Alaska-Spring or fall and why

Moved to RVing in Canada and Alaska

Wayne
Moderator

We've been to Alaska three times - in the spring and summer,in the summer and fall and in the fall only. We prefer fall over spring because the snow and ice are gone, campgrounds and roads are empty and the changing leaves are beautiful. I think that fall is wetter than spring but the weather in Alaska can be iffy in any season. Some attractions and campgrounds open late and close early so unless you spend the summer months too you'll miss things.

It's a great trip that I highly recommend!

This is one of those "it depends" questions; mostly it depends on you. What do you want to do? If you are wanting to fish for salmon (a frequent goal of those visiting here) then late May through the first of September will be your best time. Earlier and you may encounter ice on the lakes. It can snow any month of the year but lately the snow season has been over by May and not returned until October. Want to avoid crowds? Come before Memorial Day and after Labor Day. One problem you can encounter both late and early is campgrounds begin to be closed. With the drop in oil prices, one of the first budget items to get cut is State Parks. Feel free to PM me with specific questions. Regardless of when you come, you'll really enjoy Alaska. It's a special place.

Edit: And BTW we're headed to Montana in September. Going to spend some quality time in Glacier.

Did you search this Forum for `Alaska'? Do so and then search the results for May, June, July, August, September or Spring or Fall and read on.

Give some serious thoughts to why you are wanting to visit the north country. Once you have some rough ideas to that it is much easier to plan your trip. A lot of good advice in the above posts. Most of the sport fishing is on a calendar basis. The salmon run about the same time each summer. Baby wildlife are mainly in the spring for photography. Bugs are less in the late fall, as are the crowds of people.

After spending 25+ years in rural Alaska, fall would be my favorite time of the year. The crowds of summer time Kenai, just doesn't appeal to me any more for fishing. We now spend more time in Valdez than we ever did when living in Alaska. I think it is far enough from Anchorage, that you don't have the weekend mobs of people heading down to fill their freezers with fish.

But, anytime from breakup to freeze up can be great, and well worth while being in the north country of Canada or Alaska. Whatever and whenever you make the trip, just stay flexible with your time schedule. The fall rains, light though they be most of the time will hang around till it turns to snow in October, in the Interior of the state. Our last RV trip of the fall, was a family get together on the Denali Hwy, near the Paxson end around the Tangle Lakes. Cool clear mornings, some freezing temperatures, great grayling fishing, sitting around the campfire at night, few if any biteing bugs. The tundra vegetation was changing into it's fall colors. Just doesn't get much better for me, than fall time on the Denali Hwy. unless it is spring time lake trout fishing in Paxson Lake, just as the ice is starting to melt around the edges. I love Alaska in all the seasons, just small degrees of preference with the seasons. LOL

Joe should know. Terrific synopsis by someone who knows.
After studying all the pros and cons of everything AK, we decided to leave L.A. during the last week of May and spend the month of June in AK. We found it was before the insect hoard arrived and was mostly dry the whole time. The biggest features for us was the temperate climate with little fluctuation and the looooong days of June. We kept thinking we'd have Margaritas till sunset. On a week of that month, above the Arctic Circle that sunset never came. 8<) For us there was no fishing but plenty of game watching.
That 9K mile trip included 2500 miles of dirt and gravel roads and camping on sandbars and gravel pits up to the Brooks Range. We went up the Pacific Coast onto Vancouver Is. driving No. to Port Hardy, taking the ferry to Prince Rupert in B.C. and up the Cassiar Highway (which is now mostly paved I hear) and onto the AK highway circumventing Anchorage, but not places like chickenfoot or the Dalton Highway. We were gone 32 days.
We are contemplating another trip north and are considering a fall trip for all the good reasons joe has mentioned. Better look into the current edition Milepost.
jefe

Spring. Fall limits how long you can stay before it freezes.

If you go in May you could stay four+ months. If you go in September you could stay 1+ month. Heck of a long way to go...

We've been up in '06, '07, '09, '11, '13, and will be up in 2015. We generally leave home in the last 2 weeks of May and start home in very late August. With those dates, we're usually on the Alaska Highway before "most" tourist places open and when we start down most are again closed for the year. That said, travel is easy, the sightseeing is great and fuel and food are easily available in the towns along the route. Don't get too hung up on the bugs. We fish rivers and lakes and have no problems that we don't see in Delaware. If you camp in deep woods or the swamps you'll have problems but we've never been to the point where we need to wear a headnet, even though we carry them. Late August colors over the Top Of The World Highway (Fourty-Mile Country) are just outstanding. We also hit 8" of snow in Atagun Pass in the Brooks Range coming down from Prudhoe Bay on June 14, 2011.

Stay Flexable. It's a great place and you won't be able to see it all in one trip.

Thin Blue Smoke wrote:
We are thinking of going t Alaska in 2015 and want input on when to go.

Thanks

I went in the spring mid-May to mid-June, 36 days round trip. no serious regrets.

Many campgrounds along the way are open only for July-August, some days ended up being longer than comfortable. plan ahead on this.

The arrogant American I am, I broke the law in the Yukon and parked overnight in a deserted scenic turn-off on a frozen lake after driving 12 hours. seems Yukon has a good campground owners lobby, at least when it comes to buying passive-aggressive signs.

In Alaska you'll find plenty to do, but some high mountain roads may still be closed by snow (road to Salmon glacier, Hatcher Pass for example). All the tourist stuff was up and running by memorial day.

I found the weather in Canada to be excellent, blue sky and sunshine almost every day in Alberta, BC and Yukon.

Alaska, the weather was either rain with very thick heavy clouds or skies filled with choking smoke from wild fires - very strange to have lots of rain and also very dry conditions?! I tend to get impatient burning $$$ per day in food, fuel and lodging so I didn't wait out the weather, instead I kept moving, and the weather followed me.

In most cases, you shouldn't plan this as a week or two vacation. It's much too far and costly.

If you can, plan to be there a good part of the seasons. I'd recommend crossing the Canadian border around the 3rd week of May if going in spring.

If you want to be there for the fall color, plan on starting to head back south no longer than the 3rd week of September.