Campground Review - Valdez KOA - Valdez, Alaska

Description

The Valdez KOA is a nicely forested campground with magnificent views of snow-mantled and glacier-encrusted mountain peaks on all sides. A stream filled with salmon, in season, flows through the park and wildlife sightings are common, including bears and bald eagles. The campground has the feel of a deep woods frontier outpost. This KOA is conveniently located about 6 miles outside of town and makes for a great base to explore Valdez and the surrounding area.

Location

Valdez KOA
3181 Richardson Hwy
Valdez, AK 99686
Park: (907) 835-2723
Latitude: 61.099842 N, Longitude: -146.216382 W, Elevation: 98 ft (30 m)

Details

We stayed for 7 nights at the Valdez KOA in mid July, 2018. This is a full service, clean, and well-maintained park.The campground staff was friendly and helpful during our stay.

Cost

For seven nights at a 50 amp full hookup pull-thru site, we paid about $40 per night, including tax and our KOA Value Kard Rewards Discount. There were no fees for pets or an extra vehicle.

Ratings (1-5)

Accessibility – 3/5

The campground is easily accessible from the Richardson Highway, AK-4. Lanes in the park are reasonably maintained gravel, although some potholes need attention. The park is big-rig friendly and has both pull-thru and back-in sites. The campground facilities have some provisions for Universal access (the office/general store could use a ramp).

Facilities/Amenities – 3/5

The campground offers basic amenities, including full and partial hookup sites, dry tent and small RV sites, rental cabins, RV dump station, propane, restrooms and showers, laundry room, firewood sales, and pet run. The park has a small camp store with a few convenience items, drinks and snacks, camping supplies, souvenirs and tourist info for the local area. The park also features cable TV (with cable box & deposit), Facilities were clean and well-maintained.

Site quality – 4/5

Sites have full or partial hookups with 50/30/20 amp or 30/20 amp electric, cable TV, and picnic table. Sites are gravel and there is little separation between sites. Some sites have fire rings.

Scenic Value – 5/5

This forested campground has magnificent views of glacier-encrusted mountain peaks on all sides. A stream flows through the park, full of salmon in season. Wildlife sightings are common, including bears and bald eagles.

Location/Isolation – 4/5

The campground is in a spectacularly scenic setting having the feel of deep woods wilderness. The closeness of sites detract from a feeling of isolation, especially when the park is busy. The park is generally quiet.

Paws Friendliness – 5/5

The campground is pet friendly and has an enclosed pet run with cleanup bags. The campground is large enough for a decent walk with your pet. A pedestrian and bike trail runs past the park, perfect for longer walks.

Overall Rating – 4/5

Overall, the Valdez KOA campground is a very nice place to stay while exploring the many attractions around Valdez, Alaska. We enjoyed our stay here and would love to return another time.

Additional info

Internet access

We received a moderate 4G signal at this campground. Since this was not a Verizon network access was roaming, but did not cost extra with our Unlimited plan. Our MiFi hot spot would not connect to the local network, while our mobile phone hot spots worked as expected. We used the free campground WiFi service a few times. Internet speeds were slow to fair with either campground or cellular connections.

Water Quality

The water at this campground tested soft – we did not add our water softener to the water filtration stack.

Bear Advisory

Note: This is bear country. Be alert and do not leave food or trash out which might attract bears. Keep pets on leash and do not leave them unattended outside.

Nearby Amenities

Gas stations, restaurants, grocery store, automotive and some RV services are nearby in Valdez (6 miles) A larger choice of services and shopping are available in Anchorage, AK (293 miles), Fairbanks, AK (357 miles) or Whitehorse, YT (634 miles).