Bureau of Land Management · Glennallen Field Office · AK

Sourdough Creek Campground

ReservableBooking 6 months out; today unlocks April 16. Season not published.
Book on recreation.govWe make nothing when you book
Right now
Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
A night
$20From, per site
Sites
41 on recreation.gov
1,880 ftElevation
280 ftWater · Sourdough Creek
76 miS of Deltana, AK
Bortle 1Night sky · 131st darkest of 280 in AK

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there · 2 notices

In the agency’s own words

Sourdough Creek Campground is located at MP 147.5 of the Richardson Highway near the shores of the Gulkana River. The campground has 42 camp sites, including 4 accessible and 2 walk-in sites. All campsites are available on a first-come, first-served basis. The campground is equipped with restrooms, water, picnic tables, and fire rings. Campers may also enjoy a short hike along the Sourdough Creek Interpretive Trail within the campground. The boat launch area is the take-out for float trips on the Gulkana Wild and Scenic River and provides river access to both motorized boaters and floaters. Keep reading

Recreation

In addition to RV and tent recreational camping opportunities, the campground provides access to the Gulkana Wild and Scenic River. Floaters use the boat launch as a put-in and take-out point as well as jet boat users in the river corridor. Activities this site supports include recreational fishing from the bank, subsistence hunting access for caribou and moose, as well as berry picking and trapping. There is a boat launch at the rivers edge and a nice picnic area for day use. Outhouse style bathrooms, information and bulletin boards, hiking trails, and handicapped accessible fishing ramps and trails complete with interpetative panels. Sourdough Creek Campground along with the boat launch can be very busy from approximately Memorial Day through mid July mainly by fishermen and boaters taking part in the King salmon fishing in the Gulkana River. There are a number of fishing guides using the boat launch at Sourdough Creek Campground. Later in the summer, after the salmon fishing subsides, the campground generally gets a lot quieter.

Facilities

The campground has 42 camp sites, including 4 accessible and 2 walk-in sites. All campsites are available on a first-come, first-served basis. The campground is equipped with restrooms, water, picnic tables, and fire rings. Campers may also enjoy a short hike along the Sourdough Creek Interpretive Trail within the campground. The boat launch area is the take-out for float trips on the Gulkana Wild and Scenic River and provides river access to both motorized boaters and floaters.

Natural Features

Activities this site supports include recreational fishing from the bank, subsistence hunting access for caribou and moose, as well as berry picking and trapping. There is a boat launch at the rivers edge and a nice picnic area for day use. Contact Info This location is unstaffed. To speak with our main office for general information, please call: (907) 822-3217. Nearby Attractions https://www.blm.gov/visit/gulkana-river

What the agency tells you

Rule

Sourdough Creek Campground is located at MP 147.5 Richardson Highway.This recreation site provides 45 campsites (including a host site and two walk-in camp sites), picnic tables and fire rings. Other amenities within the facility include six accessible double vaulted toilets, numerous bear-proof trash receptacles and food lockers, parking for vehicles and boat trailers, a paved boat launch, potable water (hauled), accessible trails, picnic areas and kiosk, and interpretive panels dispersed throughout the site. This site is mostly utilized from late May through September, the snow free season Winter physically closes the campground to motor vehicle traffic, and it is then only reachable by foot, dog sled or snow machine. No fees are collected during this time of year. In addition to RV and tent recreational camping opportunities, the campground provides access to the Gulkana Wild and Scenic River. Floaters use the boat launch as a put-in and take-out point as well as jet boat users in the river corridor. Activities this site supports include recreational fishing from the bank, subsistence hunting access for caribou and moose, as well as berry picking and trapping. There is a boat launch at the rivers edge and a nice picnic area for day use. Outhouse style bathrooms, information and bulletin boards, hiking trails, and handicapped accessible fishing ramps and trails complete with interpetative panels. Sourdough Creek Campground along with the boat launch can be very busy from approximately Memorial Day through mid July mainly by fishermen and boaters taking part in the King salmon fishing in the Gulkana River. There are a number of fishing guides using the boat launch at Sourdough Creek Campground. Later in the summer, after the salmon fishing subsides, the campground generally gets a lot quieter.

Rule

BLM managed sections of the Gulkana Wild and Scenic River can be accessed at Sourdough Creek Campground and Paxson Lake Campground. From Glennallen proceed north on the Richardson Highway. Sourdough Creek campground is located at mile 147.5, Paxson Lake campground is located at mile 175.

Tents and rigs

Sites
4
Hookups
None
Accessible sites
4
Source: Recreation.gov campsite records · Aug 23, 2026

Facilities

Toilets
Yes, the record doesn't say what kind
“The campground is equipped with restrooms, water, picnic tables, and fire rings.”
Boat ramp
Yes
Source: Stated in the agency description · Aug 23, 2026
Water, toilets and showers: read from the agency description, shown above · Sep 12, 2026

Around the campground

On the water
River, Creek
Source: Stated in the agency description · Aug 23, 2026

No reading yet, book on recreation.gov

recreation.gov lists 1 of the 4 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.

No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.

Booking window6 months outBooking opens 6 months ahead; today unlocks arrivals through April 16, 2027. The agency publishes no reservable season in the record we hold, so the window may close earlier than that.recreation.gov
A night$20plus $8 to reserve, once per bookingthe agency’s rate schedule
A weekend$48DerivedFriday and Saturday, everything includedours, from the lines above
If plans change$10 to cancel$10 to change a reservationrecreation.gov’s schedule
Runs itBureau of Land ManagementBooked through recreation.govthe agency’s record
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.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.
Book on recreation.gov

We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.

Every line of the receipt · 19

What you actually pay

The sign priceBureau of Land Management
A night$20
ScanPay 1$20
ScanPay 2$20
ScanPay 3$20
ScanPay 4$20
Rates for the season the campground is in now, Apr 1, 2026 to Oct 10, 2026.
FEE DESCRIPTION: All campsites are available on a first-come, first-served basis.
No fee for river use.
Sourdough Creek and Paxson Lake Campgrounds charge $20 a night for overnight use.
Payment Methods Accepted – Cash (Kiosk) and Scan and Pay All Sites $20.00 per night
The booking feerecreation.gov
Reservation fee, booked online$8
One fee per reservation, however many nights you book, and it’s non-refundable. $9 if you book by phone, $3 in person.
Pass discounts only apply to the recreation (or use) fee for the facility. Other charges such as electricity or water hookups, reservation or other fees are not eligible for a discount.
What a stay costs
One nightDerived$28
A weekend, Friday and SaturdayDerived$48

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.

If your plans changerecreation.gov
Change fee, moving to dates outside your booking$10
Cancellation fee$10
Cancelling the day before, or the day of$10 + your first night
No-show$20 + your first night

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 Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

The sites

4 sites

All 4 sites

Up to

The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 1 of the 4 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.

Getting there

the map and the coordinate · the phone number

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Tonight24°Chance Light Snow25% rain
Saturday35°Slight Chance Light Snow19% rain
Saturday Night16°Slight Chance Snow Showers21% rain
Sunday32°Slight Chance Light Snow21% rain

NWS forecast for Gakona, AK

Typical weather

Typical October night 18°F, day 36°F.

Coldest month of the year: typical January night -12°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.

80°32°-20°

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.

Measured at: GULKANA AP, AK (USW00026425), 26 miles away and 318 ft lower

The land, and who answers for it

who answers for it

Who answers for this land

Nick Begich, official portrait

Sourdough Creek 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 →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: Bureau of Land Management publishes no season and no closure for this campground, and it takes no bookings we can read. That’s a gap in the record and not a locked gate: the number below is the only way to be sure.
Cell signal: the BLM’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.
Nearest place of any size: Gakona, AK, 8.6 mi NNW (a census designated place). Straight line.