Galbraith Lake Campground
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $12From, per site
- Sites
- 12All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
Galbraith Lake Campground is the only campground along the Dalton Highway situated north of the Brooks Range. The tundra environment affords stunning views of the Brooks Range and the north slope. Hiking can be found in almost any direction from the campground, which is an excellent basecamp for exploring the Brooks Range. There are 12 designated campsites. Please note due to tundra, there is no firewood available in the vicinity of the campground. 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. Keep reading
Once on-site, you have the option to pay for your campsites(s) with cash/check or 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.
Recreation
The Brooks Range offers excellent recreation opportunities, but very few are along designated routes. Hiking is plentiful in the mountains where ridges and drainages provide firm footing, open tundra areas may have uneven and difficult footing due to tussocks. Hiking east from the highway will lead you to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, while hiking west of the highway will take you towards Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve. Choose your route with care and bring topographic maps, a GPS and a compass with you. There are several excellent river trips in the vicinity of Galbraith Lake Campground: • Atigun and Sagavanirktok (the Sag) Rivers: Class III-IV+ whitewater, access Atigun at Milepost 271; Sag at MP 306. For expert boaters only. • Ivishak Wild and Scenic River: Class II, access by chartered air service from Deadhorse or Coldfoot. More detailed descriptions of these rivers are available at the Arctic Interagency Visitor Center. Other recreational activities include bird watching and fishing. 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. Twelve sites are pull-through allowing easy access for RVs. The campground has a vault toilet, food storage lockers, and trash receptacles. Each campsite has a fire ring (firewood is not available in the vicinity) and picnic table. There is no electricity, no dump station and no potable water. Water can be filtered from a nearby creek. A camp-host may be onsite. Cell service may be available.
Natural Features
The campsites are situated on the open tundra with spectacular views of the Brooks Range mountains. Galbraith Lake is located approximately 1.3 miles to the east. A stream flows along the southern perimeter of the campground. The surrounding tundra and mountains provides habitat for ground squirrels, marmots, fox, sheep, caribou, wolf and brown bears. Many species of birds migrate north to breed in the area. Some of the resident birds include ravens and ptarmigan. Contact Info This location has limited staffing. Please call (907) 474-2200 for general information.
Nearby Attractions
Drive a little further north and you will get expansive views of the north slope, possibility of seeing musk ox, caribou and other arctic dwelling wildlife.
What the agency tells you
On-site credit card payment using QR code or cash payment
Water is available from a nearby creek. Always filter your water.
Cell service may be available at the campground.
Everything else this campground posts · 2
Visitors may not stay longer than 14 days at the campground.
Bring your own firewood. There is no firewood availble onsite or anywhere nearby.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 12
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…access for RVs. The campground has a vault toilet, food storage lockers, and trash receptacles. Each…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “There is no electricity, no dump station and no potable water.”
- Bear boxes
- Yes
- Firewood
- Sold here
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek, Coast
- Backpacking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Picnicking
- Whitewater rafting
- Wilderness access
- Wildlife viewing
- Winter sports
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
12 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 12 mapped sitesAll 12 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 12 of the 12 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| 1 | Site 1 | standard nonelectric | 145 ft | 235 ft | $12 |
| 1 | Site 10 | standard nonelectric | 206 ft | 863 ft | $12 |
| 1 | Site 11 | standard nonelectric | 563 ft | 1,412 ft | $12 |
| 1 | Site 12 | standard nonelectric | 386 ft | 336 ft | $12 |
| 1 | Site 2 | standard nonelectric | 145 ft | 198 ft | $12 |
| 1 | Site 3 | standard nonelectric | 85 ft | 388 ft | $12 |
| 1 | Site 4 | standard nonelectric | 85 ft | 463 ft | $12 |
| 1 | Site 5 | standard nonelectric | 163 ft | 522 ft | $12 |
| 1 | Site 6 | standard nonelectric | 310 ft | 787 ft | $12 |
| 1 | Site 7 | standard nonelectric | 329 ft | 1,228 ft | $12 |
| 1 | Site 8 | standard nonelectric | 329 ft | 1,422 ft | $12 |
| 1 | Site 9 | standard nonelectric | 206 ft | 1,050 ft | $12 |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
From 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 Highway to Galbraith Lake exit at Milepost 275. Follow the road 4 miles to the west and south to the campground entrance. At approximately 2 miles you will pass by an airport.
It is about 365 miles from Fairbanks to Galbraith Lake Campground, and the trip can take from 13 to 16 hours depending on weather, road conditions, and how often you stop along the way.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Anaktuvuk Pass, AK
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Galbraith Lake 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 Brooks Range offers excellent recreation…”