In my reading, I see several folks have made several RV trips to Alaska.You will have seen the scenery, done the tourist stuff, and satisfied your curiosity with the prior visit.If you eliminate visits to relatives, returning to home state, and stocking the fish freezer as reasons for the return trip, what motivates your return visit?

There is so many things that change from trip to trip.Animals and countryside!No family in Alaska or along the way. Family at times ruins a good trip.We eat enough fish so we don't have to bring any home.

Never been to Alaska, but I've made return trips to other destinations. Reason being that the first time everything was new- second trip allows one to concentrate on areas of interest already "learned".

When I completed my first road trip to Alaska (from Michigan), many folks back home asked if I would do it again... initially my response was no - the negatives of the trip fresh in my mind, the expensive of it fresh on my balance sheet, I was happy I went but not so blown away that I was eager to head back right away.Now that my trip is six months behind me, the rose colored glasses of nostalgia have me thinking of another trip.I now know more what I liked and what I want to avoid. For example, the Cassair highway was some really rough road, and as I drove North on it, I was telling myself I'm surely not going to make my return trip on this awful road. So on my return I drove south-east on the Alcan to Dawson Creek and then from there to Grand Cache. The stretch of road between Dawson Creek and Grand Cache was in good shape, but oh so BORING. Nothing to see but trees and the clear cuts belonging to the earth-rape that is hydraulic fracking. I want to give Alaska another chance, and maybe I'll take an airplane and rent an RV instead of driving the one I own, so I can have more time. I left Alaska somewhat dismayed, my visit ruined by wildfire and rain with thick ground hugging clouds. When I go back, it's hard to say how I'll do it. I hate to rely on other peoples schedules and equipment, so flying and renting are real turn offs to me. On the other hand, it takes about 10 days to get from home to the Yukon / Northern BC where things start getting interesting, so that means if I drive, twenty days are gone before the trip really starts.As far as having seen the scenery, yes I saw some, but it's good enough it's worth seeing again and again. I had visited in the spring, before summer turned everything green, before the masses arrived, when snow still covered the mountains and many mountain roads were closed. As big as Denali and the range it's part of are, it was all buried in thick clouds for days. Friends I had met while traveling reported waiting a week in DNP, and the last few days of their visit, the skies parted and they were treated to a sight of the mountain from its base to its peaks. Much of the Kenai was blanketed in noxious smoke from a wildfire that had started just as I arrived, and wasn't brought under control until my time in that area had run out.

I go a lot of places three (or more) times. The first time you're sort of lost and feeling your way around - you certainly didn't see or do everything. The second time you're getting the feel of things. The third time you're pretty comfortable with it all, can see what you want to go back to, and just feel relaxed and enjoy things.Bill

I doubt if one can take in Alaska in one trip unless it is for an entire Summer. If one did not conform to my rule about staying in one place for at least three nights it may mean that the first trip just skimmed the surface.The rebuttal is that it is a very very long way from Chicago and it's got to be hard on an RV.

A Return Trip to Alaska Motivation | Good Sam Community

traveylin
Explorer
Nov 16, 2014
Each trip is totally different. My next may be with a light motorcycle using the public ferry system
Scottiemom
Nomad
Nov 16, 2014
Good perspective Sue. Before we went, I read everything I could about Alaska and the trip up there through the Yukon, etc. We were never disappointed in what we saw or experienced. "Awed" by the vast wilderness, which is still a refreshing memory as we sit here in Houston, Texas! I found it to be spiritual, much like the desert southwest that goes on for miles and miles. It is a different life up there, that's for sure, in many areas; but in the big cities it is much the same as down here. We loved the peace and tranquility.

Dale
Chiefelectusn
Explorer
Nov 16, 2014
Thank you Sue! Beautiful as always.
But I am comfortable in Florida till spring??
sue_t
Explorer
Nov 16, 2014
Nah, it wasn't a rant. Just lots of experience having been born & raised here, and now living here again because we love it.

But many don't like it, maybe preferring their amenities.

Some recent November sights

Day's drive to Kluane Lake http://yukonsights.ca/20141109_Kluane.html

Dogwalk this afternoon http://yukonsights.ca/20141115_Ibex.html
bob_nestor
Explorer III
Nov 16, 2014
Robert W. Service, the poet laureate of the Yukon, said it best in his poem "The Spell of the Yukon". My Dad used to quote from it when I was growing up in Alaska, and the lines that always stuck with me:

The grayling aleap in the river,
The bighorn asleep on the hill.

The winter! the brightness that blinds you,
The white land locked tight as a drum,

There’s a land where the mountains are nameless,
And the rivers all run God knows where;

There’s a land—?oh, it beckons and beckons,
And I want to go back—?and I will.
Trackrig
Explorer II
Nov 16, 2014
Ernest wrote:
sue.t wrote:
There are people who love the north and want to return often.

There are likely just as many who hated every moment of their trip, not finding any peace or enjoyment in the journey. These are usually the folks who complain about the misery: the rough highway, the high fuel prices, the poor facilities, lack of full services at campgrounds, the road hogs, and so forth.

Now that we live here, we do the occasional road trip, but enjoy escaping into the depths of the bush now. We don't need or want hook-ups - would rather be in the grand & vast outdoors hiking a dall sheep trail.

Every traveller has their reason for making the trip. If one of you doesn't want to make the trip, well, uhm, maybe this isn't the RV journey to take.

Interesting rant.

I don't think I'd call Sue's posting a "rant". It's very common knowledge for people that have lived in Alaska for a long period of time. (I've been here 50+ years.) It's often interesting to watch new people move up here. They usually either really love the place and want to stay a long time, or they can't stand it and can't wait to move out. Whereas stateside, it seems that a lot of people just live where they live and neither really like or dis-like it.

This especially gets interesting with couples when one can't stand it and wants to leave vs. the other one who loves the place and wants to stay. There's been more than one couple split up over it.

Bill
Ernest
Explorer
Nov 16, 2014
sue.t wrote:
There are people who love the north and want to return often.

There are likely just as many who hated every moment of their trip, not finding any peace or enjoyment in the journey. These are usually the folks who complain about the misery: the rough highway, the high fuel prices, the poor facilities, lack of full services at campgrounds, the road hogs, and so forth.

Now that we live here, we do the occasional road trip, but enjoy escaping into the depths of the bush now. We don't need or want hook-ups - would rather be in the grand & vast outdoors hiking a dall sheep trail.

Every traveller has their reason for making the trip. If one of you doesn't want to make the trip, well, uhm, maybe this isn't the RV journey to take.

Interesting rant.
Chiefelectusn
Explorer
Nov 15, 2014
I find so much enjoyment reading comments from Joe B. And Sue T. Plus others who have spent much time in the great northern areas of USA and Canada. Thank You aAll.
I have wanted to go to Alaska/Yukon since childhood with Sgt. Preston RCMP, North to Alaska and others.
Flying into Alaska enroute to Vietnam several times just wet my appetite.
All the pictures and stories in the various blogs have the motor running.
We will leave around May 1 and get back when we get back.
Again my thanks to all, see you on the road as Charles Kuralt said!
sue_t
Explorer
Nov 15, 2014
There are people who love the north and want to return often.

There are likely just as many who hated every moment of their trip, not finding any peace or enjoyment in the journey. These are usually the folks who complain about the misery: the rough highway, the high fuel prices, the poor facilities, lack of full services at campgrounds, the road hogs, and so forth.

Now that we live here, we do the occasional road trip, but enjoy escaping into the depths of the bush now. We don't need or want hook-ups - would rather be in the grand & vast outdoors hiking a dall sheep trail.

Every traveller has their reason for making the trip. If one of you doesn't want to make the trip, well, uhm, maybe this isn't the RV journey to take.
enblethen
Nomad
Nov 15, 2014
We are planning on heading north early May. We plan on being on the road for close to three months on this trip north. We missed seeing places for one reason or another but will try to hit more this trip.