Joint Base Elmendorf/Richardson Famcamp

Stayed here in early June 2014 while restocking, relaxing, and vehicle maintenance on our Alaska adventure. A nice campground with a friendly staff. The base shoppette, gas station, and an excellent car wash are located within a block. There were several LONG TERM visitors, but everyone was friendly. Moose visiting campground was nearly a daily experience. Security and pass personnel as well as gate personnel were very helpful to help us around security barriers when arriving/leaving with RV attached.

Easy access to FamCamp via Muldoon Gate, facilities are clean and presentable, campground hosts routinely water road during dry spells to keep the dust down. Shopping mall/complex located outside Muldoon Gate, restaurants, Sams Club, 16 Screen theater, Lowes, Target, and many other stores. Back in sites are spacious, signs on pull thrus can be a bit confusing, state "reserved for transients 14 Day Limit", never did figured out what that meant. Campground host appears to be subject to selective crotchety spells, assistant host is friendly, helpful, and a hard worker. Cell phone/data coverage was adequate, OTA digital TV signals were sat, exchange/commissary/gas station/hospital all within blocks. FamCamp is in wooded area so you can expect wildlife visits, wanted or unwanted. Location very convenient to Anchorage and Anchorage area sights. Enjoyed our stay, would recommend it to anyone traveling in the Anchorage area overnight or for extended stay. Stay limit is now 30 days.

Excellent Assistant camp host, Had a great stay there. The facilities were clean and presentable. In one of the buildings where the washer and dryers were, only one washer worked, the other building had all the washers and dryers working. Highly recommend this place to stay. Easy access out Muldoon gate, everything is right there from a Lowes to a 16 screen movie theater.

The park hosts at this campground are ridiculously miserable old scowls. They have no manners and offer no hospitality at all. The woman walks her little dog and doesn't even clean up after it, but if you happen to walk your dog across the playground, she will lose it on you and threaten to kick you out and keep your money. I also heard her screaming (literally screaming, no exaggeration) at another camper about their grill. The hateful old hag needs a different job or a hard slap to her ignorant, rude big mouth. I find it hard to believe that the military would allow such behavior. I am making absolute certain that they are aware of it. Anybody else with the same type of experience should do the same. Other than those two people, the facility is nice, the location to Anchorage is great, but the price is no better than any other campground. So with so many other options available, I don't know why anybody would choose to stay anywhere near that hormonal hollering wench.

The FamCamp is in the trees with no Wi-Fi or CATV. There are no full hookup sites although there is a dump station. Charley, the Assistant Camp Host was most courteous and helpful. I did not use the showers or laundry so I cannot comment on them. If paying by credit card you have to go to the Outdoor Recreation Center Building 7301 off Jerstad Avenue. Take Provider Drive towards the Boniface Gate. Turn right on Vandenberg Avenue and bear to the left at the light onto Arctic Warrior Drive. Turn right on Jerstad Avenue and Outdoor Rec will be ahead on the right in a big old hanger building. The campground is just inside the Muldoon Road Gate on Zeamer Avenue. The gate is easily accessible for RV’s as is the Main Gate off Boniface Parkway. Take the first right on Zeamer Avenue just inside the gate and the FamCamp will be on your left just down the road past the hospital and Helipad. On weekends the gate does not open until 9AM for both entrance and exit to the base. Just outside Muldoon Road Gate on the right is the new Ta ‘Kahtau Commons Shopping Center. Some of the stores are iHop, Lowes, Kohl’s, Olive Garden, Red Robin, PetSmart, McDonalds, Subway, Target, and Best Buy. PetSmart does grooming and also has a Doggy Day Care where you can drop off your dog for a couple of hours or even overnight. Staff is available overnight but you can only pick up your pet during normal business hours. The VA Hospital is on your left when you exit the gate. There is a Gas Station/Shoppette right near the FamCamp. The large and very nice Commissary/Base Exchange is just past that. There is also a car wash next to the Shoppette. Diesel is available at the gas station. If you need any parts for your RV Mobile Trailer Supply off 3d Avenue in Anchorage has just about everything you would find in a Camping World. The easiest way to get to it is take the same route as if going towards Outdoor Rec. Take a left on Pease Road and go out the Post Road Gate. Cross Ship Creek and you will see a yellow building to your right front on the side of the hill. Turn right on 3d Avenue and then left into their location. I gave Amenities/Facilities a 3 as there are no full hookup sites.

Stayed twice in July 2011. A very convenient location. Wooded sites give a lot of privacy. The Wifi at the BX/Food Court didn't work on our second stay and no one there could fix it. The camp had two washer and dryer houses. The older one needs some work done on it. The host never came around to us so I can't comment on him. Picked a spot and deposited the money in the envelope.

If you enjoy boondocking in a wooded environment without neighbors in the immediate vicinity, yet appreciate electric and water, this FamCamp is a great fit. Neighbors are at least 30 feet away; a major mall is within a half mile; folks are generally friendly. You won't find a more pocket book friendly campground in the Anchorage area unless you need to wash more than a couple of loads of laundry each day ($1/load). Roads are dirt: in rainy times, muddy and pot holed; in dry times, dusty ... but that's the woods for you. The hosts are friendly and hardworking and wildlife pops in on occasion (moose and bear in our case.) Great hot showers. They just finished a beautiful children's play area. Just finishing up on the new dump station -- should be great. This was our second stay, and we look forward to more.

Had no problem getting a spot here for the week. Had 30 Amp HU and water, dump site ea close to bath. Gravel pad which was fairly level and well treed but not a lot of underbrush. Bathrooms were old and kept OK but need a thorough scrubbing as well as checked on a few times a day. One of the bath houses out of the two had little to no hot water for showers the entire week we were there. Washers and dryers are cheap enough, only a dollar for each. The commissary, BX, and gas station are all close by. New bike path being worked on looks like it will be nice addition to the base. Anchorage is close by and easy to get to and there is a Target, Lowe's and IMAX right outside the gate. We saw a black bear running through camp a few times, it usually ended up at one site which had left a cooler outside by the picnic table. The gas station/shoppette sold diesel and propane as well as gas. The BX has ULU knives which are way cheaper than WalMart, if you are looking for an inexpensive gift. The trash was bear proof and the roads although dusty were sprayed down with water a couple of times a day by the camp host and assistant. Beware the red squirrels, they enjoy tearing up padded chairs for the padding. The sites also had nice charcoal grills. I would definitely stay here in the future and would recommend it to others making this trip.

F.S. left this review using the Directory software: Don't stay here if there are sites available at Ft Richardson. Laundry is Free at Ft Richardson compared to $1.25 here, Dump station is a mess and unsanitary here, roads and campsites are dirt and muddy. Don't know what the AF is doing with their money???? Check out Black Spruce before coming here. Had COLD showers for 8 days before moving to the Army Side.

The men's showers were filthy. There was someone who came and swabbed the deck (for you Navy types) and cleaned the toilets and sinks, but the shower stalls were gray from soap and body dirt. They need to be scrubbed with good cleanser on a regular basis. I complained to the Assistant Host about neighboring dogs (Two of them were tied between trees on a 20 foot run.) which barked every time someone walked by. One of the dogs was kept in a cage outside overnight and it barked whenever someone or something walked by. The Host tried to make it my problem and remarked that the guy has been here for months. This is a clear violation of the rules. We pay for the Hosts to stay and they should follow the rules.

After our visit to Fairbanks (Ft Wainwright) and Denali it was indeed a pleasure to have a week long stop over at Elmendorf AFB. Our camp host Charlie is the best. Both Charlie and his fellow camp host Ray are friendly and helpful. They are to be commended for keeping such a great FamCamp. The camp ground is just inside the Muldoon Rd base entrance and very close to an excellent BX/Commissary, Shoppette Class VI and gas station. Here, diesel is available as well as propane. Downtown is just a very few miles away (4 miles) where there is a never ending itinerary of"things to do". Being a retired AF aircrew guy I enjoyed hearing and seeing the occasional aircraft and the sound of freedom. Elmendorf AFB and FT Richardson are now a Joint (super) base sharing many of the facilities.

After a week in Eielson (Fairbanks), and 2 days in Denali, this was a welcome relief. Still dirt sites and roads (common place in Alaska and Canada), but really kept up as much as possible by Roy Merritt (camp host), and Charlie. After a rain shower made new potholes in the road, Roy had someone fill them in with gravel. He even had a young man putting water on the road to settle the dust. We came back to this campground 3 times during our stay in Alaska. It is the Northernmost military campground that is worth staying at. Fairbanks and Seward- I would not return to either. Commissary and BX very handy. Moose at your doorstep. Dining facility 5 star. Only drawback was the first two loops had erratic electric. Loop nearest the busy road was the best, and road noise really wasn't a problem unless you sleep during the day. Would definitely return again.

They don't have full hook ups, but this campground is better than Fort Rich. You have to pay for your laundry, but that's okay. The sites are big, and easy to back into. Dump station is free, Fort Rich charges you. It is only half mile from the BX/Commissary. The campground is just laid out the way it should be. The only knock, is some of the full timers have junk all over their campsites. Is it to much to ask someone to keep it clean? Maybe that is just one of my issues with campgrounds.

We tried to stay at Ft. Richardson as we wanted full hookups because of the length of our visit but it was full. We then went to Elmendorf and were very happy that we did. The lack of sewer hookups was a non-event (they have double hole, very spacious dump site) and the sites were really nice. We were in site 53 which is about half way down one loop and almost level without any leveling on our part. Some of the other sites were not so level. The electrical and water was good and the site was large and even had a mother moose and her calf come through the first afternoon. The restrooms and shower were clean each time we used them. The laundry could use more machines as the three sets in our loop's laundry were going almost 24/7. Of course the campground was full and there isn't any room for more washers and dryers in the current building unless they get stackables so I don't think this will be improved anytime soon. The exchange and commissary are just a short distance away and very convenient. Cell coverage was excellent and the local Anchorage stations were available on the antenna. Overall a very pleasant stay. The rates have increased to $18 per night. I know that the MWR departments of Elemendorf and Richardson are merging and Richardson is also charging $18. I don't know if that was the reason for Elmendorf going up or not.

We had better luck with the water than the earlier reviewer, as all was working that we could tell. We didn't note a lot of dust, no more that any place else in Alaska with the eternal gravel parking areas. We did have a bear warning issued but alas, saw none. A fox was noted however. We did encounter a lot of aircraft noise though, an C-17 doing touch and goes, and flights of fighters doing their thing, an annoyance after the relative quiet of most of Alaska. The main gate is under construction and it was necessary to use the secondary gate off Muldoon Road. Black Spruce next door was full when we arrived and this famcamp was nearly so. The assistant camp host, Charlie Brenton, can be reached at 907-227-6866. He was most helpful. The park is well patrolled. newly mowed, and reasonably clean.