Spencer Glacier Whistle Stop Group Campground
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- Sites
- 2All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Spencer Glacier Whistle Stop Group Campground is located at the head of the beautiful Placer River Valley at the Spencer Whistlestop. The campsites are nestled among the cottonwood and alder that have grown in after Spencer Glacier’s retreat. This area known for packrafting, wildlife viewing, glacier viewing, and hiking. One can frequently see icebergs floating on Spencer Glacier Lake and might even be able to watch the glacier calving! The two group campsites at Spencer Glacier Whistle Stop Group Campground are available for reservations in the summer months while the Glacier Discovery Train is running on the Alaska Railroad. During these months, train transportation is required to reach the Spencer Whistlestop. To book train tickets visit the Alaska Railroad website. Keep reading
Recreation
Spencer Glacier Lake offers amazing opportunities for packrafting, kayaking, or canoeing. All these options allow you to explore the amazing icebergs floating in the lake. It also allows you to get close to Spencer Glacier and amaze at it’s vast size. Please note, glacier calving can cause large, unpredictable waves on the lake, so it is recommended that you stay at least 500 yards away. This area also offers other recreational opportunities including easy hiking, rock climbing, and fishing during the summer months. In the winter this area is popular with backcountry skiers, snowmobilers and ice climbers.
Facilities
The Spencer Glacier Whistle Stop Group Campground offers two group campsites. Campsite A can accommodate up to 15 guests and Campsite B can accommodate up to 10 guests or both sites can be book together to accommodate parties of up to 25 guests. The two campsites share a common area that has three picnic tables, a bear box, tarp poles, and a campfire ring. There is also a vault toilet located 100 yards from the common area, toilet paper is not supplied.
Natural Features
The Spencer Glacier Whistle Stop Group Campground is located at the head of Placer River Valley near the Placer River outflow from Spencer Glacier Lake and is surrounded by the beautiful Kenai Mountains. There is a viewing area for Spencer Glacier located ¼ mile down trail. Black and brown bears, wolves, lynx, wolverine, and moose inhabit the area. Mountain goats, marmots, arctic ground squirrels and spruce grouse may be spotted higher in the mountains around Spencer Glacier Lake. Crow berries and Salmon Berries are plentiful at higher elevations in the late summer, along with low-bush blueberries. Contact Info This location is unstaffed. To speak with our main office for general information, please call: (907) 783-3242.
Nearby Attractions
Spencer Glacier Whistle Stop Campground is located off the road system and accessible by train only. To book train tickets visit the Alaska Railroad website.
What the agency tells you
Train transportation is required to reach the Spencer Whistlestop. To check schedules and to book train tickets visit the Alaska Railroad website.
Pets are allowed. They must be leashed or restrained in developed recreation areas and you must clean up after your pet. Pets are only permitted onboard the Train in the baggage car, and must be in an air-line approved kennel. Kennels can be left at Spencer Whistlestop for the duration of your stay. Please contact the Alaska Railroad for more information.
Be bear aware; keep all food out of sight in approved containers or locked inside the bear box and remove all food from area after eating.
Everything else this campground posts · 3
Don't Move Firewood: Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by purchasing firewood near your destination and burning it on-site. For more information visit dontmovefirewood.org
These campsites are not available at any time during the year on a first-come, first-served basis. A reservation is always required.
For more information on Chugach National Forest, click here .
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 2 · 2 walk-in, 2 group
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 2 of 2 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- WATER SPIGOT on 2 of 2 campsite records
- Bear boxes
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Ice Climbing
- Kayaking
- Mountain biking
- Rafting
- Climbing
- Skiing
- Snowboarding
- Snowmobile
- Wildlife viewing
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.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
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 · 12
What you actually pay
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 · the site map
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.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Spencer Bench CabinChugach National Forest · 1.5 miBertha Creek CampgroundChugach National Forest · 8.1 miBlack Bear CampgroundChugach National Forest · 8.1 mi
Williwaw CampgroundChugach National Forest · 8.3 mi
Granite CreekChugach National Forest · 8.8 mi
Tenderfoot CreekChugach National Forest · 16 miDuring Summer months train transportation is required to reach the Spencer Whistlestop. To catch the train (reservations required ) into the Spencer Whistle Stop, drive south from Anchorage on the Seward Highway to the Portage Rail Depot (Milepost 80) and check in at the Train station.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Anchorage, AK
Typical weather
Typical October night 31°F, day 43°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 16°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
Spencer Glacier Whistle Stop Group 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 →