Just beginning to do homework

Be prepared: 4 incidents that I was aware of. Met a couple in Dawson Lake that was their 19th day there. Drove over a railroad (I didn't ask how fast) blew the tires (no big deal) and bent the 5er hitch (big deal). One in Watson Lake wanted to leave a roadside decoration - one trailer axle. A tour person spend 2 weeks in Fairbands and of course the tour group waited. :SA MH in Haines could not get his Cummins fixed, he could drive somewhat - He decided to take the ferry to Vancouver Island - 800 ferry miles is $$$$, but what a fantastic diversion.

Google maps said 67 hours from Chicago and 2 weeks felt rushed for us. Maybe you can park this year in Boise or Seattle fully loaded and winterized- or a friend somewhere can check it every so often for you. Then do that much closer to being there next year. We parked ours in Albuquerque over Thanksgiving picked it up the next summer one year for 2 months in the southwest.

Another option is to just park it at Anchorage because fall flights are cheaper and I've met a family that's done that annually and just fly up to go salmon fishing for week.

Get a copy of the Milepost and spend some time reading it. We've flown out there 4 times. The first time we used a travel agency to help us. The other three I did on my own. Tours can be awesome as you don't have to worry about anything-you just go. They can also be miserable if it's not what you expected plus you are stuck. "Freestyling" can be awesome as well and the same risks are still there BUT you have a lot more flexibility. I think the first question you need to ask yourself is are you up to driving that far. The second question is can you handle 10 hours in an airplane.

Isn’t camping (RVing) an adventure, where you do what you want and when?
Before I retired my wife and I tried doing either a “long” cruise or spend 5 weeks in Maui. We made a budget and mostly stuck to it, we do the same for “long” camping trip adventures.
For camping trips we budget $150 per day for fuel, and $50 per day for food drink etc... and $50 per day for campsite. Now when we dry camp in the bush or park our butts someplace for a few days or decide to go out for a nice lunch / dinner and or take a tour the amounts I wrote down change a bit, but not much. Like when your in a campsite for 4 days, your not spending $150 per day on fuel, but you may go on a tour or go out for dinner, or like we do just carve a hunk or wood and read a book sometimes, then your not spending nothing but maybe for a campsite.
So we budget $250 everyday, plus ‘approximate” the number of days that we will be gone from home then there is THAT number $$$$ that we see before we even leave the driveway, so we aren’t surprised when the credit card bill comes in.
My wife keeps a travel log ( she’s a book keeper) and when we first started the big long camping trips our daily budget was $175.00, times have changed in 23 years.
I worked a lot of multi million dollar Maintenance Shutdowns where I used to work. Every contractor that put in a bid on a particular job always added ‘fluff” to the dollar figure, not that we didn’t cut that fluff out, but they tried... grin...
Well I figured that that works well when your spending your own money, add more dollars to the budget, that way you don’t have a jammer when you total the costs up at the end of your trip.
One last comment on price of a trip.
All those years that we traveled to Maui or on a long cruise, there was a couple guys at work never went anywhere, they said they were saving for retirement. Well I have run into both of them from time to time since we all retired. I asked both of them, have you guys done any traveling.... they both said... “do you know how much a trip to xxxx costs?” So I travel the world ( before COVID) they sit at home counting their money and drinking coffee.
I would never do a guided RV tour, heck we only did the tours that the cruise ship offers, when we can’t find a tour on our own when we hit ports.
Have fun on your adventure
Soup.

Dick_B wrote:
We flew to Alaska and took a 10 day boat/train tour which was wonderful. Able to see much with no strain. A possibility for you?

We did exactly the same thing, and I'm glad we did. Very stress-free, and we saw everything we would have if we had planned our own itinerary and taken the tremendous extra time (and plenty of extra $$).

We observed a tour which has advantages. CGs are arranged, no lines or check in the tour quide escorts you to your site. Some major sightseeing is arranged including transportation. Some group meals. You're briefed on sights to the next CG, leave a CG and arrive at the next when you want. ie You don't drive nose to tail hence no congestions for fuel etc on route. Some days on your own.

I though they were very expensive, however looking at post trip cost it was much higher that anticipated. Pros and cons of course but it's a option to consider. Our trip started as a bucket list item and turned into an amazing adventure far exceeding any other trip.

Being an almost (except for 10 years in Ewe-stun) lifelong Alaskan, I'd second what MorSnow said: doing the trip on your own opens up lots of possibilities that simply aren't there with a caravan. Perhaps a silly example but in SC Alaska, halibut fishing is typically closed to charter fishing on Tuesdays / Wednesdays (although only Wed this year). What if your group is in Seward on Wednesday and you want to go halibut fishing? No-go.

Can't really comment on the travel time: I think 2 weeks is long enough to drive to Alaska from Philly but probably not long enough to enjoy the sights in the Rocky Mountain states, BC, YT or other places along the way. While the Rocky Mountain states will "always" be there, there's some spectacular spots in Canada that should not be shortchanged.

Caravan: Not our cup of tea. Don't mind the people to hang out with but we can find people to hang out with on our own. Keep in mind, if you have a major problem, they will likely contact a local shop but they aren't going to stop the group to wait for you.

As others have said, 2 weeks is way short. It's about 4300miles Philly to Anchorage...that's 310miles per day every day or about 6hr of driving per day. Even 3 weeks is hitting it pretty hard. A month would allow you to see some sights along the way and not feel like you are just driving and driving...

We are tentatively planning on the same trip from Michigan next year and we are looking at around 2 months (not counting a side trip on the Demster Hwy) to get to Alaska but we are planning to see the sights along the way (Yellowstone, Glacier, Banff//Jasper among other stops).

If we run out of time, we will look for a place to store the rig and fly out to return in 2023 and finish.

Having lived in Alaska for 26 years, I can only recommend doing it on your own. Those tours are on a tight schedule and limit your visit tremendously. Choose your own locations and spend as much or little time at each. There is also a ton a free camping spots that are incredible compared to overcrowded RV parks (Denali Highway is the big one). Those tour groups always seem to waiting in lines when I saw them, lines at the RV parks waiting for spot assignments, lines at every fuel stop, lines at pullouts, etc. Like others have said BC and the Yukon are worth spending time in also, they are incredible as are the people.

I would second the comment about the amount of time to get to Alaska from the east coast. I think you will find that you will spend more time in Canada than you plan. From the west coast, I generally take a solid 3 weeks traveling through BC and the Yukon on the way up and about the same returning if I include the Cassiar and Alberta.