Paxson Lake Campground
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $20From, per site
- Sites
- 2All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 1 notices
In the agency’s own words
Paxson Lake Campground MP 175 Richardson Hwy Large boat launch and parking area for 70 vehicles, toilet, boater registration stand and information panels. RV Dump station – $10 fee for non-campers. 50 campsites First Loop: 20 camp sites, universally accessible toilets, one hand pump well, rules/map panels and bulletin boards, and boardwalk to lake. Second Loop: 20 camp sites, 10 walk in sites, toilets (1 universally accessible), rules/map panels and bulletin boards. Trail and bridge across the creek between the two loops. Fee Station: Per night = $20 all sites; Federal Senior Pass half price. Keep reading
Recreation
BLM Alaska Recreation Guide Facilities This recreation site provides 50 campsites (which includes a host site, two accessible campsites and ten walk-in camping sites), picnic tables and fire rings. Other amenities within the facility include six double vaulted toilets (three accessible), numerous bear-proof trash receptacles and food lockers, parking for vehicles and trailers, a paved boat launch, potable water, a sanitary dump station, accessible trails, picnic area, boater information cabin, and interpretive panels dispersed throughout the site.
Natural Features
Paxson Lake Campground is located at MP 175 of the Richardson Highway near the shore of Paxson Lake. The campground has 50 camp sites, including 2 accessible sites and 10 walk-in sites. All campsites are available on a first-come, first-served basis and have access to water, picnic tables, fire rings, and restrooms. Fees: $15/night for regular, $6/night for walk-in site. The campground's boat launch is the starting point for those floating the main branch of the Gulkana Wild and Scenic River. Located in the 1st loop of Paxson Campground is a foot trail shore access to the lake and boat mooring area. Contact Info This location is unstaffed. To speak with our main office for general information, please call: (907) 822-3217.
Nearby Attractions
Denali Highway Info Gulkana Wild and Scenic River Denali Highway
What the agency tells you
Paxson Lake Campground is located at MP 175 of the Richardson Hwy. The campground has 45 camp sites including 2 accessible sites and 5 walk-in sites near the shore of Paxson Lake. All campsites are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Accessible sites, water, picnic tables, fire rings, and restrooms are available.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 2 · 1 walk-in
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- 2
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…within the facility include six double vaulted toilets (three accessible), numerous bear-proof trash…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…universally accessible toilets, one hand pump well, rules/map panels and bulletin boards, and…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek
- Berry Picking
- Biking
- Birding
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Motor Boat
- Water access
- Whitewater rafting
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 · 17
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $20 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
2 sites
All 2 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. 2 of the 2 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Paxson Lake Campground | Standard Site | standard nonelectric | yes | $20 |
| Paxson Lake Campground | Walk To | walk to | yes | $20 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Paxson, AK
Typical weather
Typical October night 18°F, day 35°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night -15°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
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Paxson 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 →