Bucket List Trip in Early Planning Stages

Like you, we thought a TC would be nice for the Alaska trip. After looking at a few my wife decided she did not want to crawl up into the bed like one has to. We pulled our 5er and had zero issues. It did get dirty but it cleaned up good after the trip. We saw lots of truck campers while in Alaska but not on the road to and from. FYI, the trip up and back was the most enjoyable part of the vacation

I think that a truck camper would work well. The main road is one big loop so traveling and sightseeing along the way might work better than having a base camp - no need for a second vehicle. Side trips to places like Dawson in the Yukon and Salmon Glacier in British Columbia (which shouldn't be missed) are often on pretty rough dirt roads. You'll also find it easier to boondock in a truck camper.

But like you've noticed people travel to Alaska with all types of RVs. They all work fine. Since you have two years to go you could get a truck camper now and try it out for awhile. If you don't like it, sell it and use your 5th wheel.

Like you we have been going through the same thoughts and mental drills. We have not made the trip yet but will have to soon. Our son and DIL are moving to Anchorage this week and we thought we'd start working through our plans to visit.

We've been up to BC and AB visiting Lake Louise and Banff about 10 years ago and definitely want to go back. Having been there and seen that I (not the wife) am luke warm at best about doing the rest of the trip up to Anchorage on the Alaska Hiway. Frankly Alaska has never made my bucket list. But now with the kids there it will become a regular must do- probably once a year until we can no longer travel for age and health reasons.

We've looked at the travel from all view points. The only reason I will consider doing the drive at least once is because I want to see Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper again--- and since I'd be about half way there I'd take a deep breath and make the rest of the journey to Anchorage. That first part of the trip up to western Canada would really be fun. For some reason I just can't get to feeling good about the next half of the trip from Jasper to Anchorage.

My preference would really be to take the ferry up out of Bellingham,WA- but the cost is substantial and 4.5 days on the ferry would be really tough on our 2 canine kids.

We have a fiver, but because we were worried about the characteristics of the drive and expense of towing that far we thought it would be best if we did the Alaska Highway in a truck camper next year.So we added a Lance TC to the fleet. Our finding thus far with both units is that we like the TC to move at a steady regular pace with ease of set up,take down and at hi-way speeds. Get about 50% better mileage also. But the TC is no where near as comfortable living as the fiver. But we do sleep well in it and its tolerable and no complaints as it gets the job done. We like the fiver for going somewhere at a slow pace, setting up for at least 5 days, then taking down and moving on. Its a much slower exercise with the fiver, so we'd need a whole lot of time to use it.

If we go up to AK this coming year we will probably only drive it once-definitely in the TC- then move to the airways to get there and back.


I see all the description, excitement and thoughts of adventure here and elsewhere about the drive up to AK, but I just can not for some reason get excited about it once past Jasper- and I can't put my finger on why. I hope if we go ahead and do the full drive my mindset will be changed and that its a life long happy memory and experience.

Just trying to work it through in my mind.

If I can manage to get my A_Fib under control, I'd like to go back next year. My DW keeps on telling me how bad my health is and I keep ignoring her, Only 76 years of experience. JMHO

We retired in 2010 and Alaska was also on our bucket list. We drove our 35-foot 5'er to AK and back to Southern CA with no issues. The roads were all paved. We took it slow and easy on some of the roads. After all, time isn't really an issue when you are retired. We were gone 100 days. Great adventure. Can't wait to go back.

Lots of 5'vers appear every summer in Alaska.

Keep the speed down on most of the Alcan and many parts of AK and you'll be fine.

Last summer, we saw more pickup campers in Canada than in Alaska . . . and there are a lot in Alaska. Most of them were "Adventurer", a brand I was not familiar with before driving through BC and the Yukon. There were so many of them, I thought Adventurer must be a Canadian manufacturer. But it turns out to be located in Yakima, WA--close to Canada, but not Canadian. Whatever their origin, pickup campers seem to be the RV of choice for western Canadians. Second would be Class C motorhomes, then trailers of all sorts.

Instead of a pickup camper, we bought a 21-foot travel trailer specifically for the Alaska trip. Part of the reason for selecting that size was having a full-size, walk-around, queen-size bed, a full kitchen with a gas oven, and a dry bath. And part was having it short enough to fit into any campground that we wanted to stay in. If we stayed somewhere only one night (dry camping at a casino or truck stop or boondocking off a highway), we often didn't even bother to unhook.

We seldom stayed in one place longer than two to three days, but still needed nearly 3 months for the trip. If you are on the road for that long, make sure you are going to be comfortable in whatever you are camping in or being together 24-7 may begin to wear on both of you. Having a comfortable, separate bedroom may make taking the 5er worth any extra cost, effort, and wear-and-tear!

In 2010 we were planning our first trip to AK. I was researching motels, lodges, etc and was shocked at the high cost. That was when a friend who had lived in AK and driven various RVs for dealers, told me to buy a small travel trailer and if I didn't like it to sell it in AK. That is what we did. We bought a 16 foot Scamp and quickly found that although we liked it, we wanted something larger. So, at the end of our time in AK we sold that Scamp for just about what we had paid for it and took the ferry from Haines to Prince Rupert and then on to Backus, MS where we purchased a 19 foot 5th wheel Scamp. We are now back in AK for our 3rd trip and although I would prefer something larger, you can't beat the gas mileage and the fact that we can get in some rather small areas.

we live in a 5th wheel but bought a used TC to take up to Alaska. We really just didn't want to tow anything. It wasn't just about road conditions, there are other factors.
we always have everything with us with the TC, we don't have to drop off the trailer someplace and then go exploring,
but the biggest perk has been that we have gone down numerous roads that we wouldn't have considered if we had brought the 5th wheel. We spent 3 days exploring McCarthy Rd in Wrangell- St. Elias NP. We just pulled off the road to sleep. we would have missed that, and several other great spots if we had brought the fiver.

Sue

Just a couple of comments, if that is possible for me. Adventurer RVs were originally a Canadian company that changed ownership and was moved to Washington, maybe 5 years ago.

Turbo Dude, if you are 76 years of age, your health, like mine, is not going to significantly improve with increasing age. Short of having something done like a heart ablation process, following an unsuccessful cardioversion, to correct the under lying problem, you might as well get on with your life, as best one can. For older people, I am 72, to wait for their health to improve before doing something on their bucket list, that they are capable of doing, isn't a very good bet, IMHO.

The very few of those that don't enjoy the drive to northern Canada and Alaska, appear to be those that really don't have any planned reason for wanting to do the drive. Just to get to Alaska, flying is much quicker and probably cheaper to do than driving. As mentioned, the trip up and back is just as spectacular as getting there. But I feel a person(s) need to have some need that the drive up and back will take care of for them. Some folks really don't seem to think the entire trip through very completely. If all a person is going for is a specific reason, such as to take a photo of Mount McKinley, and it is a rainy or smokey summer, then their trip is not going to be a very positive experience for them.

While I love the drive, my wife, whom I met and married in Alaska, both our daughters were born in Fairbanks, she, gets tired of the drive so will on occasion, fly one leg of the trip, either back from Anchorage or meet me in Anchorage. It works for us and we have been married just over 40 years. Of course I can cook and have done all the cooking since we have been married and know how to run a washing machine. So I am one of those rare men that can travel by themselves and not starve or be knee deep in dirty clothes. LOL

Our last 4 trips have been by truck camper but the most trips I have done are in a mid sized Class C bunk model. (roughly 25 ft) but have done the trip in a 5th wheel and a Class A. So it just depends on what I own at the time we are going. The vehicle I am driving has had little impact, positive or negatively, on the pleasure received from the trip. Now that we have both a TC and a 5th wheel, with just the two of us, it works well to use the TC. However we have discussed taking the 5th wheel next time, probably next summer.
It is the trip of a life time, but one a person can take over and over again, as many of the forum members have done over the years.