Like most national park campgrounds this one gets a lot use, but is well located, well laid out and very clean and organized. The vault toilets near our site were literally brand new.

This location puts you 29 miles into the park. It's the farthest in you can camp with your own vehicle or RV. It saves you an hour on the NPS shuttle bus each way.

You can also hike along the Teklanika River right from camp.

Reservations are needed. This campground, the shuttle bus and our RV were the only advance reservations we made during our 2 week Alaska trip and the only ones we needed. The campground was booked full on our way in and out.

The campground is rustic. The actual sites are small gravel areas that have a picnic table and a fire ring. The bathrooms are vault and are kept very clean and supplied. There are 2 big food lockers. There are 2 spigots for water.

There is an amphitheatre ...basically some log seats grouped together. The ranger programs are held here in the evening. They are great. The rangers in this park are excellent. They are enthusiastic, informative, and very helpful. Take the time to go listen to the programs....they are great! We did 3 of them and enjoyed them all. Topics: grizzly bears, large mammals of Denali, and a year in dog sledding.

the great part of Tek is that it is on the river....like 20 ft away. So it is very easy to go down and walk around the river. It is a braided river....meaning the riverbed is immense with lots of braids of varying size and depth. Also, there is a stream that meanders behind the campground. Trails meander all thru the area. There are 2 bluffs east of the river that make great viewpoints. Also, the campground is surrounded by taiga forest. Across the road there is another bluff in the taiga forest. It is nice to wander around here....no trails here....just find your way. This bluff gives a view of campground and river.

The best thing about the campgrounds is the Tek pass. You buy one bus pass and you get to ride as much as possible on a space available basis. ( You get one guaranteed seat at a set time.) We were able to take 2 trips in one day with the Tek pass.

If you are taking a car or RV to Tek, you must stay at least 3 nights and you are not allowed to drive the vehicle after arrival. If you are tent camping without vehicle, your stay doesn't have a minimum quota.

The campsite itself was nice and just as expected.

But something we did not understand ahead of time is that the shuttle passes that you acquire through TEK do not allow you to travel South of the campsite (IE back to the visitor center). So once we were there we could shuttle back and forth to any of the locations North of TEK, but not any locations South. Since we wanted to spend a half a day or even more back at the visitor center, it really was a problem for us.

My advice would be to either stay at Camp Riley back near the park entrance or budget time to see the visitor center and dog sled show prior to driving to TEK park.

All in all a fine campsite, but advance planning is important since you can not use the shuttle passes to go back to the trails and sites South of the camp.

Since Tek Campground is 30 miles within the park, you can access the park without having to ride on the bus those extra 60 miles RT. But the best part of Tek Campground is the Tek shuttle bus pass- for the price of $30 you can ride the shuttle buses for as many times as you'd like during your stay at Tek. The campsites at Tek are well-kept, fairly private, near a water faucet & toilets. The camp host is very helpful.