Alaska - 2023
Sorry for the long post! I did a search on this forum and others prior to asking... My wife and I are recently retired and are planning on making the trip to Alaska next summer. We have a multitu...
Forum Discussion
We are on the start of a very similar trip right now (starting from Michigan) and we've done multiple several month cross country trips in prior years.
If you stick with vacation mode and do 6 hour days, it's certainly possible with 4 months. We would find it tiring.
We have it roughed out at around 11,000 miles of towing from Michigan. Let's call it 12,000 miles from NY and 120 days. That means you have to average around 100miles per day (every day). 6hrs for us, we would be looking at around 300miles (we figure an average of about 50mph for planning).
- Rochester NY to Yellowstone is around 2000 miles. Call it 7 travel days (@ 300miles per day)...give yourself 2 weeks. (Do Badlands, Rushmore on off days)
- 1 week Yellowstone (21 days total)
- 1 week to Banff including a stop in Glacier (28 days total)
- 1 week Banff & Jasper (35 days total)
- Jasper to Tok is around 1600 miles. Call it 6 travel days and give yourself 12 days (47 days total)
- 30 days to wander about in Alaska (77 days total)
- Tok to Rochester is around 3900 miles. Call it 13 travel days or 26 days total (103 days total)
That leaves you 17 days to cover bad weather, break downs or unexpected things you want to stop and see.
So yes, it's doable and you can still see things along the way.
Our plan:
- Depart late July 2022. Get to Cascade Mt, late Sept.
- Store RV over the winter at a friends property (you could always use a commercial storage lot).
- Spring 2023, start working our way north in May, letting weather dictate how fast we get north (we are comfortable in weather down in the teens for a few days and if we have to wait a week for things to warm up we aren't bothered).
- Reach Alaska mid June
- Depart Alaska start of August.
- Back in Michigan early September.
We usually shoot for 100-200miles per travel day and only travel 2-3 days per week.
So if you are retired, is there a reason you are limited to 4 months?
If you stick with vacation mode and do 6 hour days, it's certainly possible with 4 months. We would find it tiring.
We have it roughed out at around 11,000 miles of towing from Michigan. Let's call it 12,000 miles from NY and 120 days. That means you have to average around 100miles per day (every day). 6hrs for us, we would be looking at around 300miles (we figure an average of about 50mph for planning).
- Rochester NY to Yellowstone is around 2000 miles. Call it 7 travel days (@ 300miles per day)...give yourself 2 weeks. (Do Badlands, Rushmore on off days)
- 1 week Yellowstone (21 days total)
- 1 week to Banff including a stop in Glacier (28 days total)
- 1 week Banff & Jasper (35 days total)
- Jasper to Tok is around 1600 miles. Call it 6 travel days and give yourself 12 days (47 days total)
- 30 days to wander about in Alaska (77 days total)
- Tok to Rochester is around 3900 miles. Call it 13 travel days or 26 days total (103 days total)
That leaves you 17 days to cover bad weather, break downs or unexpected things you want to stop and see.
So yes, it's doable and you can still see things along the way.
Our plan:
- Depart late July 2022. Get to Cascade Mt, late Sept.
- Store RV over the winter at a friends property (you could always use a commercial storage lot).
- Spring 2023, start working our way north in May, letting weather dictate how fast we get north (we are comfortable in weather down in the teens for a few days and if we have to wait a week for things to warm up we aren't bothered).
- Reach Alaska mid June
- Depart Alaska start of August.
- Back in Michigan early September.
We usually shoot for 100-200miles per travel day and only travel 2-3 days per week.
So if you are retired, is there a reason you are limited to 4 months?
