Planning to head north to Alaska through Montana end of May with a new (but tested) 2019 NH 40' Summit. My current thinking is to take the route through Calgary, Banff, Jasper before driving on to Dawson Creek. Then on to Fairbanks. That's as far as my Alaska planning has gone. On the way back in early-mid September, I would like to take the Cassiar Hwy route to Prince George / Cache Creek / Hope, with a crossover east of Vancouver. I have been weighing the pros and cons of a side trip to Haines with a ferry ride to Skagway. At this point I'm not convinced I want to try backing a 40' fiver with an F350 in the confines of a congested ferry. Who knows, maybe by then I'll be used to back-up challenges. I have spent many evenings watching one YouTube video after another on recent trips through Canada and Alaska. Most were very informative and there were some great suggestions on accessories. While the Milepost was a great starting point (and future reference), I have a lot of research (and literature orders) ahead of me regarding Alberta / BC Provincial Parks and favorite pull-out spots. My new fiver will have around 1300w of solar supporting a bank of Lithium batteries which I plan to use to full advantage. I expect that boondocking will be a big part of this trip. Should be interesting since I've never boondocked before. I will continue to post updates as my itinerary continues to evolve and make a final decision on a TV. Thanks to everyone that is and will be posting here and look forward to possibly meeting some of you along the way.

There are two ways to Alaska, or back, joining at an intersection just inside the Yukon Territory about 15 miles west of Watson Lake, YT.  I would suggest going up the Alcan from Dawson Creek and then, coming back, take the turn south off the Alcan onto Highway 37, the Cassiar / Stewart Cassiar Highway.  All the same road.  Highway 37 will lead you down via Prince George, BC – Highway 97 to ML16 (TCH)  - Jasper, BC and the “Ice Fields Highway.”  That will likewise take you to Banff, etc.
 
Taking the Alcan the way up and the Cassiar / Ice Fields Highway back offers the best of both worlds in our view.  The Ice Fields Highway is spectacular in its own right.  The Alcan has its own magic. We’re looking forward to driving it again someday.
 
I agree with Neil’s comments as to time, etc.  Just don’t go too early in May.  Many times it’s the Montana weather that is the issue.  Not just the Canadian and there are mountains.  We’ve been up that way and back three times and the very late May – early June worked well as to the entry point into Canada.  Remember, the Canadian part of the trip, up the Alaska Range on the Alcan, is an important part of the spectacular trip.
 
Our views,
 
Bill

olderthandirt wrote:

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Bill, are you and Linda planning to attend the New Horizons Owners Group Rally in Kerrville this year? That's on my to-do list once I give my Summit a good two week shakedown.

Hans

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 They are planning to be there...as are Connie and I. We are both scheduled to arrive Thursday before the rally starts. 

Looking forward to meeting you both and Neil & Connie and picking up some valuable tips on Alaska travel.

They know how to quickly fix roads in Alaska. We saw them tear up a long section of 2 lane highway and it was all new two weeks later.

With that much solar, olderthandirt, you will only be limited by your fresh water supply. You’ll love solar!

Bill and Bill J, thanks for your thoughts. I am also closely following road reports and will keep reading. I think if necessary our backup plan will be to go as far as Denali and skip Kenai peninsula this time and spend more time along the way in BC and YT. We are traveling with family members who need to be back by mid-August, so 10-12 weeks is likely the time we will have. I've also been following RVing to Alaska 2019 on FB. Locals have been chiming in so I'm sure additional information will be available closer to take off time.😊 We haven't confirmed our route yet so plans are "jello". The benefit of being an RVer.

Alaska residents are in our thoughts and so glad no deaths.
Candy

I'm beginning to firm up my Canada / Alaska itinerary. The second week of June I will be staying for one week at the Jasper / Hinton KOA after a week at the Tunnel Mt Trailer Court, Banff NP. I have to wait until Jan 9th before I can make the Banff reservation but don't anticipate any problems getting in. I am then giving myself until the end of June to get me up to Fairbanks where I will stay at the Riverview RV Park (about 9 miles south of Fairbanks) until July 7th. On that morning I will head down to Denali NP where I have a reservation for 5 nights at Riley Creek. Since my fiver is (will be) just under 40', this may be a challenge to get into one of their 40' sites. For that same reason I chose not to stay at Tek or Savage River, this time around. From that point on I will see how the road repairs are going into the Anchorage area since my objective will be to eventually camp at different parks in the Kenai. Hope to be in Alaska all of July and August before heading south on the Cassiar in early September. I am currently reading up on the good, bad, and ugly of the different RV parks along the Alcan heading north to Fairbanks. Anyone have any first hand experience on these parks that they would like to share? It would be greatly appreciated.

Hans

Some places in the area of Banff are not open until some time in June, so you might want to come back in late summer, early fall to see what you missed. We stayed at Lake Louise with 30AMP electric only both times we were in the area.

Thanks for the heads up. I called the reservation number and that person told me they open up at 8 A.M. on Jan 9th. I will definitely make myself ready.

 

Hans

We were on a caravan so didn’t pay for campgrounds...but I asked at many of them and 30 a night is typical. Gas and diesel are more expensive, we paid a max of about $7 a gallon in 2015 but the average was probably a buck more than down in the US. Groceries were maybe 15 or 20 percent more. 

Boondocking vs. Commercial Campgrounds ?

This is my biggest question as I do my planning for our Alaska trip.  Here is a question for the experienced folks - is it difficult to find boondocking spots as we travel through B.C., the Yukon and Alaska.  How did you locate your overnight stops?

I've done a plan using only commercial campgrounds using RVParky.  We would prefer to mix in a majority of boondocking spots as we travel.  

Thanks for any advice you can give on boondocking.

Still quite a bit of time left before we leave but already excited! We made our reservations at Denali for three nights at Teklanika campground. We will be there July 1-4. We also ordered our 2019 Alaska toursaver books and received them today. We purchased on their website for $20 off the normal price. Looking forward to browsing for ideas. We have talked to a few different couples, who have traveled to Alaska in the last few years and they all recommended planning for a budget of at least $10,000. Of course, that depends on how many campgrounds we would use, trips or activities we scheduled etc. We're hoping to save a bit by boondocking and eating out very little. With the toursaver coupons, we're also hoping to save on any activities.
I have a general idea of our trip up and other than stopping for a few days at Banff and a couple more at Jasper after we cross the border, about first week or so in June, (we don't know the exact departure date yet) but we are planning on long travel days (3) from Iowa to Sweetgrass, MT and after that taking our time.
We are hoping to boondock part of the time along the way and stop at campgrounds when we need to dump and take on more water and do laundry. I will be following with interest any recommendations for boondocking spots along the way up. Bill and Kelly, I plan on rereading your blog posts for your stops. We are planning on the Icefields highway and then connecting with the Alcan on the way up and taking the Cassiar route on the way back down. Any thoughts on this plan?
Hope we can meet up with some other RV-Dreamers along the way.
Candy

Haven't been keeping up with this thread…but from our trip in '15 thought I would toss in a few must do and not worth it items.

Following are highly recommended.

Plane trip from Fairbanks to Anaktuvik Pass and Gateway to the Arctic National Park.

Plane trip down to Katmai Island from Homer to see the brown bears…for me this was the highlight of the entire trip. You land on the beach in a 6 passenger (including pilot) plane and have to take off again before high tide. Hike around the park with no people around for maybe 2 or 3 miles total on flat but swampy ground. We saw probably a dozen bears there feeding and living…including one that walked by our group inside of 10 feet…close enough to see the striations in his teeth. He ignored us since he was fishing.

Denali NP…take the bus trip…the one out to the visitor center is 5 or 6 hours, there is a longer one we didn't take but I don't know if the extra $$ and double the time is worth it.

If you take the glacier tour from Valdez…take the Lulu. It's a little more money but much nicer boat, great tour owner/tour guide.

Marle Brown lives at Fort Nelson…not Liard Hot Springs like I said before…in BC on the way up…he's this cool old guy with a bunch of still running 20s and 30s cars and a bicycle that both wheels steer on.

Top of the World Highway across to Dawson City and Dawson City…this is about a 100 mile dirt road that is fine for RVs over to Dawson City where they film the gold shows. Don't miss the Sour Toe ****tail if you go there. Passes through Chicken AK.

Homer was really cool as were Talkeetna and Haines.

White Pass railroad from Carcross down to Skagway…great views and a lot of the famous photos of old time trains rounding curves in the pass with drop-off down to the valley floor below. 

The only thing I would really skip is the side trip over to Hyder…it's pretty much a dump and not worth the 2 days over and 2 days back unless you 100% know the salmon run will be on so the black bears will be at the viewpoint/boardwalk. The drive down the river the last 30 miles to get there is beautiful but it's off the beaten path even for Alaska.

If you leave Dawson Creek around the end of June you'll miss all the mosquitos.

If rolling your own tour…check the various caravan web sites and pretty much reproduce their itinerary for the places you want to go…they almost all take pretty much identical routes as it's the only itinerary that makes sense given geography and roads…but IMO paying the extra $$ for the caravan isn't worth it as long as you can change an RV tire if you need to and have spare bulbs, fan belts and such.

The roads aren't nearly as bad as you might have heard…sure, there's some dirt/gravel ones, probably 500 miles of it for us…but they're well maintained and keeping to 35-40 isn't much trouble.

Get Milepost magazine…that's really about the only reference guide you need…it's got everything you want to know in it.

If anybody's interested…you can read our blogs about it at https://guntherandkara.com from June to August 2015. Any questions…feel free to post them here for me, DM me here, or email me at neil at Laubenthal dot net.

-- Edited by Neil and Connie on Wednesday 26th of December 2018 09:13:58 PM

Best purchase I made for my interior trip to Alaska was a very inexpensive mosquito head net. Still have it today. Lifesaver.

Following this thread and already working on our prep for our 2020 road trip to Alaska with our Cyclone.

Susan

cejones4210 wrote:

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Still quite a bit of time left before we leave but already excited! We made our reservations at Denali for three nights at Teklanika campground. We will be there July 1-4. We also ordered our 2019 Alaska toursaver books and received them today. We purchased on their website for $20 off the normal price. Looking forward to browsing for ideas. We have talked to a few different couples, who have traveled to Alaska in the last few years and they all recommended planning for a budget of at least $10,000. Of course, that depends on how many campgrounds we would use, trips or activities we scheduled etc. We're hoping to save a bit by boondocking and eating out very little. With the toursaver coupons, we're also hoping to save on any activities.
I have a general idea of our trip up and other than stopping for a few days at Banff and a couple more at Jasper after we cross the border, about first week or so in June, (we don't know the exact departure date yet) but we are planning on long travel days (3) from Iowa to Sweetgrass, MT and after that taking our time.
We are hoping to boondock part of the time along the way and stop at campgrounds when we need to dump and take on more water and do laundry. I will be following with interest any recommendations for boondocking spots along the way up. Bill and Kelly, I plan on rereading your blog posts for your stops. We are planning on the Icefields highway and then connecting with the Alcan on the way up and taking the Cassiar route on the way back down. Any thoughts on this plan?
Hope we can meet up with some other RV-Dreamers along the way.
Candy

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 I will be staying at the Banff Tunnel Mtn. Trailer Court starting June 3rd and leaving the 11th, at site #823. If anyone will be in the area during that time, stop by for a visit.

 

Hans

cejones4210 wrote:

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I will be staying at the Banff Tunnel Mtn. Trailer Court starting June 3rd and leaving the 11th, at site #823. If anyone will be in the area during that time, stop by for a visit.

Hans

Hans, our tentative dates for Banff and Jasper are 11-17 June, but it all depends on our traveling companions (she's a teacher). We may actually be able to arrive 4-5,days earlier. We have only made a one night reservation in case we need to cancel. We are hoping to stay at Lake Louise which is a first come/first served until June 20.

We also have reservations at the Jasper KOA, but again may change the dates depending on when we can leave; we should know for sure in April, which will give us time to cancel/change our dates without a penalty (we hope)!😏

Candy

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 Candy, I also have reservations at the Jasper KOA from June 11th to June 18 when I leave for Dawson Creek. Maybe we'll have a chance to visit in Banff.

 

Hans

Yes it does seem like some of us may be in the same areas about the same time. It would be fun for fellow RV-Dreamers to meet up along the way and in Alaska for a meal or campfire together.

I have used RV-Parky for our routing up, around the Kenai peninsula, and back out again. I cannot remember who originally mentioned this website, but thanks a lot because I find it much easier to use then a couple previous mapping sites I had been using.

Here are a few of the "tentative" dates where we are aiming to be, but everything is flexible except for Denali. We could actually be in Banff by the 6th, depending on traveling companion's school schedule. Hoping for no more snow days!

Banff - 11-15 June
Jasper - 15-18 June
Muncho Lake - 20 June
Denali area - 29-4 July
Talkeenta - 4-8 July
Kenai peninsula 10-25 July
Heading out to Cassiar and Hyder - 26-4 August
Reaching Iowa by 12 August

Fun times ahead and more planning to do!
Candy

Current loose plan (subject to massive changes):

• Inside Passage (southeast Alaska) by ferry with the RV starting from Prince Rupert around the first of May. Staying a few nights in several port towns camping, hiking, fishing, excursions/tours, etc. Will end up in Haines, and leave there around the middle of June connecting to the Alaska Hwy.
• Then heading to McCarthy (Wrangell - St. Elias National Park) and Valdez (Prince William Sound) for the rest of June.
• Kenai Peninsula (especially Seward & Homer and places in between) for most of July, with side trips to Kodiak Island, Katmai National Park, and Lake Clark National Park.
• Denali for a week or so around the end of July/first of August.
• Fairbanks area for middle of August and possible Arctic tours (if any money left). 
• Heading back via Cassiar Hwy end of August.
• Jasper & Banff early September and back in the U.S. by mid-September.

The Inside Passage by ferry has been by far the biggest logistical challenge. Not bad if you are just using it to cut off days and miles to get to Haines or Skagway to connect to the road system, but requires a lot of coordination if exiting the ferry for a night or two or three in towns along the way.

Milepost 2019 will be arriving in March. Also, ordered the Alaska Toursaver coupon book and it should be arriving next week.

Once we leave Haines, we'll be boondocking mostly (roadside stops and campgrounds without hook-ups) with the occasional splurge at an RV park.

 

Looks like an RV-Dreams party in July somewhere in the Kenai peninsula.  :)

 

 

Sounds great to meet up somewhere on the Kenai peninsula!

Due to cold temps in the Midwest, -14, with wind chill -42 as I write this, our start isn't going to be as early as we hoped. 4 more snow/cold dates added to our travel companion 's school schedule. Our dates will be pushed out further except for Denali; we have to be there by the 29th of June. So our drive up may not be as slow as we would like. That's ok, we will just need to plan another trip to cover what we didn't have time to do this trip. 😉

Candy

Here is some information and our experiences about travel from Oregon to AK & Back. The info is based on: 1) Our experience from our 2016 Alaska Trip. 2) Reading Alaska Blogs for the last 10 or more years. Our experiences are mostly dry camping and boondocking, only 2 nights in a RV Park.

 

Also some of the info has to do with trying to negate some of the “Oh no don’t ever do that. Such as that road is too rough or dangerous, or you will get snowed in if you go before June 1st”. Yes, some of the routes and areas are not an easy drive on a nice wide 2 or 4 lane hwy, but driving at an appropriate speed and not trying to meet some sort of schedule, the roads are not that bad. Examples are the Denali Hwy, McCarthy Rd and Steeze Hwy.

Our experiences cover more of the outdoors than the tourist attractions. Also some of the places the average tourist doesn’t see.

Lots of folks visit Banff and Jasper. I recommend skipping these. There is so much to see and do in BC, YT & AK that stopping there would limit your time for more distant locations. Besides Banff & Jasper are just a days drive north of the USA border.

First, the blogs:

– Our blog: http://downtheroadaroundthebend.blogspot.com/2017/01/alaska-trip-index-april-26september-6.html We crossed the US/Canada border from WA to BC on April 27^th. We are quite happy we started this early in the year. We had mostly good weather. We spent 139 days on this trip and boondocked or dry camped for 137 days. I have put a lot of info about our experiences and suggestions in our blog. Whatever you find useful, great, whatever is not what you need, then just ignore that part. Everyone has different interests.
– Bob McQ’s blog: http://ramcquade.com/?m=20150510 He made this trip in 2015 and crossed into Canada on May 10^th as I remember. Lots of wildlife photos. He also boondocked or dry camped for a lot of his trip. Some good info about camping and some of the roads he traveled on.
– Ron & Elena’s blog of their Alaska trip: http://www.mytripjournal.com/travel-602970-canada-mail-anniversary-border-eat-items-price-sumas They also dry camped or boondocked for almost all of the trip. They traveled full time in a 23’ travel trailer. They also took the rig up the Haul Road (Dalton Hwy) to Dead Horse and Prudhoe Bay.
– This blog isn’t as informative as the first three, but has some info and experiences with boondocking and dry camping. http://www.mytripjournal.com/travel-598678-national-park-alaska-glacier-trip-border-canada-drive
– Useful info about RV’ing to AK: https://snowmads.blog/myths-versus-reality-of-driving-your-rv-to-alaska/

When to go!
I strongly suggest you cross into Canada the last few days in April or the first few days of May.

– This is one of those suggestions which “common knowledge” says you don’t do. I believe mostly from folks who have not gone early or have not read enjoyable travels from folks going early.
– We had good weather going early. Yes we had some cold rain (45-50 degrees) for a few days, but generally decent weather. Others have detailed in their blogs mention good weather in April and May. (I am not suggesting going in April. To much of a chance of very cold weather).
– Some folks who live in Alaska say the best weather is in April & May.
– Weather. Weather happens most any time. Two examples I detailed in our blog entry: http://downtheroadaroundthebend.blogspot.com/2016/11/start-of-2016-alaska-trip-hillsboro-or.html Both are down near the bottom of the blog entry. Near Chetwynd, roads washed out and floods in mid June. An RV’er got stuck in the snow on May 28^th. The one with the snow storm would have been much better off if they had just pulled off the road and waited out the storm for a day or two. However they had reservations they didn’t want to miss. Got stuck and missed the reservation anyways.
– No or few bugs until mid June
– Lack of crowds early in the season
– Many of the “tourist” sites don’t open until Victoria Day in the last part of May. Many campgrounds don’t open until then either. But the boondocking sites are always available. Also the scenic areas are still there. Seeing ice on some of the lakes is interesting.

Denali Hwy:

We didn’t drive this in 2016, but we took a rented Class C in 1999. Nice views of the various mountains along the hwy. I don’t know of a reason to avoid the route. By the same token there is no reason to go out of your way to take the hwy.

Denali NP:

– Plan on 2 weeks in the park. 5-7 days in the front country and 5-7 days at Teklanika. You should have a good chance of have clear weather for seeing Mt Denali some time during the 10-14 days. We have been to Denali twice and had clear weather both times. First week in June in 1999 and then June 6-17, 2016 which is detailed in our blog. Yes, luck did play a lot in our experience, so I really can’t say for sure there will good weather the first half of June.
– Plan on arriving about June 1-7. I believe you will have the best chance of seeing Mt Denali in the first 2 weeks of June. Also smaller crowds, few to no bugs.
– Be sure to check with the park about when the road to the interior opens. The road has to dry out enough to support the buses. This usually happens in early to mid June.
– About staying at Teklanika. Be sure to get the Tek Pass. I have quite a bit of info about Teklanika CG and the Tek Pass in our blog: http://downtheroadaroundthebend.blogspot.com/2016/07/denali-national-park-part-1-june-6-13.html

– Campgounds:

 -- Riley Creek. Tight and crowded CG. However it does have a cell signal.
– Savage River. Nice open CG, many of the campsites are well spaced apart. On good days you can see Mt Denali. NO Verizon signal in 2016.
– Teklanika. Nice CG. Best part is the Tek pass for the bus.

– Be sure to take a Ranger lead back country (tundra) hike. The hike is limited to 11 people plus the ranger. You have to sign up 1 or 2 days before the hike at one of the visitor centers. When I signed up for the hike I was at the office when it opened. Details of the hike I took in our blog.
– I detailed two great hikes I took in our blog. Savage Alpine trail (best hike in the park except for tundra hiking). At Eielson visitor center, the Alpine Trail if the weather is clear. Fantastic views.

North of Fairbanks

– If you boondock and don’t mind driving on a good gravel/dirt road take your RV up the Steese Hwy as far as the Eagle Summit Rest Area. Great views. At the Summer Solstice you can see the sun not setting at midnight from Eagle Summit Rest Area IF the weather is clear. More info in our blog.

– A few folks have taken their RV up the Dalton Hwy (Haul Road) to the Arctic Circle and on to Dead Horse (Prudhoe Bay). The road will be slippery when wet. Some potholes. Parts of the road is a bit rocky north of Coldfoot. We took our RV 233 miles up the Dempster and enjoyed the trip. It was quite an adventure though. Details in our blog: http://downtheroadaroundthebend.blogspot.com/2016/06/driving-dalton-highway-may-29-june-1.html
Additional info in Ron & Elena’s blog: http://www.mytripjournal.com/travel-608614-arctic-circle-summer-solstice-highway-road-dalton-day

McCarthy, Kennecott Copper mine and a hike on Root Glacier.

– First, all the talk on the blogs about the road to McCarthy being so horrible, are blow way out of proportion. I believe by people who have not driven the road, or drove it at too high a speed. Keep in mind that 50-100 people live and work in McCarthy for the summer every year. They drive the road back and forth. Some may drive the road several times each summer in all sorts of vehicles. Info in our blog.
– If you have any interest in a hike on a glacier, either guided or on your own, Root Glacier is an easy access hike. This is the only easily accessible glacier I know of in Canada & AK. Rent “clamp-ons” at Kennecott mine. It is a 2 mile mostly level one way hike to the glacier and then easy access to walking on the glacier. You can walk for a long ways on the glacier. I didn’t realize I could rent clamp-ons so I just took a short walk on the glacier in my boots with lug soles. More details in our blog.
– Also info In McQ’s blog about road conditions to McCarthy here: http://ramcquade.com/?p=8430

Top of the World Hwy, Dawson City and Tombstone Territorial Park.

– We enjoyed our trip across the TOW Hwy. However we really enjoy travel in lonely places. If you go try to go in good weather. Views are great. Details in our blog. You can skip the town of Chicken. Very touristy & expensive for what you get.
– Dawson City was interesting. Lots of history
– Now the highlight of the area: Tombstone Territorial Park.

I wrote in our blog. “Tombstone, in my opinion, rivals Denali NP, just w/o the crowds.” Details in our blog: http://downtheroadaroundthebend.blogspot.com/2016/09/tombstone-territorial-park-yt-august-11.html
The Dempster Hwy to Tombstone is about 45 miles of gravel road. We had some minor pot holes, but nothing deep.
Tombstone Park reminds me of what our national parks were like back in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Not a lot of people and w/o all the “thou shall not do’s”. Very laid back.

Boondocking:

We boondocked or dry camped for all but two of our 139 days on our trip. We basically had two sources for finding places to boondock. The first is a listing of free or low cost sites from the Escapees RV Club (must be members to order): https://daysenddirectory.com/ If you do lots of boondocking or dry camping this list is almost worth the $39 cost of membership in Escapees: https://www.escapees.com/ . Many of the listing have detailed driving directions and/or GPS coordinates to the parking place. The second was watching for places, such as gravel pits and pulloffs or finding places while taking day trips in our truck. I also make extensive use of the satellite view in Google Maps, Bling Maps and Google Earth. In addition to the satellite views, many of the roads and highways have the option of a 360 degree ground level photo view of the road in the above websites.

Another source may be https://www.campendium.com/ Also a search for “free campsites” will bring up several websites.

 

cejones4210, sorry I didn’t see your direct question to me sooner!

We, sadly, did not get to the areas you asked about (Banff, Icefields Parkway, or Cassier), but friends of ours did and blogged about it - their links are in my final blog post

bkamericanodyssey.com/2016/10/15/recap-alaska/

Hope you find this helpful!

Sometimes plans have to change.  We should be on our way to spend a summer in Alaska.  Unfortunately we have hit a bump in the road.  This Monday I was diagnosed with Leukemia (CLL). 

I am already planning next years trip.  This summer we will be spending our time in Arizona taking care business.

If anyone were to ask me, "When should we begin our RV adventure?" my quick answer would be TODAY.