Anyone out there had any experience with Princess RV Park in Cooper Landing, Ak? Am looking for recommendtions in Cooper River.

If you haven't already, you might want to ask your question on RV.net forums because you will have a much larger group who camp.

Utahtea

Cooper Landing and Copper River are two different places. There is no "Cooper River". Princess has lodges in both areas.

In my opinion, there are plenty of campgrounds to consider besides Princess, including parking for free along highways.

The Russian River National Forest Campground, just down the road from Cooper Landing, is a very nice, forested campground with nice size sites--one of the best we found in Alaska. We found most campgrounds to be pretty much a parking lot. I don't mean like usual RV parks--I mean an actual parking lot. While we generally dislike these kind of campgrounds, we didn't care in Alaska because the scenery was awesome!

Two of our favorites because of scenery were the Seward city campground and South Denali State Park campground (west side of highway). Both are parking lots. The Seward campground is right on Resurrection Bay with great water and mountain scenery and walking distance to town. South Denali State Park has the best views of Mt. McKinley (if it is out of the clouds) that we saw anywhere.

I agree you need to visit www.rv.net/forums. Lots of friendly people and great information.

Just for clairfication on the above, the Denali STATE Park is no where near the national park. There are excellent activites to consider, with great hiking if of interest, but not the place to stay if you want bus access into Denali Park.

Denali State Park has nothing to do with Denali National Park except it is a place to park the RV and spend the night. It has stunning views of Mt McKinley if in view. We've taken the 8 hour bus ride in Denali National Park twice, seen McKinley once while there and the view was nothing like what we saw from the state park.

Our first Alaska trip was last minute and the national park campground was full. We stayed at the state park and drove the 45 minutes or so to the national park in time to catch the morning shuttle bus into the park, then drove back to the campground afterward so it isn't all that far.

We've stayed in the campground at the entrance of the national park and it is nice but is wooded with no views. It is handier for catching the shuttle.

Thanks for the replies. I think we are ready for this adventure now! Budget Queen - thanks for the correction. It was the Cooper Landing Princess and I did get in touch with them but decided not to go that route!
ann

Connie, what you are not clear on, is WHICH state park did you stay at. There are several, and your reference makes it sound like there is only one. There are many excellent state park trails, and many activities to consider as well, if you know about them.

The closest "state Park" campground is about 80 miles from the national park. Would have been more than a 45 minute drive?

I disagree, the McKinley view from Wonder Lake, is probably one of the most impressive.

here is the Denali State Park information http://dnr.alaska.gov/parks/units/denali2.htm

I actually did state Denali State Park South. It was Denali State Park North now that I look at a map. I also stated it was on the west side of the highway. The main section of Denali State Park is on the east side of the road in a wooded area (no views).

The main reason we looked into it is because the FODOR'S Alaska guidebook made a big deal out of the fact that Denali State Park was a handy place to stay while visiting Denali National Park if the N.P. campground was full. As I stated our first Alaska trip was last minute and the N.P. campground was full.

We did in fact wake up early, drive to the national park, get on a morning shuttle, do the 8 hour trip and drive back to our camper. We would not have done that if it was 80 miles away. Nor do I think Fodor's would suggest it.

I'm sure there are many places that have great views of Mt McKinley. I stated it had the best views of McKinley "THAT WE SAW ANYWHERE".