Hi! We are driving to Alaska from Florida once again. We did this trip in 2013 and it was great. Last trip we had about 7 1/2 weeks total, this time we are doing it in one month! We camp out of our SUV with occasional motel in US. We boondock as well. We do not fly and love to drive. Our main destination is fishing on the Kenai. We are fishermen/woman! We normally drive the first 24 ours non stop, while one sleeps in the back. This is a normal thing for us on our vacations and we do this yearly. My question is, this time we are not sightseeing through the Black Hills area and Ice Fields as we did last time. We do not have the time, so I am looking for the best route to get to the ALCAN and then we slow down.....Last trip even with a lot of sightseeing we made it to the AK border in 7 days. Crazy I know, but we love to drive till dusk and look for animals, I always stop for photos etc... Then when we get tired we find a place to pull over and camp. I know we miss a lot of historical sight and such, but we have a business that we must be back to and fortunate to get away again this time. Hopefully as we get older and are able to retire we will take longer, slower trips but right now it is for the fishing!! AAA is giving me two different routes, one takes I29 out of Fargo up to Winnipeg and then CA 16 over to Edmonton, the other takes Fargo to Minot up to Regina Rte 52. I've heard ND can be crowded these days with the fracking. Last time we took I 90 through SD to Montana and crossed East of Glacier NP, may have been Sweetgrass. Would appreciate your input on a route, even thought we won't be lolly gagging scenery does help the trip, so I will keep that in mind. Thanks!

Not sure if it's the fastest or not but we often head up the turnpike from here in south Florida, Stuart, to Wildwood, go west to Crystal River, north on Hwy 19 to Interstate 10, west on 10 to Breaux Bridge LA, take that angled interstate, interstate 49, to Shreveport and west to FT Worth on interstate 20. From there we take Hwy 287 to Amarilo Texas across via Dalhart, etc to Raton, NM. Then north on interstate 25 to hit I 90 over to Butte, Billing area, north to Great Falls and north to cross the border at Coutts-Sweetgrass and on north. I try to avoid both Calgary and Edmonton due to their sizes. I have driven solo in a car from Anchorage to the Houston Texas area in 6 days but once of that, is plenty for me. Didn't have any choice that trip though.

I am sure you have considered flying up and renting an SUV, right? You'd have as much of that 4 week period as you liked for fishin and seein.Gary Haupt

Yes, we have. Believe it or not we love the driving, once we're past the first 50 hours, haha. My husband no longer flies. Also can't wait for the Alcan again, BC and Yukon were incredible. Last trip, 24 black bears, one grizzly and of course every other critter, moose, buffalo, fox, sheep, ram, you name it, we live for that part! We figure, it's either do it this way or don't do it at all. We drive straight through to Maine about every year, have also driven to Newfoundland, for a hunting trip. We have lodging once on the Kenai, and our trips are all booked for fishing.

Hi,Minot, Regina, Saskatoon, Edmonton. Highway is twinned from Regina on, which means a faster speed limit. It is also shorter.

pianotuna wrote:Hi,Minot, Regina, Saskatoon, Edmonton. Highway is twinned from Regina on, which means a faster speed limit. It is also shorter.Agree with this route, Had no problems on finding a place around JamestoWn, ND. Planned it to avoid the Minot area due to limited places. Just did that route last year. Further west by Dickinson is a lot harder to find places due to the oil activity.Watch your height at the border crossing from ND at Portal. If I remember, the car lane is 10'. We stayed in the truck lane, slow but didnt worry about the height.

Best/Fastest route to Edmonton from Florida | Good Sam Community

2gypsies1
Explorer III
Apr 30, 2015
Delorme mapping program gave me this direct route:

Daytona to Edmonton - 2815 miles
Edmonton to Anchorage/Seward Highway - 1950
4765 TOTAL MILES - one way

I-95 to I-75 to I-24 at Chattanooga
I-57 at Goreville, IL
I-74 at Champagne, IL
I-39 at Bloomington, IL to Portage, Wisconsin
I-90 to I-94 at Tomah, Wisconsin thru Minneapolis to
I-29 at Fargo, ND

Cross the border at Pembina, ND into Manitoba
PH23 to PH3 at Roland Manitoba to Portage LaPraire
to PH16 to Saskatoon to Edmonton

A one-month trip, you say? Wow!
Kidoo
Explorer
Apr 29, 2015
pianotuna wrote:
Hi,

Minot, Regina, Saskatoon, Edmonton. Highway is twinned from Regina on, which means a faster speed limit. It is also shorter.

Totally agree, this road is boresome but the best to get from point A to B. Minot is busy and you might just pass through to get to Portal. There are a few county park camping between Minot and Portal, Northgate Dam recreation, road 8, near Perella is cheap and very accessible.

There are a few Walmart on the way up to boonduck and many Canadian Tire have a dump station, Lloydminster for example. In Grande Prairie you can stay either at Walmart or at the tourist center with free Wifi. Grande Prairies has all you need for anything you wish to buy before getting on the road to paradise.
LuvMyNewfs
Explorer
Apr 28, 2015
Thanks to all of you for your good advice. I think we will do the Minot to Regina route. We too watch our weather app and can always switch it up as needed. We are just south of Daytona and coastal, so we usually head up 95 to 10 to 75, but leave so that we are driving through Atlanta, Nooga and Nashville during the night so it's not so bad, and remember we are not pulling anything either. Funny on all of our vacations we go head strong till we get out of the congested areas and then slow down and enjoy as much as possible. We also try to drive the Eastern US on weekends if possible, makes a big difference. Appreciate everything!
joe_b_
Explorer II
Apr 27, 2015
Most of the advice given is fine once you get to the US-Canadian border area, but getting out of Florida and the SE part of the US will be the real heavy traffic of the trip, most of the time. We on a couple of trips, have got up to Tallahassee, north to Montgomery, to Birmingham, west to Memphis to Little Rock, cut north to the Omaha area and then you have numerous choices to cross the border. Getting well west of the Mississippi River, we can usually count on having less traffic on the roads and a faster trip. Even going as far west as Tulsa and cutting up to Salina Kansas to pick up I 70 west to Denver, gets us out of much of the traffic mess down this way.

No matter how we go, it is about a 100 hour driving trip from here in south Florida to Fairbanks. We try to alternate years between spending the summers in western Colorado and Alaska. There are only so many ways to get out of the SE it seems, none terribly scenic so I like the OPs plan to drive 24 hours the fist day and get about 1,200 miles down the road.

The main factor in our route across the central section of the U.S. Is forecast weather. When we get to the Tallahassee area, we stop and get out the computers to check the longer, ten day or so forecast. As my wife and I are both pilots, we make use of some of the aviation weather forecasts. Weather developing in the mid west will determine if we run along the Gulf Coast as long as practical or cut straight across. I grew up on a ranch in southern Oklahoma and have a very healthy respect for the storms that develop in a Tornado Alley. I don't want any part of them. We make sure we have a good weather radio with us no matter which route we take till we reach the high country.
Pipeman
Explorer
Apr 27, 2015
Calgary & Edmonton have a ring road around them now. It's great to be able to drive around and not through the cities. We were out there last summer, although we didn't use the Calgary ring road as we weren't sure that it was finished. I understand it is now. We must have hit Calgary at the right time because we breezed through without any holdups. I'd also try a GPS to see what it tells you about the shortest or fastest route. Google maps may help also.
fanrgs
Explorer
Apr 27, 2015
The drilling activity in ND is in the western third of the state--the Williston Basin region. You should not have any problems if you stay in the central Bismarck-Minot part of the state.
shawdowboss
Explorer
Apr 27, 2015
pianotuna wrote:
Hi,

Minot, Regina, Saskatoon, Edmonton. Highway is twinned from Regina on, which means a faster speed limit. It is also shorter.

Agree with this route, Had no problems on finding a place around JamestoWn, ND. Planned it to avoid the Minot area due to limited places. Just did that route last year. Further west by Dickinson is a lot harder to find places due to the oil activity.

Watch your height at the border crossing from ND at Portal. If I remember, the car lane is 10'. We stayed in the truck lane, slow but didnt worry about the height.
pianotuna
Nomad III
Apr 27, 2015
Hi,

Minot, Regina, Saskatoon, Edmonton. Highway is twinned from Regina on, which means a faster speed limit. It is also shorter.
LuvMyNewfs
Explorer
Apr 26, 2015
Yes, we have. Believe it or not we love the driving, once we're past the first 50 hours, haha. My husband no longer flies. Also can't wait for the Alcan again, BC and Yukon were incredible. Last trip, 24 black bears, one grizzly and of course every other critter, moose, buffalo, fox, sheep, ram, you name it, we live for that part! We figure, it's either do it this way or don't do it at all. We drive straight through to Maine about every year, have also driven to Newfoundland, for a hunting trip. We have lodging once on the Kenai, and our trips are all booked for fishing.
garyhaupt
Explorer
Apr 26, 2015
I am sure you have considered flying up and renting an SUV, right? You'd have as much of that 4 week period as you liked for fishin and seein.

Gary Haupt