Campground Fees

Alaska 2013 Trip Summary

Our route of 9,630 miles and 142 days was north from Phoenix via Salt Lake, Great Falls and Edmonton. Then we continued on to the Alaskan Highway from Dawson Creek to Junction City. On to Fairbanks, Denali, Whittier, Seward, Homer, Palmer, Valdez, Tok, Haines, ferry to Skagway, Alaskan Highway, Cassiar, Hyder, Seattle area, San Francisco area and return to the Phoenix area. You can see our website here: Alaska Trip 2013. And we put 2,740 miles on the toad.

Costs: Fuel diesel $5,276 for 1218 gal, Toad gas $530, Groceries $2,459, Dining out $2,052 Campgrounds $3,267 ($26 average), Miscellaneous $2,895, Total $16,479. There were several weeks of boon docking in the lower 48.

The Canadian and AK portions of the trip: 100 days 6/5-9/13 Camping costs $3,298 avg $33 with 1 boon dock day and 5 days in Valdez w/o hookups so lower cost and 5,900 miles.

The lowest fuel cost for diesel was in Phoenix at $3.46/gal and Beaver Creek was $6.22/gal. My 2013 Trip Fuel Log shows the prices along our route and the price variations were consistent in 2014. Prices may be lower in 2015 but I’d bet a doughnut that the variations will be consistent. You can use the fuel log to plan ahead to buy fuel when you don’t need it and drive past a higher priced area. We also used the limited AFD fuel lock stations in Canada. We used our Visa PenFed Cash Rewards card to create an account at the pump. Probably saved a little cost but liked the idea of using a fuel lock station and there were no tourists. We also got 5% monthly fuel cash back on the PenFed card throughout the trip including Canada. And neither of our Visa cards have any transaction fees unlike Amex. Check on Canadian stations fuel discounts as using them in 2013 would have cost us more since you pay inside and lose the PenFed 5% cash back.

Hope this helps with your planning.

At the Petrafied Forrest they compared my senior pass to my ID to make sure it was me using the pass....

I got my Senior Pass at Rocky Mtn NP on my 62nd birthday when they opened at 8am.

They used to be free but started charging $10 so we old f---s would not just "misplace" them and keep coming back for another free one.

We use it a lot but leave a donation in the box. The donation money - as I have been told - stays with that park whereas your payment at the gate goes to DC and into the pool of funds to be distributed.

We did not eat out on our trip as much as we do at home....we too found the cost of groceries and food in Restaurants to be extremely expensive.....In an IGA food store we found the food to be twice what we pay in Fl. In the Canadian Wal Marts some of the things we buy at home tasted totally different.

We went to Tok, Fairbanks, Valdez, Seward. Palmer (near Anchorage), Wasilla, Homer, Portage, and Denali National Park with stops in the boonies in between. We ate out rarely because the cost of food was so darned expensive and frankly we thought the quality was poor. The best meal out was a burger in Valdez. We found a fish monger in Homer and bought fresh fish daily and cooked it ourselves. We also caught some salmon , halibut, and rock fish to bring back with us. Next trip, we will concentrate our time in Valdez and Homer, our favorite places.

What parts of Alaska did you do? Hopefully you ate in your Rv a bit to help on expenses and caught a few Salmon? :)
Nancy

I finally finished the daunting accounting of fuel and campground fees for our trip to Alaska. The campground fees were $ 4018.00 and the fuel was $8745.00. For a total of $12,763.00. Now to figure out how much we spent on restaurants, souviners and gifts, plus tours and museums.

If you are a veteran with ANY percent of disability you can get an Access Card from the US Forest Service. It works just like the Senior Card, but it is free and available to any Vet at any age.

Just take in a copy of your drivers license with a copy of your VA Disability and get it for free.

I will have to send in the misses for one.
Frank.

In 2013 our trip was 142 days with $3719 total camping at $26 average. But we had some number of days with no CGs in the lower 48.

The Canada/AK portion of the trip was 100 days with $3297 total camping at $33 average. 1 boon dock day and 5 days in Valdez w/o hookups so lower cost.

Fuel was our largest cost.