Trip to Alaska

[gbarber46]

Wife and I are fairly new to RVing and wish to go Denali Nat'l Park this May. We will be departing from AZ in a 2009 Class C ( 31ft )Coachmen. Any suggestions as to which way to go, extra supplies, etc. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Glenn

[sue_t]

We always have a Milepost with us when on the road here. We tend to avoid commercial campgrounds in favor of the provincial and territorial campgrounds. We also like quiet places to pull-off and relax in isolation. And for this, the Milepost is irreplaceable. It provides info about every side road and abandoned location/site that can potentially make for a good campspot.

The Milepost lets you know about wildlife viewing opportunities. It lists the good fishing spots. They check for planned road construction. There's historical information in it too.

The Milepost is updated via their staff who travel the highways the season before. So, they were touring last summer for this year's Milepost. They ask businesses about heir plans, but often those change for a wide variety of reasons.

For instance, one lodge where we always fueled up was magically closed with no notice whatsoever a few summers ago. Turned out there were some business management issues.

Another time, a place that was listed as closed had new owners and was open.

The Milepost is a good guide and is as up-to-date as possible. For more up-to-date info, check in at the Visitor Centers in Yukon. Although, one year a handout they were giving was wrong too. It happens.

I have a 1966 Milepost that was saved by my parents. It's fun to read too.

[4X4Dodger]

joeb wrote:

Not only is the Church book more accurate, it is more honest. When you read a campground review in the Church book, you know it was written by Mike or Terri Church. With the Milepost, you have no idea of who wrote the review, perhaps even the business owner. The two publications have different approaches to making a profit. The Church's make their profit off the sale of their books, with no advertising. The Milepost makes their profit from the the sale of the book and the sale of advertising. The same people that sell the advertising, on a commission, are the Field Editors, who also write the reviews. A bit of conflict of interest, IMHO.

You obviously admire the Milepost as I do and enjoy it.

Actually I am surprised if you have been reading and buying the Milepost for so many years that you have missed the part on page 3 under "How to Use the Milepost" number 5. and I quote:

"Log" advertisements are classified type advertisements that appear in the text. These are identified by the bold face name of the business at the beginning of the entry and (ADVERTISEMENT) at the end. These log advertisements are written by the advertisers."

This means YOU DO know who wrote what part, they are very clear on that and editorially honest. And they are very easy to spot as they are in color bold type.

As for profit there is no way to put out a book the size of the Milepost every YEAR with updates without advertising. Advertising in and of itself is not a bad thing, it informs and is very handy. The issue is how is the advertising handled editorially. And the Milepost does it with honesty and ethically.

The Churches do a book and may not update it for YEARS, depending on their readers to post updates to their web site. This is basically telling their readers and those who support them that they are "on their own".

The Milepost is at least dedicated to this endeavor and continues to update constantly.

And to imply that the Churches have NO biases is surprising. But in their case it's much harder to discern than in a publication like the Milepost.

As for their accuracy I just got through using (their out of date) Baja Guide for 3 months and 3400 miles down there and found so many inaccuracies, dead wrong directions and missing text it just isn't funny. Editorially the Churches need a professional to edit those books for consistency and fact checking.

The Churches are good people, I have communicated with them on several issues (regarding when they might update a certain book). They fill a niche in the market.

But generally speaking in the case of the Alaska book I don't think it can compare to the milepost.

[4X4Dodger]

2gypsies wrote:
Church's book is more accurate than the Milepost even though it might not be updated every year. It gives ALL the details of the campground, RV park, boondocking places and it give the GPS coordinates, helpful hints to the areas, etc. The Milepost doesn't come close.

The Church's have lived in Fairbanks. They've traveled to the lower 48 many, many times. They know those camp spots.

We use the Milepost for history and maps but never for campgrounds. Even with it being marketed at a 2016 edition, you'll still find things closed down.

With all due respect to your defending the Churches:

If a travel book is not updated every year, as the Milepost is, all the accuracy is just not there due to constant changes. I am not sure how you are defining accuracy but the Prices in the Church book surely are not as accurate being two years old.

As for campgrounds and RV parks etc the Milepost gives all of the pertinent details if read carefully. My point was and is that the Church book is going on 3 years old therefore any details may be just plain wrong now. As for GPS coordinates I have never found them useful except when navigating the oceans.

As for the Churches having lived in Alaska...well so have I But that doesn't necessarily qualify me as a great guidebook researcher/writer.

The people who do the Milepost have lived there nearly forever and drive the highway every year.

My claim was the Churches book is redundant:

Simple Definition of redundant

: repeating something else and therefore unnecessary

I did not claim it was worthless or of no value at all. There may be additional information of value to some. If folks want to take it fine...but that does not change the facts that it is out of date, thus not as accurate and redundant.

[joe_b_]

Not only is the Church book more accurate, it is more honest. When you read a campground review in the Church book, you know it was written by Mike or Terri Church. With the Milepost, you have no idea of who wrote the review, perhaps even the business owner. The two publications have different approaches to making a profit. The Church's make their profit off the sale of their books, with no advertising. The Milepost makes their profit from the the sale of the book and the sale of advertising. The same people that sell the advertising, on a commission, are the Field Editors, who also write the reviews. A bit of conflict of interest, IMHO.

Over the years the Milepost has grown from a small travel guide to a bloated guide full of advertising. And the area covered has expanded greatly, I suspect to include more businesses, that might advertise. I have Milepost in my collection dating back to 1953, including the Milepost I purchased on my first driving trip to Alaska in 1962. I tend to buy a new Milepost ever year and the years we are going back, I buy two copies. One I keep original and the other gets cut up and reduced to more of a manageable size. A straight edge, razor blade, a stapler and a hi-lighter pen will fix sections for me.

Another fine source of northern information are the many publications put out by the Bell Publishing Group. Available at most Canadian and Alaska visitors center. Tim Bell, grew up on the Alaska Hwy in a road house owned by his family. First class work the Bell family does on their individual maps and articles. Most of their work is free at the centers, in the wall racks.

Another fine book is one writen by Ron Dalby, a retired helicopter pilot that lives in Palmer. The author is a superb writer, but needs to go back over his Alaska Hwy book and bring it up tu date. The last time it was up dated it had way too much incorrect information in it. Appeared that the publisher just put a new date in the front and called it updated. If Dalby would drive the highway with his book in hand, correcting names, etc. and republish it, he just might have the premier Alaska Hey Travel guide of all.

I carry 8 or 10 books/guides with me on our trips to the north country, one on fishing the highway streams and lakes, etc. Redundancy is good, in my view. Also like the Frommer's books, the Dummies ones. Have bought a few that weren't worth killing a tree for the need paper to write them.

I think Terri Church also lived in Nenana, my last home town in Alaska, as her dad was the station master for the Alaska Railroad there.

[2gypsies1]

Church's book is more accurate than the Milepost even though it might not be updated every year. It gives ALL the details of the campground, RV park, boondocking places and it give the GPS coordinates, helpful hints to the areas, etc. The Milepost doesn't come close.

The Church's have lived in Fairbanks. They've traveled to the lower 48 many, many times. They know those camp spots.

We use the Milepost for history and maps but never for campgrounds. Even with it being marketed at a 2016 edition, you'll still find things closed down.

[4X4Dodger]

With all due respect to M&T Church and their Alaska Camping book, I think it's redundant if you have a MILEPOST.

The Milepost is updated every year. The Church Book has a 2014 date on it which means the research (a real trip?) was done in summer of 2013.

The 2016 Milepost was researched in 2015. 2 years can change a lot.

For my money I will stick with the original and to my mind the best.

The Milepost....BTW the first one I bought was in 1972 when I was re-stationed from Biloxi MS to Elmendorf AFB in Anchorage and drove my old Calif Highway Patrol car which turned over 100,000 miles just as I crossed the Oregon Border going north. but it was still the fastest and best handling big American sedan I have ever driven and uniquely suited for the trip which I made in late November.

[4X4Dodger]

2gypsies wrote:

DownTheAvenue wrote:
If your main purpose is Denali National Park, then do your research very carefully. They go out of their way to make visitors jump through many hoops to see more than just the visitors center. If you do not reserve your activities, including just viewing the park, you will leave very disappointed.

I have no idea what you mean????

Yes, you need a reservation for the bus tour. No, it's not difficult to get. If you take the bus to Wonder Lake you can see why they don't want hundreds of cars on that road. As far as other reservations, we got 5 nights at Teklanika campground and reserved it about three weeks prior when we were closer to the park. We got an additional 5 nights in Riley Creek campground without a reservation.

If those are hoops to jump through, then we were more than satisfied.

X2 They are not making people jump through hoops. They are trying to accommodate the thousand of people that come mostly by Tour Bus and Cruise Ship (Yes Denali is an optional trip from the cruise ports)and still try not to overrun the park with vehicles and scare off the animals those thousands of people came to see.

It amazes me how few people STOP and THINK about a situation and try to see all sides of it before complaining.

[Chiefelectusn]

Happy Birthday joe b. And Sue T

[lizzie]

Wishing Joe and Sue a very happy birthday. What a blessing to be born in spring when the world is becoming new again! lizzie

[joe_b_]

I would suspect that photo of you and your dad, Jack, was taken the summer of 1958. Not only did Jack have a real sense of what to photograph and how to frame and organized his shots, he also had very high quality camera equipment and the knowledge to use it. Sue's ability to brighten back the colors makes them all that much better.

[sue_t]

Orion wrote:
Snag! That's a famous place.

Yes, it is

[Orion]

Snag! That's a famous place.

[sue_t]

Chiefelectusn wrote:
Joe b. You could be a national treasure, landmark or something!
Sue T. Is a national treasure with her pictures.
I thank you both, you made last years Alaskan trip wonderful with great information and helpful hints.

You're welcome...

I enjoy sharing pictures of Yukon. It's in my genes...my father photographed Yukon in the early 1950s when he moved here. I have many boxes of his historical images.

Here's one from his collection...that's Dad holding his baby Suzy 😄 at Snag YT, one of the airfields on the Northwest Staging Route

[Tee_Jay]

Holy Cow Joe! You are bit older than i am, a bit younger than my wife. Yep, you got a lot more Alaska years and miles than we do, but we are working on it. I asked her the other day how much longer we would go and she thought about 10 more years would be about right.

Stop by this summer if you are down on the Kenai.