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Full Time Camper
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Winchester, ON
Posts: 1,177
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Alaska Trip De-brief
Trip Stats
Distance traveled: 17,000 km. (over 10,000 miles)
Fuel consumption (diesel): 13 – 14 mpg Canadian/10 – 12 mpg U.S.
Length of trip – 48 days
Roads
This is the one thing everyone always wants to know about – about the road conditions. You can expect to come up to some construction along the way, often a long stretch with a pilot car. You can expect to lose up to half an hour at one of these. It only happened to us once, north of Fort Nelson, where we had to wait. The second time we came across a long construction area was between Destruction Bay, YT and Whitehorse, and since it was a holiday, they were not working so we just drove through.
Most of the roads are good. Scott went last year and mentioned the Cassiar Highway was particularly bad at the north end. They have since re-paved that area and when we went through, the road was awesome. So whatever condition I say they are in this year, things could change by next year.
Most of the roads are quite good. Even the Top of the World Highway between Dawson City and Tok wasn’t too bad, although most of it was gravel. The Taylor Highway, which is on the U.S. side of this road, was somewhat worse, with steep drop-offs and narrow, gravel roads. Slow down is the order of the day.
Most of the bad bumps or frost heaves are marked with a red flag, but not all of them. If you see some skid marks on pavement where there is a frost heave, be especially careful!
The absolute worst road we encountered was the Tok Cut-off, between Glennallen and Tok. Had we known it was this bad, we would have taken the long way around through Delta Junction. The road is paved, but the frost heaves are very bad. We actually got a small crack on the side of our trailer as a result.
Weather
The weather for us was mostly good, temperatures in the high teens and low twenties Celsius during the day and low teens at night. We were in Fairbanks for the summer solstice. It never really got dark, just dusk and then dawn. I covered the bedroom window with Reflectix.
Unfortunately, we had rain from the time we left BC till we got to Sault Ste Marie ON. Jasper was just clouds and rain so we missed the scenery there, which is too bad because this area is particularly beautiful. We had been in this area before a number of years back, so it wasn’t as big a loss.
Mosquitoes
We saw very few. We get way more of these in Ontario than we ever saw on our trip to Alaksa. We only went on a couple of short hikes in Denali and even then we didn’t see very many. I had stocked up on repellant and hardly used any! If we had gone deep into the bush, we most likely would have seen more of them.
Where we went
We drove to Edmonton, AB, then to Dawson Creek, Fort Nelson, Liard Hotsprings, Watson Lake, Whitehorse, Dawson City, Tok, Fairbanks, Denali, Anchorage (side day-trip to Whittier), Valdez, Tok again, Whitehorse again, Watson Lake again, Stewart BC, Prince George, Valemount, Calgary, then east.
Dates
We left June 1 and returned home July 18. We stopped two nights in Sudbury to visit friends on the way out and again on the way home, and two nights in Edmonton. The rest of the trip we would spend a few days at certain destinations, and just one night if we were just going through. Most of the beautiful scenery is along the way, and a lot of places really have nothing to see where it would be worth staying an extra night.
We spent two nights at Dawson Creek, one at Liard Hotsprings (at the Liard Hotsprings Lodge RV Park, not the Provincial Park), one night at Watson Lake, two at Whitehorse, three at Dawson City, one at Tok, two at Fairbanks, three at Denali, two at Anchorage, three at Valdez, one at Tok, three at Whitehorse (took at day trip to Skagway and also got new tires for the trailer), one near Watson Lake, one on the way to Stewart, two in Stewart, one in Prince George, one in Valemount, and then to Calgary and home. We spent two nights again in Sudbury on the way through to visit friends.
What not to miss
- The visitor centre in Fairbanks – seriously, this is a very interesting place. The display about living in this part of the world is very enlightening.
- Valdez – beautiful spot, interesting history, you can walk right up to a glacier there (Worthington Glacier) and touch it. If we had been there two weeks earlier, like mid-June, we would have seen eagles being fed.
- Stewart – glacier nearby, bears catching fish if you come later in the summer (we were too early)
- Denali
- Dawson City – very cute town right out of the Gold Rush era
Other notes, suggestions, etc.
If you go from Dawson City to Tok via the Top of the World Highway, you have to take a ferry across the Yukon River. The ferry is free but very small. It can only take about two rigs. We arrived at 6:50 a.m. and got right on. Later on in the day you can wait for hours, especially if there is a caravan in town.
Definitely get a copy of the Milepost. The book about campgrounds is very out-dated. A lot of the information no longer applied. The Milepost mentions a lot of campgrounds in it. So suit yourself on the campground book.
We tend to reserve a few days before we get to a place. We don’t reserve too far ahead because we often make changes to our trip plan as we go. We had not initially planned to go to Valdez, but a stranger suggested we go there. We are very glad we did.
You meet people all along the way – in campgrounds, at attractions, etc. We have made many friends in a lot of our travels. When you do a trip like this you often meet the same people again and again as you all follow the same route.
A lot of people go fishing while in Alaska. We don’t fish, but from what I hear the fishing is very good in Alaska & surrounding area. Trout and Salmon seem to be the fish most people go after. There is fishing in the rivers and streams and also in the sea.
Internet is a scarce commodity when you are on the road. Most campgrounds advertise it, but few have very good internet. This is par for the course no matter where you go, whether it be Alaska or anywhere else. We came across good campground internet at just a few places. I used my cellphone for internet some of the time, but cell service is also scarce. You will find it at the major centres, but in the boonies it is non-existent. One good place to find internet is at most visitor centres. The one in Fairbanks even had desks with plug-ins as well as computers you can use.
Whittier was an interesting little place. It is accessed by way of a one lane tunnel which is shared with trains. Of course the trains have right of way. On the hour the tunnel is open in one direction and on the half hour it is open in the other direction. Most of the people in Whittier live in one building, a 14 storey condo apartment building. There is also a huge building which was built by the army in 1953 and was a “city under one roof”, then they abandoned it in 1966. It is now derelict and vacant.
We brought extra supplies in case some things were hard to come by or very expensive, but found that to be not the case. The prices of most things were not really out of line.
We met some people along the way who had decided to boondock at Walmart in Anchorage. They were awakened at 3 a.m., booted out, and given a stiff fine. So don’t boondock there.
There are many pull-outs, rest stops and parking areas all along the way, but you are not supposed to overnight in most of them, according to the Milepost. Besides there being campgrounds in or near the major centers, there are a number of lodges which have added a few camp sites as well. Most of these are pretty easy to get in and out of.
There are many campgrounds capable of accommodating big rigs, so finding a campsite to fit your rig is never a problem. If you are somewhere and there is a caravan in town, then camp sites may be hard to find. This is why we reserve a few days ahead.
I did a map of where we went but it is in pdf format so I don't know how to post it.
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2012 Cruiser Sahara 330SS
2015 F250 Super Duty diesel
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