That's essentially what we did. We left central CA at end of April and took our time. We got home first week in Sept. We don't like rigid plans or making reservations and we were able to see everything we wanted just "winging it"
We were in Alaska for about 2 months of the trip which was a good amount. The milepost was helpful. We especially enjoyed the port cities like Homer. We also enjoyed the top of the world highway and glad we drove the extra 60 miles of dirt road into Eagle. We drove pretty much most of the improved and graded dirt highways. All were pretty easy to negotiate.