Alaska Hyw.-2014

[Jack_in_Alaska]

Just returned to Alaska from Az. The highway is in real good condition except for frost heaving (about 50 mile area) north of Destruction Bay an south of the Ak. border. No Cassiar this trip.
The traffic was extremely light. Many times 30 to 45 min. between meeting other vehicles. This results in a very poor year for lodge owners. They need all the business you can give them or they will be closed next time. Think how many pieces of pie they need to sell to pay for the days generator fuel.

Jct.37 Fuel----closed...again
CONTACT CREEK LODGE--very nice owner, fuel cheaper than Watson Lake.
RANCHERIA----good food, nice people, good fuel prices.
LIARD HOT SPRINGS----owner needed a good lesson in customer relations. I would avoid them.

FAST GAS has a discount card. Stations all along the way.

We saw $1.63 CDN/liter highest for diesel. Also a room at Rocky Mtn. Lodge was beautiful and $180/night. Others $120 to $150.

We have made 78 trips over the highway in 50 yrs. This was the most pleasant one and may be our last according to my co-pilot. Makes me sad.

Drive slowly in the rough spots and have a safe trip.

We saw 30' Rockwood travel trailer break off of a 20' box van truck on a frost heave, skidded down the road and ran over the bank into a creek. Very minimal damage to the trailer. That was unbelievable. The commercially made hitch on the truck broke completely off. Very poor weld job. Check ALL of your equipment with a close eye every stop. The road can be rough on poor equipment.

[CA_Traveler]

And for tall rigs planing to buy fuel at Steward the sign on the only station I saw said 10.5' clearance.

[CA_Traveler]

Last summer I bought fuel facing the Alaskan Highway. Around the corner on Cassiar were 2 stations (appeared to be 2) and both were closed.

I then made the mistake of skipping Dease and paid 60 cents/gallon more in Iskut. For anyone thinking they'll just use GasBuddy and avoid that type of mistake - don't plan on useful information from GasBuddy. As others have said hold up your credit card and enjoy the trip!

[Supercharged]

explorenorth wrote:
Gas prices change so fast it just is what it is. I'm in Smithers tonight, on another Vancouver-Whitehorse run - with a U-Haul truck this time. Last time, a month ago, Vanderhoof was 6 cents cheaper than Prince George - today, it was 2 cents higher. Six weeks ago, Watson Lake was the same price as Whitehorse (never seen that before in 25 years running the highway!), and Contact Creek was 2 cents higher. Close your eyes, whip out the credit card and have fun 🙂 I'll be in Stewart tomorrow night (I lived there 39 years ago), home in Whitehorse noonish on Tuesday.

Last time I paid 10 cent per liter, but that was 1962.

[joe_b_]

Jack, did Junction 37 appear to be closed permanently or just not open for the tourist season yet? They have had a checkered past, since the current owners bought it and the station about 300 meters down the Cassiar Hwy. The second station was then closed, soon after they purchased it.

[explorenorth]

Gas prices change so fast it just is what it is. I'm in Smithers tonight, on another Vancouver-Whitehorse run - with a U-Haul truck this time. Last time, a month ago, Vanderhoof was 6 cents cheaper than Prince George - today, it was 2 cents higher. Six weeks ago, Watson Lake was the same price as Whitehorse (never seen that before in 25 years running the highway!), and Contact Creek was 2 cents higher. Close your eyes, whip out the credit card and have fun 🙂 I'll be in Stewart tomorrow night (I lived there 39 years ago), home in Whitehorse noonish on Tuesday.

[Tee_Jay]

Fuel stops for 350 mile range:

Ft St John
Ft Nelson
Contact Creek
Teslin Yukon Motel
Otter Falls Cutoff
Tok

Overnight stops will be different.

[Supercharged]

Teacher's Pet wrote:

sue.t wrote:
The Liard Hot Spring Lodge is often inflicted with poor service and high fuel prices.....

They got us for over US$7.20 per gallon last June.

Last JUNE on the road I had $8.42 worth of fun on one gallon of gas.

[Teacher_s_Pet]

sue.t wrote:
The Liard Hot Spring Lodge is often inflicted with poor service and high fuel prices.....

They got us for over US$7.20 per gallon last June.

[garyhaupt]

Supercharged wrote:
Gas is gas, pay and see the world, make more money instead.

x2....


Gary Haupt

[Supercharged]

Gas is gas, pay and see the world, make more money instead.

[TucsonJim]

You just took your 78th trip! We'll be taking our first one next year. Thanks for the info.

[sue_t]

The Liard Hot Spring Lodge is often inflicted with poor service and high fuel prices. It was much better when known as Trapper Ray's and before he sold it. Too bad it has floundered since then.

Agree with Contact Creek Lodge - best fuel price in the area and very nice owners. Her dad used to run Morley River Lodge until he died about 10 years ago. He was a very nice fellow too, who let us camp in his yard one December - he even opened up his shower shack for us! Sad to see the lodge closed since then.

Rancheria, yup, they've let us drycamp in their yard in winter too. Good peoples.

[Smitty77]

Very cool info sharing - THANKS!
Smitty