28 days and we’re off to Alaska.

[BGMAC]

Hello all,
I’ve mentioned in other posts that our dream was taking our first major trip and the destination would be Alaska. There are/were a lot of things had to line up to do this as I have a 92 yr old mother we care for and a daughter that was in pretty bad shape (physically and financially). end of last year. So we have my brothers friend taking care of my mother and we providing heath insurance for my daughter and a bit of determined love from us we got her to the doctors and now she is on the road to recovery.

Over the last couple months I’ve been getting the RV fixed up for the trip. Changed out house batteries, tuneup/oil change on the generator and RV. Getting tires rotated and checking all systems I can think of. Bought a Jeep for flat towing instead of a dolly and set up the tow system. Tested on a short trip to Fl and all good.
We have updated passports in case of emergency and we have to fly home, we’ve ordered updated Canada insurance cards for the RV and Jeep through our insurance company.

If there is anything I should check, please let me know.

We’re taking 2 months for the trip with our first couple days being long driving days since we’ve taken the first part of the route many times, then we will slow down. Our plan is to cross the boarder at Carway AB unless someone might think another spot is better/easier?

We’re kind of running “Nomad” style. Meaning we’re not sure where we’re going until we get there. We do have a couple spots as a destination “Dawson City” and “Whittier Ak”. Anything in between we will just go with the flow.

Attached is our general path we plan to follow unless suggestions here or on the road changes our mind.

We’re getting pretty excited now.

 

[SGilbert]

WOW----Just wow! I totally envy you (well, your trip, that is )
Best of luck, and have a terrific & safe trip!

 

[Rollin Ollen]

Hello all,
I’ve mentioned in other posts that our dream was taking our first major trip and the destination would be Alaska. There are/were a lot of things had to line up to do this as I have a 92 yr old mother we care for and a daughter that was in pretty bad shape (physically and financially). end of last year. So we have my brothers friend taking care of my mother and we providing heath insurance for my daughter and a bit of determined love from us we got her to the doctors and now she is on the road to recovery.

Over the last couple months I’ve been getting the RV fixed up for the trip. Changed out house batteries, tuneup/oil change on the generator and RV. Getting tires rotated and checking all systems I can think of. Bought a Jeep for flat towing instead of a dolly and set up the tow system. Tested on a short trip to Fl and all good.
We have updated passports in case of emergency and we have to fly home, we’ve ordered updated Canada insurance cards for the RV and Jeep through our insurance company.

If there is anything I should check, please let me know.

We’re taking 2 months for the trip with our first couple days being long driving days since we’ve taken the first part of the route many times, then we will slow down. Our plan is to cross the boarder at Carway AB unless someone might think another spot is better/easier?

We’re kind of running “Nomad” style. Meaning we’re not sure where we’re going until we get there. We do have a couple spots as a destination “Dawson City” and “Whittier Ak”. Anything in between we will just go with the flow.

Attached is our general path we plan to follow unless suggestions here or on the road changes our mind.

We’re getting pretty excited now.

Your choice of crossing the Canadian Border at Carway is kinda out of the way unless you plan to visit Glacier National Park. If that isn't your plan then crossing at Coutts/Sweet Grass is a much better choice. You will cross using I-15 (US side) which turns into Highway 4 (Canadian side) which is a more direct route (and better road) to Edmonton. Further, the Carway crossing is not open 24 hours where as Coutts is and you will find the highways around Carway winding and narrow.

Having said that, a visit to Glacier would be well worth the side trip if you are interested. There is a KOA at St Mary that is quite nice and taking your Jeep across The Going to the Sun road to Apgar and back would be memorable. The scenery is spectacular!

Going-to-the-Sun Road General Info - Glacier National Park (U.S. National Park Service)

www.nps.gov

Safe Travels

Darrell

 

[BGMAC]

Your choice of crossing the Canadian Border at Carway is kinda out of the way unless you plan to visit Glacier National Park. If that isn't your plan then crossing at Coutts/Sweet Grass is a much better choice. You will cross using I-15 (US side) which turns into Highway 4 (Canadian side) which is a more direct route (and better road) to Edmonton. Further, the Carway crossing is not open 24 hours where as Coutts is and you will find the highways around Carway winding and narrow.

Having said that, a visit to Glacier would be well worth the side trip if you are interested. There is a KOA at St Mary that is quite nice and taking your Jeep across The Going to the Sun road to Apgar and back would be memorable. The scenery is spectacular!

Going-to-the-Sun Road General Info - Glacier National Park (U.S. National Park Service)

www.nps.gov

Safe Travels

Darrell

Thank you,
My first pick was Coutts, but then thought about going to Glacier. Appreciate the info. I need to lookup the Going to the Sun road. Sounds interesting.

 

[Jim]

Incredible journey @BGMAC, and one that you'll remember forever, I'm sure. Have fun, be safe, and good luck!

 

[Magua]

Hello all,
I’ve mentioned in other posts that our dream was taking our first major trip and the destination would be Alaska. There are/were a lot of things had to line up to do this as I have a 92 yr old mother we care for and a daughter that was in pretty bad shape (physically and financially). end of last year. So we have my brothers friend taking care of my mother and we providing heath insurance for my daughter and a bit of determined love from us we got her to the doctors and now she is on the road to recovery.

Over the last couple months I’ve been getting the RV fixed up for the trip. Changed out house batteries, tuneup/oil change on the generator and RV. Getting tires rotated and checking all systems I can think of. Bought a Jeep for flat towing instead of a dolly and set up the tow system. Tested on a short trip to Fl and all good.
We have updated passports in case of emergency and we have to fly home, we’ve ordered updated Canada insurance cards for the RV and Jeep through our insurance company.

If there is anything I should check, please let me know.

We’re taking 2 months for the trip with our first couple days being long driving days since we’ve taken the first part of the route many times, then we will slow down. Our plan is to cross the boarder at Carway AB unless someone might think another spot is better/easier?

We’re kind of running “Nomad” style. Meaning we’re not sure where we’re going until we get there. We do have a couple spots as a destination “Dawson City” and “Whittier Ak”. Anything in between we will just go with the flow.

Attached is our general path we plan to follow unless suggestions here or on the road changes our mind.

We’re getting pretty excited now.

What a great trip. I can only hope I can talk my bride into the same destination. Glacier is a week long adventure by itself. GTTS highway is spectacular as is everything else in that Park. If time does not allow you to visit on the way up, might consider visiting on the way back. Or, make it next year.

 

[BGMAC]

What a great trip. I can only hope I can talk my bride into the same destination. Glacier is a week long adventure by itself. GTTS highway is spectacular as is everything else in that Park. If time does not allow you to visit on the way up, might consider visiting on the way back. Or, make it next year.

Maybe visit on the way up and back.

There are many places you do need to visit several times to get it all in. That just makes for better travel.

 

[Buc]

Definitely check out Gacier NP if you haven’t been there. Carway is one of the nine places I’ve driven into or out of Canada from. It was one of the easier crossings, but that was nine years ago, so YMMV.

 

[Buc]

Also, there are tons of cool places to check out along the way. We did the drive in September 2016, so you won’t get all the prime berry foraging (the blueberry picking were epic, and we found cranberries and others as well).

Places that stand out in my memory are Liard Hot Springs, Signpost Forest (Watson Lake, YT), Kluane National Park, Skagway, the beaver statue (Beaverlodge, AB), and of course every Tim Horton’s we drove by.

 

[BGMAC]

Also, there are tons of cool places to check out along the way. We did the drive in September 2016, so you won’t get all the prime berry foraging (the blueberry picking were epic, and we found cranberries and others as well).

Places that stand out in my memory are Liard Hot Springs, Signpost Forest (Watson Lake, YT), Kluane National Park, Skagway, the beaver statue (Beaverlodge, AB), and of course every Tim Horton’s we drove by.

Thank you. We will be checking out Glacer, and some of the others you mentioned.

 

[Rollin Ollen]

Hello all,
I’ve mentioned in other posts that our dream was taking our first major trip and the destination would be Alaska.

We’re taking 2 months for the trip with our first couple days being long driving days since we’ve taken the first part of the route many times, then we will slow down. Our plan is to cross the boarder at Carway AB unless someone might think another spot is better/easier?

We’re kind of running “Nomad” style. Meaning we’re not sure where we’re going until we get there. We do have a couple spots as a destination “Dawson City” and “Whittier Ak”. Anything in between we will just go with the flow.

Attached is our general path we plan to follow unless suggestions here or on the road changes our mind.

We’re getting pretty excited now.

Just a heads up. Highway 97 has been closed near Fort Nelson due to a Wild Fire. Lets hope it re opens sooner than later. There is an alternate route that you can take if necessary. Highway 97 through the Caribou Region of BC. It begins at Osoyoos and ends at Watson Lake. You can monitor highway conditions by checking DriveBC


Darrell

 

[Toolguy]

How did your trip go. Would love to hear about it.

 

[BGMAC]

How did your trip go. Would love to hear about it.

I have a different thread about it. It also has a slide show.

On our way to Alaska

Glad you are home safe and Mom is good. Were you gone for two months? You had several things go wrong but 10,000 miles puts it in perspective. We were gone about 6 weeks. A lot of driving. Like a kid, I wanted to see it all, but you just can’t. Most of my mother’s problems was about us being...

rvforums.com

 

[dcruz99801]

Hello all,
I’ve mentioned in other posts that our dream was taking our first major trip and the destination would be Alaska. There are/were a lot of things had to line up to do this as I have a 92 yr old mother we care for and a daughter that was in pretty bad shape (physically and financially). end of last year. So we have my brothers friend taking care of my mother and we providing heath insurance for my daughter and a bit of determined love from us we got her to the doctors and now she is on the road to recovery.

Over the last couple months I’ve been getting the RV fixed up for the trip. Changed out house batteries, tuneup/oil change on the generator and RV. Getting tires rotated and checking all systems I can think of. Bought a Jeep for flat towing instead of a dolly and set up the tow system. Tested on a short trip to Fl and all good.
We have updated passports in case of emergency and we have to fly home, we’ve ordered updated Canada insurance cards for the RV and Jeep through our insurance company.

If there is anything I should check, please let me know.

We’re taking 2 months for the trip with our first couple days being long driving days since we’ve taken the first part of the route many times, then we will slow down. Our plan is to cross the boarder at Carway AB unless someone might think another spot is better/easier?

We’re kind of running “Nomad” style. Meaning we’re not sure where we’re going until we get there. We do have a couple spots as a destination “Dawson City” and “Whittier Ak”. Anything in between we will just go with the flow.

Attached is our general path we plan to follow unless suggestions here or on the road changes our mind.

We’re getting pretty excited now.

 

[dcruz99801]

>>We have updated passports in case of emergency and we have to fly home, we’ve ordered updated Canada insurance cards for the RV and Jeep through our insurance company.

Canada insurance cards? Is there anything special/difficult about getting insurance for Canada -- time delay, paperwork maze, etc? I was just planning to add an item to my AAA policy. I've done the AlCan before but always in someone else's vehicle, never had to sweat anything except a passport.

>>We’re kind of running “Nomad” style. Meaning we’re not sure where we’re going until we get there. We do have a couple spots as a destination “Dawson City” and “Whittier Ak”. Anything in between we will just go with the flow.

Nomad style is good, but you'll find the distance between towns will set your daily runs, unless you plan to boondock it a bit. If you're going to Whittier, plan to do a boat tour of the glaciers; there's also a Marine Center in Seward. Dawson is also worth a stop if you're a fan of the Gold Rush or Robert Service. If you go that route, it's more miles and more gravel but you'll come in from the north at Chicken (because they couldn't agree on how to spell Ptarmigan). One last item: plan to be southbound in August; I've seen snow in some places before Labor Day.

I just inherited a 2015 Chevy 190P, and we'll do the AlCan in 2025. First time either of us has not been on a deadline, passing by all those "someday we'll stop here" places. This time we stop.

Attached is our general path we plan to follow unless suggestions here or on the road changes our mind.

We’re getting pretty excited now.

 

[BGMAC]

Canada insurance cards? Is there anything special/difficult about getting insurance for Canada -- time delay, paperwork maze, etc? I was just planning to add an item to my AAA policy. I've done the AlCan before but always in someone else's vehicle, never had to sweat anything except a passport.

Nomad style is good, but you'll find the distance between towns will set your daily runs, unless you plan to boondock it a bit. If you're going to Whittier, plan to do a boat tour of the glaciers; there's also a Marine Center in Seward. Dawson is also worth a stop if you're a fan of the Gold Rush or Robert Service. If you go that route, it's more miles and more gravel but you'll come in from the north at Chicken (because they couldn't agree on how to spell Ptarmigan). One last item: plan to be southbound in August; I've seen snow in some places before Labor Day.

I just inherited a 2015 Chevy 190P, and we'll do the AlCan in 2025. First time either of us has not been on a deadline, passing by all those "someday we'll stop here" places. This time we stop.

We made the trip and had a great time. I have a little slide show of some of the sites.
As far as the Canadian insurance cards, our insurance company took care of it and mailed them to us.

On our way to Alaska

Glad you are home safe and Mom is good. Were you gone for two months? You had several things go wrong but 10,000 miles puts it in perspective. We were gone about 6 weeks. A lot of driving. Like a kid, I wanted to see it all, but you just can’t. Most of my mother’s problems was about us being...

rvforums.com

 

[Oregon Camper]

Thank you,
My first pick was Coutts, but then thought about going to Glacier. Appreciate the info. I need to lookup the Going to the Sun road. Sounds interesting.

Prince of Wales Hotel is a MUST see if you go to the Park.