2014 Alaska Trip Lessons/Info
We are back in the lower 48 after a summer trip to Alaska. We left Indiana just before Memorial Day and we were back across the border right before Labor Day. We traveled with a 37 foot 5th wheel an...
Forum Discussion
We left Fort Worth on 24 April and will get back into the lower 48 around 15 Sep. This is our second summer in Alaska. We drove a Class A and pulled a Ranger pickup.
Yes, fuel is expensive. We paid just under $7.00 a gallon for our 1 fill up each direction in the Yukon! Suggest staying at the Pioneer RV Park in Whitehorse when they give customers a $.03 discount per liter on fuel.
Yes, there are some really bad roads and we found them to be much worse in September than they were in May. In the early spring they have not started the summer construction and you only have to be alert for frost heaves. In addition to the calcium carbonate the binder tar they use in AK for the patches is just plain nasty. It really sticks to everything and we found diesel fuel was about the only thing that would remove it. But what the heck, I have all winter to get everything cleaned up, tightened up, and back in shape for the next trip.
Yes, the wildlife viewing in the spring is unbelievable, especially from Toad River to Watson Lake. This is where the HUGE buffalo herd roams and where there's buffalo there will be plenty of predators. We also saw a number of big horn, caribou, and black bear on the Icefields Parkway.
If you want to see wildlife make a reservation for 4 or 5 days at Teklanika in Denali and buy a shuttle bus pass. One day we saw 24 grizzly bears, 2 moose, 14 Dall sheep, and to many caribou to count. No wolves were spotted this year.
If you really want to see HUGE grizzly go to Katmai and spend a couple days at Brooks Camp. Now this is an EXPENSIVE experience but the is no where else in the world you can see 11 bears all feeding at the same waterfall! Want to see a bear catch a salmon in midair as it jumps the falls like you see on TV. Go to Brooks Camp, it happens numerous times every day in August!
If you don't want to stay in cramped RV parks along the ALCAN there are more than enough roadside rest areas, gravel pits, and scenic viewpoints identified in The Milepost where you can stay for free with probably no neighbors. In my opinion security is not a problem in any of these areas. We have stayed in many of them and never felt like we had a problem of any kind. Once you get to AK there are unused gravel pits along all of the major highways that are accessible for big RVs.
You could just take a cruise up the inside passage and see many of Alaska's cities and towns. Plus you will see a number of ocean animals. We know we did that in 2011. We also learned on that trip that there had to be more to AK than jewelry stores, T-shirt shops, and fudge shops. (Which is about all you are going to see during your 4-6 hours in port!) You will never see anything as breath-taking as the Salmon Glacier out of Hyder, AK (Google it and look at some pictures!) I could write a tome about the Lu-Lu Belle and Stan Stephens tours out of Valdez, or the 26 glacier cruise out of Whittier, or any of the wildlife cruises out of Seward, or the river boat cruise out of Fairbanks, or the combat fishing on the Kenai in Soldotna, or the Silver run on the Little Sue. Not to mention the rainbow and grayling fishing from Blue Berry Lake in the Thompson Pass.
This is the end of our 2nd summer in AK and if our health holds out there will be future trips. It's the last frontier!!!
Yes, fuel is expensive. We paid just under $7.00 a gallon for our 1 fill up each direction in the Yukon! Suggest staying at the Pioneer RV Park in Whitehorse when they give customers a $.03 discount per liter on fuel.
Yes, there are some really bad roads and we found them to be much worse in September than they were in May. In the early spring they have not started the summer construction and you only have to be alert for frost heaves. In addition to the calcium carbonate the binder tar they use in AK for the patches is just plain nasty. It really sticks to everything and we found diesel fuel was about the only thing that would remove it. But what the heck, I have all winter to get everything cleaned up, tightened up, and back in shape for the next trip.
Yes, the wildlife viewing in the spring is unbelievable, especially from Toad River to Watson Lake. This is where the HUGE buffalo herd roams and where there's buffalo there will be plenty of predators. We also saw a number of big horn, caribou, and black bear on the Icefields Parkway.
If you want to see wildlife make a reservation for 4 or 5 days at Teklanika in Denali and buy a shuttle bus pass. One day we saw 24 grizzly bears, 2 moose, 14 Dall sheep, and to many caribou to count. No wolves were spotted this year.
If you really want to see HUGE grizzly go to Katmai and spend a couple days at Brooks Camp. Now this is an EXPENSIVE experience but the is no where else in the world you can see 11 bears all feeding at the same waterfall! Want to see a bear catch a salmon in midair as it jumps the falls like you see on TV. Go to Brooks Camp, it happens numerous times every day in August!
If you don't want to stay in cramped RV parks along the ALCAN there are more than enough roadside rest areas, gravel pits, and scenic viewpoints identified in The Milepost where you can stay for free with probably no neighbors. In my opinion security is not a problem in any of these areas. We have stayed in many of them and never felt like we had a problem of any kind. Once you get to AK there are unused gravel pits along all of the major highways that are accessible for big RVs.
You could just take a cruise up the inside passage and see many of Alaska's cities and towns. Plus you will see a number of ocean animals. We know we did that in 2011. We also learned on that trip that there had to be more to AK than jewelry stores, T-shirt shops, and fudge shops. (Which is about all you are going to see during your 4-6 hours in port!) You will never see anything as breath-taking as the Salmon Glacier out of Hyder, AK (Google it and look at some pictures!) I could write a tome about the Lu-Lu Belle and Stan Stephens tours out of Valdez, or the 26 glacier cruise out of Whittier, or any of the wildlife cruises out of Seward, or the river boat cruise out of Fairbanks, or the combat fishing on the Kenai in Soldotna, or the Silver run on the Little Sue. Not to mention the rainbow and grayling fishing from Blue Berry Lake in the Thompson Pass.
This is the end of our 2nd summer in AK and if our health holds out there will be future trips. It's the last frontier!!!
