After a year of uncertainty, state park campgrounds and cabins are ready for business

State park users in the Mat-Su will see more campgrounds and areas open for 2021 after the 2020 summer season made it difficult to book hosts and vendors, said Stuart Leidner, state park superintendent for the Mat-Su Valley and Copper River Basin Region.

The Mat-Su is home to 24 of the state’s 156 parks, according to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, the agency which oversees their management. That includes 25 hosted and non-hosted campgrounds, with a range of amenities and management structures. For example, the Kesugi Ken campground in Denali State Park offers full RV hook-ups and is managed by the state, while the campground at Lake Louise is operated by a contracted concessionaire. The state also offers 21 public use dry cabins throughout the region.

The pandemic brought the state parks a business boom, skyrocketing interest from Alaskans in local outdoor recreation. But closed borders to Canada meant the usual crop of volunteer campground hosts who parade in for the summer were unable to make their usual trip north to man the campgrounds, leaving park officials scratching for local replacements until the last minute. And when the vendor who had previously overseen the Lake Louise campground pulled out, officials experimented with leaving that site unwatched, only to later shutter it completely due to vandalism, Leidner said.

This year, however, things are a little different, he said. Thanks to the pandemic easing and Canada allowing travelers through so long as they are on their way to documented employment, they were able to both book enough hosts and re-enter management contracts.

“We’re slated to have all of the campgrounds open,” he said. “We still have COVID protocols for our staff in place, but that after raving a season to iron some things out we’re ready.”

Meanwhile, Leidner said the Matanuska Lake Recreation Area near Palmer is still receiving some repairs while they work to secure a new concessionaire to run the area, which he said he does expect will open. The hand pump, for example, is receiving repairs and a dock needs stabilization work. Organizations including the Mat-Su Parks and Trails Foundation and the Friends of State Parks, Mat-Su have helped fund those projects, he said. But until they put in a place a new operator, however, the parking area is closed to vehicles.

“They’re not major, major projects but they’re just some things that we needed some assistance on and our nonprofit partners have helped,” he said.

Up in Hatcher Pass, Salmonberry Tours will continue to operate the Independence Mine area, a program started in 2020 after officials made the decision to close it due to lack of funding. He said while traffic there was lower than it may have been during a non-COVID year, they were still pleased with how many people came out.

For park users who want to stay in one of the state’s dry cabins this year, Leidner advised booking soon. Those cabins become available for booking seven months from the reservation date, and are already so booked-out that he is having trouble finding four consecutive days for his crews to get in and make seasonal repairs.

While only two of the region’s campgrounds, Kesugi Ken and Finger Lake, offer campground reservations, all of the state’s cabins must be reserved in advance online. The site, managed by Reserve America, is available at AlaskaStateParks.ReserveAmerica.com.

While not state parks land, the Dale Saunders Crane Sanctuary near Talkeetna is also open for bird watching as the Sandhill Cranes pass through, said Ellen Kazary, the executive director for the Great Land Trust, which manages the area. Kazary said the cranes stick around for about one to two weeks, so now is the time to head out and see them.

“With good timing and luck, you could see a couple hundred cranes at once as they stop at the farm field to eat and rest,” she wrote in an email.

While Leidner said he is grateful the state is moving past the pandemic, he hopes that the increased use of the natural areas continues.

“I’m hopeful that people will continue to be getting outdoors, and continue to take families out, go camping, do things that they weren’t perhaps in the past ... and taking advantage of what state parks has to offer,” he said.