Williwaw Campground

We came here on our way up to anchorage after visiting/staying in Homer. Got in about 3pm on a Tuesday, plenty of FCFS spots available. Campground was deceivingly large, any size rug would fit depending on your site. Our sit was a pull through, level, and paved. They were demolishing one of the vault toilets right across from us- pretty noisy in the am. It was quite rainy and grey while we were here, would have loved to enjoy the trails right from camp, but that wasn’t in the cards for us. Salmon were in the river which was fun to see from the viewing platform. Would definitely stay here again, sites are well spaced, no road noise. We’re coming up on the tail end of the season I think so it wasn’t too busy mid week but I imagine it can get hard to score a spot in high season.

Pricing is now, not sure when changed, $23 for single and $33 for double site.. for some reason the pass does not work on double site.. that is a new one..

with NP pass, senior pass etc the cost is $11.50 per night.

Heard it was hard to get in here.. come down on monday and almost had the place to ourselves..

all roads paved which is nice,, and the site are paved most of the way..

large and i mean large picnic tables,, heavy as heck and hard to move.

The "Trail of Blue Ice" that run from the near the turn off hwy 1 (Seward Hwy) down to the visitors center is easy to access at the campground.. from the entrance you got straight back and go to right . (there is a sign that says "NO RIGHT" but if you are on a bike or walking the trail is down that section of the campground a couple of spots on the left.. We hiked it toward Black Bear CG and bike it down to visitor center and over to the Byron Glacier trail and hiked that..

each site has a nice fire ring and host sells wood for 10 buck a bundle.. (seems 10 is the going price now for overpriced wood especially when you are in a fricken FOREST) in the canadian provincial CG there's lots of wood to use already cut up and sometime split in the little kiosk.

While the weather, even in mid July, is cold and rainy, oh, and windy, this is a great little campground! I will say you need to be early. We watched a number of rigs circling for spots in the evening. One side is for reservations, and the other is fcfs. Very handy for Whittier, Portage glacier, Girdwood, and even a trip back to Anchorage if you need something. There are vault toilets, as well.

If you are lucky enough to get a site here you are indeed lucky. Everything to like about this place; the forest, the glacier and waterfall behind it, the lake nearby, the trails, the peace and quiet. Book ahead for best results we were lucky to get a first come site. Amazing place. Please don't go there when I want to go back, I could not bear not to stay here again.

Great Campground, close to visitor center with wonderful museum and nearby Portage Glacier Tour - a quick one hour $45 tour. Close to the tunnel to Whittier ($13 for cars roundtrip). Close to Girdwood for gas and CELL SERVICE. The sites are heavily wooded and each has a picnic table and a fire ring. Vault toilets and water faucets (not threaded) spaced around the campground. Lots of hiking nearby and options for fishing, glacier sightseeing, kayaking and jet skiing in Whittier (which by the way has amazing cell service - as soon as you exit the tunnel!). Unfortunately, the location of this campground (in the Portage Valley) subjects it to tons of rain, low clouds and subsequently limited views. Each time I drove to Girdwood - it was not raining. You leave the valley and the entire weather system changes. I hiked Portage Pass Trail, ate dinner in Whittier and then the whole town shut down around 6pm. I hear its a cruise ship port - maybe they time the shop hours to coincide with the ships. Tried twice to see the Bore Tides (best viewing is between Girdwood and Bird Point after a full moon) - but they did not appear as expected. Girdwood has laundry and showers and a great little mercantile (basically a mini Safeway) and reasonable prices. I hear there are lots of little shops and restaurants, I only saw a coffee shop and one restaurant. There are several hikes, but given the wet weather, they were muddy and slippery. Also you can hike to the top of Mount Alyeska, eat in the restaurant and take the tram back down for free. There were no views - so I didn't bother. I hiked the Blue Ice Trail and Byron Glacier Trail (both easy), and even with rain gear - was soaked. Trying to make the best of it and still get out and sightsee, but the dreary gray skies and bone chilling wet rain, permeated everything making the 56 degrees feel like 36 degrees. Had to run the generator twice a day just to keep the batteries topped off. A huge improvement would be to add cell service (Verizon) or Wi-Fi at the visitor center or the Lodge. It is difficult to plan and make reservations when you have to drive 15 miles to Girdwood for cell service. I had planned to stay 7 days, but left after 5 to camp at Quartz Creek Campground, about an hour west (where it was overcast, but NO rain). The $9 rate reflects the senior pass. The campground is only about 20% full, many sites had reservations - but were no shows - which didn't impact anyone trying to find a site as they have many FCFS to chose from. If not for the extreme weather and lack of cell service/wifi, this is a great place to stay!

The campground is in a beautiful area surrounded by towering mountains, lush forests, rivers and creeks (with salmon), and magnificent glaciers and ice fields. The camp sites are spaced so that in many cases you can't even see (or hear) the adjacent campsites, and they are level, they have a fire ring and a well-built picnic table at each site. There are many miles of trails to explore, glaciers to see and if you want to wander off the campgrounds there are many attractions in the area such the town of Whittier, the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, and the Portage Glacier. There are no hook-ups (electric, water, sewer), but there are multiple fresh water pumping stations throughout the campgrounds as well as very clean toilet facilities and trash receptacles. For us, this was a very peaceful and relaxing environment and a relatively easy dry-camping experience. There are bears in the area and you must be cognizant and vigilant in preventing bear attraction; but we were there for 5 days and saw no sign of bears whatsoever.

I wanted to go back to Whittier to check out my memory of the best fish & chips ever (they changed their receipe :-() and once again used this campground as our basis for exploration. Paved roads, paved parking pads, level tent pads if you need them, and lots of dense greenery between sites which did wonders to reduce the impact of the wind that we experienced one day that we were there. Our $9 price reflects the senior discount. We arrived on a Sunday mid day and found a number of sites reserved but still lots to chose from. I didn't expect to find anything that was going to work with our solar panel but we did find an available one that got us several hours of direct sun on the panel.

The Blue Ice trail has an access point near the center of the figure 8 campground which provided a nice place for walking. This campground was also home to several geocaches assuming you had them downloaded in advance. Connectivity on AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile was nil at our site and sometimes a solitary bar if you held your mouth right and stood on one foot in the middle of the road. If you need connectivity without an amplifier, this is not your place.