Arctic Circle Campground
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $12From, per site
- Sites
- 18All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 3 notices
In the agency’s own words
Arctic Circle Campground is located on a beautiful mixed forest hillside at the Arctic Circle. It was fully renovated in 2021. There are some views of nearby hills and the Kanuti Flats. It is located ½ mile east (uphill) from the Dalton Highway and Arctic Circle sign. The campground is a perfect stop for those exploring their way up the Dalton Highway. There are 19 accessible campsites. This location is available on a first-come, first-serve basis only. Visitors are required to physically arrive at the campground to claim and purchase a site. Once on-site, you can pay for your campsites(s) by scanning a QR code using the Recreation.gov mobile app. Download the free Recreation.gov mobile app on Android or iOS prior to your arrival as this is a remote area that has limited or no cellular service. Keep reading
Recreation
The hills in the area are remote with rugged terrain and offer no developed routes. Backcountry hiking opportunities can be found on ridges in the area. Be advised that hiking can be difficult due to tussocks, wet ground and uneven footing. Choose your route with care and bring topographic maps, a satellite communication device, a GPS and a compass with you if you choose to go exploring. Fishing opportunities are numerous in this area. Try your luck in the aptly named Fish Creek at the base of the hill, or just a little ways to the north are the two forks of Bonanza Creek. Make sure you have a State of Alaska fishing license and know the regulations for the area you are fishing. Panning for gold is also allowed on a several federal stream segments along the Dalton Highway south of Atigun Pass (Milepost 244). No panning is permitted in the pipeline right-of-way (27 feet/8.2 m on either side of the pipeline) and no panning on federal mining claims without permission. Suction dredging is prohibited in the Utility Corridor. Visit the BLM Public Room in Fairbanks (222 University Ave, Fairbanks, Alaska) or the Arctic Interagency Visitor Center in Coldfoot, Alaska, to get information on where you may legally pan for gold. The Jim River can be a nice Class I-II float trip with several access points along the highway. Watch out for sweepers and strainers! Other recreational activities include bird watching and bicycling. State statute prohibits off-road vehicle use within five miles either side of from the highway from the Yukon River to the Arctic Ocean.
Facilities
The roads, and parking aprons have a gravel surface. Six sites are pull-through allowing easy access for RVs, eleven sites are back-in, and there are two walk-in campsites. There are vault toilets, trash receptacles and bear resistant food lockers. Each campsite has a fire ring and picnic table. A camp-host is onsite. Water is not available at the campground and there is no electricity and no dump station.
Natural Features
The campsites are situated in a mixed forest with views of the nearby hills and the Kanuti Flats National Wildlife Refuge. The surrounding forest provides habitat for squirrels, marten, lynx, wolf and brown and black bears. A variety of birds migrate north to breed in the area. Some of the resident birds include ravens, grouse, and chickadees. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (907) 474-2200.
Nearby Attractions
The Arctic Circle sign is located nearby. Take your photo in front of the sign and get your certificate to prove to your friends and family that you were there! Drive north about 20 miles to Gobblers Knob to get expansive views of the Brooks Range and Kanuti Flats National Wildlife Refuge. Drive just a little further and you can visit Coldfoot, which is located in the foothills of the Brooks Range. Fuel, food, lodging and cell service are available at Coldfoot.
What the agency tells you
Drinking water is not available onsite
Camping is limited to 14 days
Camping season from mid-May through the end of September
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 18 · 2 walk-in
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- 18
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…are two walk-in campsites. There are vault toilets, trash receptacles and bear resistant food lockers.…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…and picnic table. A camp-host is onsite. Water is not available at the campground and there is no electricity and…”
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek, Coast
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 15
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $12 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 5
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
19 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 18 mapped sitesAll 19 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 19 of the 19 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 18 of the 19 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| 1 | Camp Host | host pad | yes | 3,869 ft | 2,426 ft | ||
| 1 | Site 10 | standard nonelectric | yes | 47 ft | 4,444 ft | 2,553 ft | $12 |
| 1 | Site 11 | standard nonelectric | yes | 95 ft | 4,443 ft | 2,775 ft | $12 |
| 1 | Site 12 | standard nonelectric | yes | 95 ft | 4,433 ft | 2,682 ft | $12 |
| 1 | Site 13 | standard nonelectric | yes | 118 ft | 4,315 ft | 2,665 ft | $12 |
| 1 | Site 14 | standard nonelectric | yes | 82 ft | 4,162 ft | 2,724 ft | $12 |
| 1 | Site 15 | standard nonelectric | yes | 117 ft | 4,067 ft | 2,605 ft | $12 |
| 1 | Site 16 | standard nonelectric | yes | 69 ft | 3,946 ft | 2,660 ft | $12 |
| 1 | Site 17 | standard nonelectric | yes | 69 ft | 3,950 ft | 2,593 ft | $12 |
| 1 | Site 18 | walk to | yes | 73 ft | 4,166 ft | 2,804 ft | $12 |
| 1 | Site 19 | walk to | yes | 73 ft | 4,201 ft | 2,874 ft | $12 |
| 1 | Site 2 | standard nonelectric | yes | 73 ft | 3,981 ft | 2,422 ft | $12 |
| 1 | Site 3 | standard nonelectric | yes | 73 ft | 4,013 ft | 2,493 ft | $12 |
| 1 | Site 4 | standard nonelectric | yes | 79 ft | 4,086 ft | 2,410 ft | $12 |
| 1 | Site 5 | standard nonelectric | yes | 79 ft | 4,165 ft | 2,423 ft | $12 |
| 1 | Site 6 | standard nonelectric | yes | 108 ft | 4,176 ft | 2,530 ft | $12 |
| 1 | Site 7 | standard nonelectric | yes | 82 ft | 4,289 ft | 2,449 ft | $12 |
| 1 | Site 8 | standard nonelectric | yes | 82 ft | 4,288 ft | 2,529 ft | $12 |
| 1 | Site 9 | standard nonelectric | yes | 47 ft | 4,425 ft | 2,588 ft | $12 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It names it a host pad. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Coldfoot Cabin51 miFive Mile CampgroundCentral Yukon Field Office · 52 mi
Marion Creek CampgroundCentral Yukon Field Office · 55 miFrom Fairbanks, drive north 11 miles on the Steese Highway (AK-6) to its junction with the Elliott Highway (AK-2) in Fox. Follow the Elliott Highway 73 miles to the junction with the Dalton Highway (AK-11). Continue on the Dalton to Arctic Circle Campground at Milepost 115.
It is about 200 miles from Fairbanks to Arctic Circle Campground, and the trip can take from 5 to 7 hours depending on weather, road conditions, and how often you stop along the way.
The campground is on the east side of the highway (right as you head north) and is located approximately ½ mile up the hill via an access road at the north end of the wayside.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Evansville, AK
Typical weather
Typical October night 14°F, day 28°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night -19°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Arctic Circle Campground is in Alaska’s at-large congressional district. Its representative, Nick Begich (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
“…to your arrival as this is a remote area that has limited or no cellular service. Recreation The hills in the area are remote with rugged…”