Location
The Savage River Campground is located within the Denali National Park. Denali is located about 2 hours south of Fairbanks by car. It’s a pretty easy drive. If you wanted to take the train that’s also an option as Denali National Park has it’s own station on the Alaska Railroad.
The Savage River Campground is located at mile 13 on the Park Road. You are allowed to drive to this campground with your own vehicle.
You can also take the train to a free shuttle bus within the park if that’s more your speed.
Savage River Campground Denali Check-in Process
At Denali National Park, all campground check-in is done at the Riley River Mercantile. This is the small camp store that’s located near the entrance to the park. In the summer, there is a fee to camp at Savage River and reservations can be made online at the park’s website. In the off season, it’s free to camp at Savage River, but you still need to register at the Riley River Mercantile.
Once you’ve checked in and have the camping permit, you simply drive to the campground.
Once at the campground, you’re allowed to camp at any spot that’s not currently occupied. It’s first come first serve. At each site is a marker with a clip, you simply put your paper work into the clip to claim your spot. You can see the clip under the site marker. This was an un-occupied B site in the Savage River Campground.
Savage River Campground Denali Camp Site Review
We chose our campsite at the Savage River Campground on the outside of the loop, about half-way around. We liked this spot because it’s not super near the bathrooms or cook shack. It’s also nice and flat with a good area for us to setup the tent.
We parked and setup. We got our tent pitched on a nice flat area with good drainage. This ended up being a great spot. Nice and quiet and I’m glad we setup where we did, even with overnight rain we were perfectly dry.
Our spot is one of the smaller ones, the B permit. These are mostly for tent campers and people with camper vans or small trailers. The A permits are larger parking areas for people with big RV’s or trailers. Side note, this Mazda CX5 was the perfect rental car for this trip.
Savage River Campground Denali Cooking Facilities Review
Each campsite at Savage River has a fire pit with a cooking grate and picnic table.
We cooked up some hobo-pouch potatoes and onions along with some sausages. This was our dinner meal the first night. Hobo-pouches are easy to make, just put the vegetables into the foil with some butter, salt, and pepper and let them cook over the fire. We’ve made these for years and super easy and delicious.
We made smores for desert after our sausage and potato dinner. It stays light very late in Alaska, even in early September. This was nearly at 9pm.
If you don’t want to cook in your campsite, there is a central cooking area with lots of picnic tables and overhead shelter. In the rain or snow this is a welcome feature. There are several potable water supplies throughout the campground, they are the blue spigot throughout the campground. We had a large water container to keep up supplied and I ended up getting water about once a day.
Because this is Alaska, there are bears. When camping around bears there are food safety rules. All food must be stored inside a vehicle or bear box. There are bear boxes around the Savage River Campground for people to use. We had a car so we kept our food inside the car. The same rules apply for stoves, dish water, and pots/pans. Nothing can be left out.
All garbage must be deposited of in these bear resistant cans. There are also recycling for glass, plastic, and cans. We made a run every day to the garbage to make sure our campsite was clean.
Savage River Campground Denali Bathroom Review
The Savage River Campground has two types of toilets, pit/vault and flush. In the summer, Savage River Campground has flush toilets. In my opinion, there is no greater luxury than flushing toilets at a camp site. The ones at Savage River Campground are clean and comfortable. There’s no hot water but the toilets flush and there are sinks to wash your hands.
The pit/vault toilets are exactly what they sound like, it’s a toilet that doesn’t flush. It’s a hole in the ground with a toilet on-top. The ones at Savage River are actually pretty nice. There’s a nice bathroom and are kept clean, but they don’t smell great. Nothing that can be done about that. This is also where you dispose of dishwater.
Savage River Campground Denali Campground Amenities
The Savage River Campground has everything needed for a relaxing trip. It’s not glamping, but it’s not roughing it. The campground has all the major amenities, potable water, flush toilets in the summer. Year round there are toilets(pit), fire pits with grills, picnic tables, bear lockers, and a central cooking area.
This is a pretty rustic campground, there is no power or hot showers. The Riley Creek Campground has those features, but this far into the park, Savage River Campground does not. There is also zero phone service in the campground so bring a book or download some movies.
To get here you can drive or take the Savage River Shuttle. The Shuttle also can take you down to the Savage River hiking area. There Savage Alpine Trailhead also starts just at the Savage River Campground. This trail can take you to the Savage River area and there are some amazing views on this 4 mile hike. This hike does cover 1400ft of elevation with some pretty narrow rock ledges so it’s somewhat strenuous, but nothing major.
At the Savage River area there is the Savage River Loop Trail. This is a beautiful 1 mile out and back(2 mile total) trail. It’s flat and runs along the banks of the river. Down one side of the river, across a small foot bridge, then back on the other side of the river. Nice and easy hike too.
Savage River Shuttle Bus Review
While camping we used the Savage River Shuttle busses to get around the park. It’s not worth driving and parking when there are free shuttle busses that run very frequently and take us to all the places where we want to go. Using the Savage River Shuttle Bus is easy.
The Savage River Shuttle busses don’t require tickets or reservations. Just hop on and off. The drivers are friendly and will answer questions to make sure you get to the right places. There are some paid bus tours that go farther into the park. Those require tickets and are often booked months or weeks in advance.
Just outside the Savage River Camground is a stop on the Savage River Shuttle. The Savage River Shuttle bus runs from the Denali Visitor Center bus depot all the way to the Savage River Trail head around mile marker 13.
Quick Tip: take a picture of the shuttle bus schedule, there’s no service this deep into the park to check the schedule online. Or at least remember what time the last shuttle of the day leaves, it would suck to miss the last one.
The busses can be green or tan, but they are all labeled Savage River Shuttle. During the peak summertime season they run about every half hour.
The inside of the busses are clean and comfortable. They were never very crowded during our trip in September, but I can imagine that in July they are more busy. We used the Savage River Shuttle to get to Savage River to hike the loop and we also used it to take us back to the Savage River Campground after hiking the Savage Alpine Trail.
Savage River Campground Denali Final Thoughts
The Savage River Campground in Denali National Park is a perfect spot to camp while exploring the park. It’s easy to get to as you can drive right into it or take the Shuttle Bus. It has good features: water, toilets, and fire pits with grills.
The check-in process is fast and easy, the campground itself is first come first serve when it comes to camping spaces, but you still need a permit so they don’t over book. Get there at check in time to get the best spot.
There’s some great hiking in the area, the Savage Alpine trail is a great hike, so is the Savage River Loop. The Alpine trail is a little more strenuous, but worth the effort.
The Bathrooms at Savage River Campground are clean and nice. Just no hot water or showers so on longer trips, a visit down to Riley Creek Campground would be nice to clean up.
I’d love to come back and camp here again.
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