Tolsona Wilderness Campground — Hotel in Alaska

My family has camped at Tolsona Wilderness Campground several times over the years and always have an amazing time. I felt compelled to write a review in defense of the campground after reading some of the more recent reviews, and I am not affilitated in any way with the campground or owners.

This campground is very obviously a labor of love. The campground and property itself is massive. They have walking trails, yurts, tent sites, and RV hookup sites. And it’s all run by one family with young children who do everything themselves and do not live on site year round. They bought an aging campground and have turned it around into something that doesn’t really exist anywhere else in Alaska - It’s a destination. There really is not much in the surrounding area in terms of entertainment, shopping, lodging, ect. This family has essentially created a community for the locals as well as those who visit the campground. They run a small coffee/snack shop on site, as well as a gift shop, and every single weekend has a theme with free activities and treats and a daily schedule that gives a lot of options for families. It’s not explicitly for families with children, but I do want to say that if you don’t have kids or maybe don’t like kids this may not be your place. But the canpground is huge, so the owners may be able to recommend spots that mostly avoid that. Because it has a “contained” feel, there are often groups of kids that play freely throughout the entire campground and in the creek. The creek is great for tubing and they have a path that leads to a good tube launch area. Tubes are available for rental and they have lots of life jackets. We recently visited on a weekend where the theme was Halloween. It is clearly a cherished local event - they invite the local families for trick or treating around the campground and many sites went all out with decorations and inflatables, huge fake spiderwebs in the trees and most of the kids came with costumes at the ready. We had about 40 kids come through our camp spot and it was a really fun time. In advance of the trick or treating, they had a wooden pumpkin painting craft that could be added to your campsite decorations, and had candy bar bingo and a pumpkin scavenger hunt throughout the campground. They gave popsicles to every kid who participated and the winners got campground t-shirts! They’re going above and beyond to entertain their guests. The campground has a large playground area next to some volleyball nets and a pavilion, as well as a separate large fenced dog park. If you’re looking for a perfectly Instagramable spot with every building having a fresh coat of paint, manicured grounds or anything fancy - this is not your place. This is a WILDERNESS campground. It is rustic and it’s not perfect, but what they’re doing there is awesome. It’s a truly Alaskan family experience. They’re created a whole brand. It’s clear that they have even bigger visions and plans for the place, and we’ve really enjoyed seeing their success despite major obstacles and setbacks over the years. I do not personally have experience with the yurts, but there are quite a...

This was my first year staying at the Tolsona wilderness campground - stayed 4 days the week after Memorial Day 2019. After staying at dozens through the State over the years I have to say this one is pretty nice. Others have commented about the campsites and setting so not much to add there except they did have nice fire pit rings, but no real deadfall or wood to be found so bring your own, or buy some in the onsite store.. And due to its location cell service was a little spotty. I would add they do have their own WiFi which was fairly reliable and had enough bandwidth to stream movies, although we were there during the week and not too many others around. So on popular weekends it might be different, and probably feels a little crowded. Combined with the bathrooms and shower building being pretty basic is the reason for no 5th star. Although they were remodeling several of the showers when we were there, thankfully, as they were pretty rustic although still serviceable. But the number of toilets at the bathhouse was inadequate for the number of campsites in my opinion. So that could use improvement, although there were some outhouses scattered throughout the park.

There is a little store onsite, although not well stocked. However, we were there following one of the business weekends of the year, so I’ll cut them some slack on that. They also don’t sell alcohol, and neither does the town, Glennallen. So you have to stop at a small sketchy place outside of town. At any rate, the staff were very nice and there around 8 or 9 in the morning to open up the store and put coffee on. For kids there was only a modest amount of things for them to do. But there is a big field to play in and the store had rubber balls, badminton, mabey frisbees and some other toys for kids to use no charge. The field was a little rough however, and sloped, so it could use some work, but overall it was ok. The park was ideal to bicycle around in though, so bring bikes for the kids.

I would definitely stay there again, although on super busy weekends it likely gets kind of crowded for me. Bottom line, a decent 4...

They claim 30 tent sites, but most had very little level space. We found one with some level space, but the ground was hard and rocky.

Bathroom/Shower facilities are shabby. Facilities not clean or well maintained. Men's room had 1 toilet that was clogged by 8pm and not fixed. Only 2 showers running for whole camp. Walls covered with dead bugs, cobwebs, blistered paint and sagging ceilings. Floors dirty. Overall they looked like someone was doing a very surface cleaning job and the grime was showing.

Worst of all was the office was locked at 10pm when several groups were playing loud music, so no one enforced quiet hours. There was a lot of shouting until a 3 am rain put an end to it. Some of the shouting were frustrated guests screaming about quiet hours to the people violating quiet hours. Not relaxing.

This place may be OK for RVs with their own bathrooms and better noise isolation, but can NOT recommend for tenting unless you WANT to party all night!

Our AT&T cell phones had no reception at the campground, so we could not call management to complain about the noise. If we had VOIP and wanted to get dressed again and walk to the office we could have used their Wi-Fi to contact them, I guess. Since so many people were screaming to the noise makers, we were not alone in our...