First trip--what would you do different?

A re-occurring comment, from most of the more experienced northern travelers, is to stay flexible. Everyone needs to decide why they want to go to the north country? It is a long expensive adventure, for most of us. Decide before you go, why? Do you mainly want to fish, take scenery photos, wildlife photos, etc, learn more about the history of the north, such as the gold rush era, etc

But stay flexible on your trip, and it is your trip, for you and your companions, no one else's. Think about fall back plans. A couple of summers back, one of the forum members took the trip with one and only one reason, that to take scenic outdoor photos. However he had picked a rainy summer to go, not the best for photography outdoors. His comments were to the effect that the rain had ruined his trip. It made me feel sad for him as he didn't have the flexibility or a fall back plan in case of bad weather.

To me, he could have hopped a flight to Barrow, and photoed many of the local residents in the local tourist shows available. Or flown out to Dillingham, and take a few thousand shots of the Bristol Bay fishing fleet. Alaska is so huge, if the weather, smoke from the forest fires, volcanoes, etc are not to your liking, go elsewhere. If you are in one of the areas where flight seeing is available, stop in and talk to the people running the place. They may be able to take you to a place that will be the high light of your trip.

After the first trip, most visitors have a better idea about what they want to see and do in northern Canada and Alaska. Others seem to make the same trip, numerous times, which appears to work for them. In reading comments here on the forum, we all at times have to ask ourselves, if the poster is qualified to have such an opinion. Not always easy to decide

But again, it is your trip, so make sure it fits your needs, not someone else's unless you are a copy of that person. Some people can take as long as they wish for their trip, and others can't as they have something/someone to get back to at some given time. But most of us, have some time restraints on how long we can stay gone, be it a job, family, schools, medical care, volunteer services we offer when home and the list goes on.

I have a cousin in Seattle, that gets to Alaska about 125 to 150 times a year, but as an Alaska Airlines captain, he only see the state from 35,000 ft or when landing or taking off from one of the towns serviced by AA. But he would not be my go to person about RV camping in Tok. LOL Great pilot, high time Wild Weasel driver and Wart Hog pilot for the US military.

Trip in 2005, 2009, and 2013. Didn't do anything different on the 2nd trip. A little different on the 3rd trip because our grandson spent 17 days travelling with us, so we had to adjust our schedule.

The only things we carry with us in the way of parts are the same thing we carry in the lower 48: a spare for the motorhome, a spare for the toad, an extra fresh water pump, an air compressor, and a patch kit. Have used all of them at one time or the other.

If you would like, you can review my travel log listed in my signature.

Great advice from all the previous replies. I agree with everyone who said to be flexible. If we had been on a strict schedule we would have missed so much.

We made the trip from Georgia in 2013. We left Georgia in mid May and got back home September 1. We would have left earlier but we were waiting for a grand baby to be born!

There are two main things I would do different:

1. Spend less time getting to Alaska and more time in Alaska.

2. Spend more nights in State and Provincial Parks and less time in commercial campgrounds. We chose not to boondock.

The only reservations we had in Alaska were at Teklanika in Denali National Park. Other than that we played it by ear and made many decisions on the spur of the moment as to which way to go next. As others have said, take your time, drive slow, and be prepared to stop to take in the beauty all around you.

Our favorite place was Haines! Don't miss it! And don't be afraid to drive the Top of the World Highway!

You can see our 2013 Alaska trip campground list and posts about the trip on my blog.

Great stories joe ,you tell good tales.

Thanks eagle. This upcoming summer should be a good one for heading north. When I checked today, the Canadian dollar was costing $.788usd to buy it and some of the forecast have it dropping even lower this summer. It will be an expensive summer for Canadian visitors to th US, but that is why they make the big bucks up north. LOL The Canadian economy has become very dependent on the world price for crude oil. With the oil price down, so is the value of the Canadian dollar. When some people talk about the US dependence on foreign oil, they forget that our number 1 supplier, is our northern neighbor, Canada. Our number 2 supplier of petroleum products is our southern neighbor, Mexico. Doesn't sound so bad when I think about that. LOL

Clearify "Solo" for me. I am headed out of NH late May with no time frame,no reservation,no nothing. I am alone and will have only my dog..:)

beeman1 wrote:
Clearify "Solo" for me. I am headed out of NH late May with no time frame,no reservation,no nothing. I am alone and will have only my dog..:)

Solo means the same for me, only starting from Texas and without a dog. Enjoy your trip!