Vancouver, BC to Alaska info needed

Mootpoint wrote:
We did the trip and took 2 months. I would take 3 months next time. Even at 2 months it felt like all we did was drive.

And that is why we finally moved here. Got tired of the drive to get here!

joe b. wrote:
Go for it. I have often said I would fly to Alaska just to spend a weekend, if I could afford it. While two weeks isn't the optimum amount, you can have a great vacation in that time frame. Not go to be able to stop and spend any large amounts of time anywhere, but you can get a good taste of the north country for planning your next trip.

If your age and health allow you to put in some long days, it is very doable IMHO. Get up in the morning and be on the road by 7 AM or earlier. Some folks will tell you they only drive about 200 miles a day or less. The same people usually will admit to only driving from about 10 AM or later till mid afternoon. No wonder they only make 200 miles a day. :) if you have the time and that schedule works, then great, but everyone doesn't always have lots of time for the trip
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I agree! On most of my trips, I'd like more time but since I only have so many days per year to take (not retired just yet!), I take what I have. I would have missed many great trips over the years had I waited to have "enough time" :)

Sue, I have always heard, "you can't go home again" and it took me a long time to understand what that old adage meant. Many people try to go home for many reasons, to be close to family that remains there, friends in that area or just trying to reclaim their youth and a less stressful time of their life.

In Alaska, the most popular vacation stop for many, is Hawaii. We made dozens of trips there in the 25+ years we lived in Alaska. To fly down to Anchorage from Fairbanks, where it might be -40°F or colder, get on a kerosene queen headed for the Islands and 80°F was great. Many of our friends and acquaintances, upon retirement in Alaska, decided to move to Hawaii. Don't believe any made it for over 2 years, before they moved again, generally to the islands off the coast of Washington, such as Friday Harbor or the coast in the Seattle area.

Hawaii just wasn't the same living there, as when vacationing to them. One friend described Hawaii, as just boring after about 6 months, everyday was about the same temperature, they had done all the tourists stuff multiple times, the islands are too small to really take a long drive, etc.

My wife Pat and I thought about Hawaii when we decided to retire in Alaska so one year we spent just over a month there in a condo, rented a car, etc. Our daughters loved it as we were on the beach, they were elementary school ages at the time. But my wife and I soon found it very different, than when we would vacation there a couple of times a year for a week or two. So realized it wasn't for us, so upon retiring, we moved to western Colorado, so our daughters could have growing up experiences, much more like we had as children.

Many of the retirement books I read, prior to finally retiring, advised not to move to a place where you liked to play, for living there is so different. I think I missed the part, where they probably talked about, never moving from western Colorado to Florida. (in my top 10 list of the dumbest things I have ever done)

For me and I suspect most of us, the trip to our destination is as pleasurable as getting to the destination. I can see how your (sue's) running from Vancouver Island to the Yukon on trips could get tiring. You wanted to be in the Yukon, not on the way. I have to watch it or I will feel the same way as I head to Alaska. Alaska is where I want to be, not watching grass grow in some camping spot along the way. Some people have told me I need to take a month or more to get to Alaska, instead of the 10 driving days I often do. My comments usually are that they can take 30 days if they wish but I will do the trip in 10 driving days, giving me an extra 20 days to spend in northern Canada and Alaska. I will be fishing a salmon stream or hiking a wilderness trail in Alaska, while they are still plodding along on some highway is North America, headed north.

Sure would be boring if we were all the same and like the same ways of doing things. :)

Joe, we tired of the annual drive from our house on Vancouver Island to the land that we knew really was our home again and again.

Instead, we finally came home to stay. How lucky we are that everything lined up perfectly enabling us to make the move permanent.

Home is where the heart is. Indeed, we're content living in Yukon in an old cabin beside a creek in the bush.

Now we're into the magical winter season. Again, we see the pawprints of the numerous wildlife neighbours. The elk again are tromping our snowshoe trails, the coyotes are trotting about, the snowshoe hares keeping the lynx busy, and the bears are asleep for the winter. The aurora have also been wonderful this year.

Some people think we're crazy for moving to Yukon. Yet we're looking forward to a long and peaceful retirement here!

P.S. This character showed up a couple of days ago ...

Sue, Is that your new sled dog, nice lookin puppy.

14 days!!!! I take it you are not planning on getting out of BC. BC is huge. Then there is The Yukon to get through. Non of it is scenery to be rushed through.

Sue, I understand what you are saying. I think it will be interesting for you and Steve to look back in a couple of years to see if you still spend as much time out in your RVs, now that you live there, as you did when heading to the Yukon evert year for a vacation.

I would suspect that we may average sleeping more nights in our RV in Alaska, now that we live in Florida than we did while living in Alaska. Going every other year, we spend about 60 nights in Alaska and northern Canada, averaging then 30 nights a year. Not sure we would spend that many nights in our RV when we lived there. Some years maybe. The winter trips we would take to Chena Hot Springs we would rent a cabin. For our river boat trips and for winter camping I would use a tent. The same with my camping trips out of my airplane. For fishing tips to the Kenai, we had a 5th wheel set up semi-permanently on a river front lot we owned, so I don't really consider that to be a RV. Once the concrete blocks go under an RV, it just becomes a place to eat and sleep, just sub-standard housing, IMHO. :)

So it will be interesting to talk to you in a few years to see if you are still doing a lot of camping or have switched to more day type trips. Until you and your husband both actually retire, it may be more difficult to find/make the time to go camping. Somewhat like so many of the Alaska residents, find it difficult to do much camping when the only get the standard two weeks vacation. Plus many residents have to work all summer to make it through the winter. Sometimes winter jobs are not easy to find as you know. You can't get far from Anchorage on a weekend, where most residents live.

DesertHawk wrote:

tsimtcu8 wrote:
The good news is there are 2 of us and we are young so covering ground is what we like to do. On our drive from Texas to BC we once covered the distance between Trinidad, CO and Boise, ID in one day no problem.

If you plan on using your Chevrolet Silverado Crew Cab 2500HD Duramax Diesel Allison Transmission with A.R.E topper should make it much easier in either driving the route or not bad for taking the ferry up and/or back. No worries about being too tall, just have to figure the length. We have an A.R.E topper on a 8' bed, my wife & I did a couple of nights in the back of it this past April/May. If younger it wouldn't be too shabby for touring Alaska (if it had the walk-in-door in back it wouldn't be bad at all even at our age).

Sounds like you two could do well in crossing country quickly, especially if you drive in shifts & if the one not driving sleeps while on the fly, one might be able to never stop except for fuel. Might want to get fuel whenever it can be had.

Should have plenty of light for it, more & more daylight as you go north.

Might want to estimate the cost of fuel per mile (kilometer, I assume in Canada) vs the cost of taking the ferry vs cost of flying & cost of sleeping arrangements (their seems to be some hostels in Anchorage) & rental cost.

But having your own wheels & bed is always the nicest (to me at least).

Thanks - great information. Based on the feedback we are planning a ride up on the ferry since we only have a short time and then a drive down south. Yes we're using our Chevy/ARE setup and have gotten pretty comfortable with it so we're excited to expand our territory a little bit. Thanks for all the feedback!

For a 2 week trip, I'd second Gary's Bella Coola suggestion. For example, from Vancouver you could:
cross to Vancouver Island
drive north to Port Hardy (doable in 1 day, but you'd see more with 2 nights)
BC ferry to Bella Coola
2 or more nights in the valley (great hiking if you can take forest roads)
up The Hill to Williams Lake (more like the Alaska Hwy than the Yukon)
south to Lillooet
Sea to Sky via Duffy Lake and Whistler.

I took 2 months to visit Alaska from Chicago. Since moving to Seattle I've taken a number of 2 week trips to BC, but haven't gone north of Prince Rupert.

Incidentally Vancouver to Prince Rupert is 1500 km, 2 full driving days by most standards. On one trip, to Prince Rupert and QC Islands, we took 5 days to get up there, and 5 to get back, with 6 days on the Islands. The return did include 2 nights at Wells Gray.

Or how about making Whitehorse your turn around point:
Vancouver Island, Port Hardy - Prince Rupert
PR to Skagway
Skagway to Whitehorse
return via Cassier and Prince George
I'd prefer to have 3 weeks for that loop.

paulj wrote:
For a 2 week trip, I'd second Gary's Bella Coola suggestion. For example, from Vancouver you could:
cross to Vancouver Island
drive north to Port Hardy (doable in 1 day, but you'd see more with 2 nights)
BC ferry to Bella Coola
2 or more nights in the valley (great hiking if you can take forest roads)
up The Hill to Williams Lake (more like the Alaska Hwy than the Yukon)
south to Lillooet
Sea to Sky via Duffy Lake and Whistler.

I took 2 months to visit Alaska from Chicago. Since moving to Seattle I've taken a number of 2 week trips to BC, but haven't gone north of Prince Rupert.

Incidentally Vancouver to Prince Rupert is 1500 km, 2 full driving days by most standards. On one trip, to Prince Rupert and QC Islands, we took 5 days to get up there, and 5 to get back, with 6 days on the Islands. The return did include 2 nights at Wells Gray.

Or how about making Whitehorse your turn around point:
Vancouver Island, Port Hardy - Prince Rupert
PR to Skagway
Skagway to Whitehorse
return via Cassier and Prince George
I'd prefer to have 3 weeks for that loop.

Hi Paulj thanks for the info, this is great to have such detailed feedback. We did just recently spend some time on the Island around Mt. Washington and Cowichan Valley camping. We also spend a lot of time in and around Whistler and Birkenhead and Garibaldi. I also travel to Fort St. John a lot for work. Overall we havent seen all the areas you mention but have been near most of them. This is the reason I had thought perhaps hopping on the ferry and shooting as far north as i can get initially and then just exploring on the drive back down south may be a good option. But i also understand that since i have never done it then it may take longer. So in that light I am also now considering the route east to Jasper, Banff, Lake Louise, etc as an option as well. Keep that advice coming, i appreciate it all! I really like the outdoor activity advice you give about where we can get some hiking in because we want to hike and fish as much as possible along the way.