South Rolly Lake Campground

We had read in the Church & Church Alaska camping guide that the South Rolly Lake campground was a better fit for big rigs than the Nancy Lake campground, so we headed miles and miles deeper into the SRA along a winding road with zero signal.

Right when we started to despair of the lack of connectivity, we made it to the South Rolly campground, and we got a flicker of life from both Verizon and AT&T. Not workable without a booster, but that was good enough for us (because we DID have a booster).

The back-in campsites immediately on your left when you drive in are prime real estate, as they back up directly to the lake, and they have a glimmer of connectivity. The first few sites on each row on the right also have connectivity. As you go around the bend towards a bunch of pull-throughs, we found the connectivity dropped completely... sadly, because many of these sites wooded and more private.

We started off with a site right in the middle of the camp, which was nice and deep, but it ended up being noisy as the weekend crowds arrived. Once they left, we snagged a lakeside back-in that was one of the sweetest spots we've ever had, with fishing right out the back door.

There isn't much to do in the area but fish for trout in the lake, go hiking along the trails, and head to Houston for meals at Miller's (yay, soft serve!). If you're looking for somewhere peaceful part of the way along the Parks Highway, though, this is a nice spot. Just make sure you go grocery shopping before you arrive!

This is another Alaska state campground that does not get maintained. The paved road ends at the campground. The gravel road throughout is severely potholed so be careful. We saw at least one site that had a fallen 90 foot tree in the middle of the site. The sites are not maintained, so I am guessing the fees are specifically for removing trash. The web site will tell you sites are $20 (2017), however, the pull through sites are labled as "premium" and marked for $25. No hook ups, no mobile signal, no way to use solar, were talking dry camping in the weeds and bushes with all the mosquitoes for the low price of $25!. What a deal.

We passed on the opportunity and headed closer to Anchorage.

Great location for smaller, nimble RVs for weekend fishing and canoeing.

Site was level and clean. Lake was nice and are able to rent canoes.

This campground met our needs, but that was about it… we were excited when we got there, not too many people, some fairly nice sites and hiking right from camp. Pull through sites are considered “premium” so they’re $25/night. They were really the only semi-easy option for our 32ft fifth wheel. We found a spot at the end with no one else around, thought we’d be set… and then someone took the site right behind us with kids that were very happy to be in the woods (can’t really blame them). And then someone took the site directly across from us and proceeded to run their generator the.entire.day. I’ve never camped somewhere where someone ran their generator for 14+ hours straight. There are no strict generator hours, only quiet time from like 11pm-6am. There were also people that just let their dogs bark and bark while tied up outside their trailer.

The campground itself looked tired, lots of potholes. Too many mosquitoes to hike, no potable water.

I think your experience here will be largely dependent on who else you’re sharing the campground with…