“USA 🇺🇸 and Canada 🇨🇦 ~Overview of Alaska/Canada Adventure with Stats”

• September 21, 2023
• By Pen
• 0 Comment

Are You Considering RVing to Alaska?

Overview Of Our Alaska/Canada Adventure, with Stats ⬇️

We are a big rig Class A, 45,000 pounds, with three-axle, and towing our VW Bug.
We call our outfit: “Jonah and The Whale.”

We have been full-time travelers; worldwide, and in to our seventh year. We have been RVing the last few years, in the USA and Mexico.

I’ve been to all fifty states and many of the states, multiple times. I’ve also visited  92 countries.

On this trip we did several double bookings; meaning, we left our outfit in campgrounds with full-hookups, turned off just the water, and left the generator on “auto” (just in case of power failure) and left for a few nights, at most. We always let our camp host know we would be gone and that we did not know anybody around the area, so nobody should be around our Motorhome.
Of course I never broadcasted these double booking with anybody, or by blog either, till after the fact. We had zero issues and had a lot of extra fun.

We are mostly, fully recovered and rested-up and on to new adventures, after the long, and sometimes hard trip to Alaska.
Again, I must emphasize, we did have so many, amazing, once-in-a-lifetime moments, we wouldn’t have wanted to miss for anything, but we also had lots of problems; and a combination of just bad timing and bad luck, in a lot of ways.

Jonah breaking down was quite stressful, and there were over 400 fires in Canada making it impossible to navigate on our trip, without dealing with them. We had to drive through or around the fires; both going up to Alaska, and returning, from.

Coming back down, we packed bug-out bags; just in case. It was a little scary for sure, each night we went to bed, with fires raging around us.

We also went through an evacuation order for a Tsunami, in the middle of our sleep one night, while in Girdwood, Alaska. There was no escape route as the road out for us, went towards the water. We stayed put and prayed for the best. It was pretty awful, but we did not get wiped out by said Tsunami, after all.

The terrible roads were mostly in Alaska, but also between Destruction Bay and Tok, going up, and going back down through Canada were a shock we did not entirely anticipate.

The roads we dealt with, by going so mind-numbing slow, made travel days just plain miserable; as we went from any point A to any point B in the pouring rain, with rarely a decent view of Alaskas beauty.

We did not sustain any damage to our equipment, by going so slow, at least. For this, we are grateful!

Other RVers doing the same summer trip like we did, well, I heard of many accounts and it was heartbreaking. I did note, from the testimonies, the RV trailers did not hold up, overall like a Class A Motorhomes did, even when going slow, according to their drivers. This is not a criticism about trailers, it’s just report on what I know to be fact.
Just saying. 

We also never hit a Moose. A few others did.

Of course we had absolutely terrible weather. We were in Alaska for 72 days with only 12 days of those days with any sun. The rain was day and night; unrelenting torrential downpours.
Yes, it was summer: June through August in Alaska.

This was my third trip to Alaska. I Flew in, Cruised in, and now have RV’d in. This was my husbands first trip to Alaska.

While doing these RV years, we wanted very much to go to Alaska. We actually put this trip off a year, due to Canada mandating the covid vaccines, which we did not, and still won’t participate in. By 2023, the vax  mandate was dropped, so we could enter Canada.

For the entire trip, we would drive 10,100 miles on the round-trip from our house in SoCal and back.

JUST HOW BIG IS ALASKA? Sorry Texas; you’re cute and all, but Alaska, after is the BIGGEST State in the Union.

Alaska is so BIG it’s about 1/5 the size of the Lower 48, and it is larger than the L48’s three largest States: Texas, California and Montana, combined. 

If overlapped on a map, Alaska State lands reach from California to Georgia, and from North Dakota to Florida.

While we will never make another trip to Alaska in our RV again, we will most definitely go back, one day. Alaska really is “all that,” and I loved being able to see (up close on many occasions), so much wildlife in their natural habitats: Bears/Grizzly and Black, Wolves, Foxes, Moose, Caribou, Dall Sheep, Mountain Goats, Wild Horses, Deer, Elk, Porcupines, Weasels, Beavers, Wood Bison, Whales, Otters, Seals, Eagles, and other Sea Birds and even the very rare Black Mountain Lion!

We also got to see Mount Denali which puts us in the 30% club, since it’s a rare thing, and only 30 percent of visitors to Alaska, get to see her in all her glory!

My second trip to Alaska, in 2005 and first visit to Denali National Park, Mount Denali was completely covered with clouds.

The highlight on our recent trip to Alaska, was actually flying to Utqiagvik, (Barrow) Alaska, and its highest point, North and getting to see two Polar Bears on the Arctic ice of the Arctic Ocean, eating Whale scraps. I will never forget that, as long as I live.

I’ve also now been to all National Parks in Alaska, which can be accessed by driving to, and boating in to. (two more we did not go to require private flights in).

National Parks I Visited Whilst in Alaska:

✅ Denali National Park

✅ Kenai Fjords National Park

✅ Lake Clark National Park

✅ Katmai National Park

✅ Wrangell-St Elias National Park

✅ Glacier Bay National Park

We got to go dog sledding on a glacier, being transported up by a helicopter, watch Bears and Seals catch Salmon, and for those amazing 12 days of sunshine, out of our 72 days in Alaska, we did see the epic beauty that Alaska is known for.

Daryl went on two successful fishing trips, which filled our freezers to the max with Salmon, Cod, and Halibut.

We would cross both main borders Alaska/Canada, up North, and would cross the border two more times below those up north; camping in Haines, Alaska.
Down south from Haines, we would cross the border four more times, to visit Hyder and do Bear viewing from near Stewart, BC, Canada where we camped, at the end of our summer time in Alaska.

This would make eight border crossings in total, between Alaska/Canada.

Then, there were the two border crossing to get into Canada from the L48 and again, crossing from Canada, back down to the L48.

It’s best to look up, online, all the restrictions for crossing borders. Canada has their rules and the USA has theirs. Mostly, just avoid grocery shopping and stocking-up before crossing borders. Eggs, fruits, and meats not in their original packaging, and vegetables are all at risk of removal.

We don’t travel with pets, but there are clear guidelines on health certificates that must be current.

Most commonly, you will be asked if you are carrying weapons and ammo. You will be asked if you are carrying alcohol and money in excess of certain amounts.
I even know of a case where somebody answered no to any weapons on board, but was asked if the RV he was driving had ever carried weapons, while in the USA, prior to arriving in Canada. His honest answer was yes, which created a major search of his RV, as they looked for weapons that were not there.

We complied for all crossing, till we left Canada, early, due to the need of staying ahead of wildfires. It was so stressful.

When we crossed at the Sumas border into Washington state, they were searching ALL RVs, for whatever reason. Since we left our last Canada camping spots earlier than planned, (fires) we did get tomatoes and potatoes confiscated, which we would have eaten by the border day, had we not been dealing with fires. By this point; our 10th border crossing, I honestly could have cared less. Out-running fire threats trumped a few food items at the time.

We met many like-minded people on this trip, and now are blessed to have a few more dear friends!

Places We Visited in Alaska:

Tok:

Everybody driving into Alaska, goes through Tok

Delta Junction:

The official end to the Alaska Highway, from Mile “0” at Dawson Creek, Canada: 1,422 miles. 

Fairbanks:

We visited the original “Into The Wild” Bus on display at the University, and we stopped by the Sternwheeler; Riverboat Discovery

We flew on Alaska Airline from Fairbanks, via Anchorage to Utgiagvsk (Barrows) to visit the true North of the Arctic Ocean, where we enjoyed a “Tundra Tour,” visiting several villages of native Alaskans, and learned of their incredible history, dating back thousands of years.
These native villagers still hunt whale, Seal, and various birds.

The North Pole:

We visited Santa’s Shop where we sent postcards to our grandchildren.

Denali Nation Park:

We took an amazing five-hour Park’s bus ride and narrated tour into the park, beyond where visitors in vehicles are allowed to go, unless having permits. We saw lots of Wildlife and saw Mount Denali! I have to add: my first visit to Denali was by train, with the big glass dome. It was a fun ride and all, but the route was very limited. Only saw one Moose. The Bus tours are the way to go!

Driving from up North, we headed through Anchorage, to the Kenai Peninsula, passing through Houston, Alaska. This means: I’ve been in Houston, Texas, Houston, Canada and Houston, Alaska.

Three Weeks in the Kenai Peninsula: (it rained the entire time)

Seward:

We visited and hiked to Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park, that is a very small area of land that can be driven to. Plus, we took a Marine Boat Tour by Kenai Fjords Tours to access the main body of the Kenai Fjord National Park, which is water. Spectacular!

Soldotna:

Daryl would go Salmon fishing through Bo’s Alaska.
Huge success!

Kenai Village:

We also visited the Holy Assumption Russian Orthodox Church and surrounding historic buildings. Very enjoyable 

Homer:

We took a boat tour by Chinitna Bay Bear Tours to Lake Clark National Park. This was another highlight of our trip. We waded in the ocean from the anchored boat, right on to the beach where Grizzlies were digging and eating Clams. We saw five Grizzly Bears that day….it was pouring rain the whole time. Normally there are many more Bears to see, but the weather was yuk.

We took a 45-minute ferry (each way) out of the Homer Spit, to visit the coastal village of Seldovia.
Very quaint. Very fun.

Daryl went Halibut and Cod fishing. Another great successful haul with Alaskan Fishing Adventures

Anchorage:

Unscheduled stop, due to VW in the shop, there and our daughter flying in to visit from the east coast. We made it work.

King Salmon

We flew out of Anchorage on Alaska Airlines to King Salmon. We spent the night at the local Bear Trail Cabins. Just ask for Margo.

The next day, we boarded a water taxi that took us to Katmai National Park. The rangers at the Park would put us through “Bear School,” before allowing us to roam the Park. It is not a question of  “if you run into a grizzly Bear,” it’s when!
We saw Bears everywhere, not just at the famous Brooks Falls, were the Bears catch Salmon.
It was an amazing day, and we even had a little sunshine! I can’t recommend this place enough!

I have to say I can not recommend the Katmai Water Taxi that cost us $900 (for 3)  They were very late to pick us up, so we wasted a few hours waiting for them, when we could have been doing more Bear Viewing… (there is no form of communication in this Park for visitors). For the price, pay a little more and take a float place in and out of  Katmai National Park. Also there was no food provided at the cabin place. Just coffee. We did get to eat at the lodge in Katmai and of course it was expensive. 

Girdwood:

Excursion by helicopter to fly to the Punchbowl Glacier to go Dog Sledding. What a Blast!
Ididaride Tours.
Recommend!

We did the “drive through” self-tour of the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, since it was pouring rain. The money goes towards a good cause, here.

Chugiak:

We drove to see the Eklunta Russian Orthodox Church /Cemetery.
Worth it.

Palmer:
camped overnight 

Valdez:

Took the famous LuLu Belle Boat tour to the Columbia Glacier. Fabulous! Don’t miss this! It was a 10-hour day, but it was quite worth the time!

We also visited the nearby Solmon Gulch Fish Hatchery, a short drive from the KOA we camped at. One must watch for Bears around this area, and we got to see Seals eating Salmon.

Chitna:

We camped at Wrangell View RV then left it all locked-up to have fun, elsewhere. 

Wrangell St Elias National Park:

McCarthy:

This location is off-the-beaten-path for sure, but make the effort. It was an amazing experience and a Beautiful National Park. We paid to take the Kennicott Shuttle to McCarthy from Chitna. The McCarthy road is very bad and not even safe for RVs. It’s an old train track route, so railroad spikes do make their way to the surface, on occasion.

We spent one night in the historic Ma Johnson Hotel and ate a high-end meal at the Restaurant there. So yummy!

We also took the Wrangells St Elias National Park Flightseeing Tour for an hour, over Glaciers. WOW! Just WOW! We even had sunshine on this day!

Kennicott:

Took the tour of the nearby Kennicott Mill. Tours are required if you want to enter the Mill with a narrated tour.  Shuttles are free between Kennicott and McCarthy  Amazing!

Chistochina:

We stayed several nights at the Red Eagle Lodge in a 100-year-old log cabin. Super fun! Great Hosts!
Yes, we have our big rig, but we like to double-book when opportunities like this arise. There was plenty of room to park our outfit. This was a much needed rest stop for us.
We just relaxed. 

Chicken:

We decided to drive through Tok again, and on to Chicken, heading for the Northern most Border Crossing for vehicles, to make our way back into the Yukon (Canada) and on to Dawson City.

Haines:

We drove several times to nearby Chilkoot Recreation site to watch Grizzlies fishing for Salmon on the Salmon Weir.
Very special!

We took a tour at Kroshchels Wildlife Park. This was so fun! I got to feed and pet a huge Moose and a cute Porcupine.

On the way to this tour, one passes by the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve. This has more Bald Eagles in one place (seasonal), than any other place in the world.

Skagway:

We rode a 45-minute; each way, round trip ferry to Skagway, out of Haines, and spent two nights. We rode the historic White Pass Railroad.

Very good stop!

Hyder:

Our last stop on our Alaska trip. We camped in Stewart BC, and drove 15 minutes away, over the border, back in to Alaska, to the Fish Creek viewing  deck to watch spawning Salmon. We saw many Bears in this area of Stewart-Hyder: Grizzly and Black.
Worth a stop for sure!

Places We Visited in Canada

Heading for Alaska, we crossed into Canada at the Roosville border from Montana, after spending a fun week in Polson and getting to Glacier National Park

We would drive for 13 days to reach Alaska: through Alberta, British Columbia and Yukon. We boondocked all but two nights when we overnighted in Dawson Creek and again in Whitehorse at campgrounds, to dump sewer and refill with water and have internet.

I must say I read a lot about people who were frightened to boondock in the wild. We found it to be amazing, peaceful and yes, private; not to mention free! Traveling all this way for the scenic beauty, just to boondock in Walmart parking lots or the like; the whole time, seemed a bizarre choice to us.

Unlike the L48, Alaska and Canada are very generous with allowing boondocking. If it’s not posted to “not camp,” it’s a good pull-out to stay. Take advantage of this. Yes, you can even bbq while boondocking. What’s important is you clean up right way when in the wild boonies, so as not to attract wildlife. We always had our Bear spray with us, when outside in the boonies, boondocking. We never saw a Bear, but it’s random thing, and  always good to be “Bear Aware.”

We were offline thru Canada, other than campgrounds, if they provided it. The roads are well marked and fuel stations were quite available. In our big rig, we have a 150 gallon fuel tank, so we only filled at the half full mark, needing far less fuel stops, than say, a pickup truck would.
If you need DEF, be sure and stock up on several boxes in the L48. The ground is so cold up north DEF is not found at the diesel pumps. You can buy DEF in the fuel stop stores.
We also were limited, quite often at the Canadian pumps. Credit card was limited to $100 for each fill. That’s like three trips into the station to reset. Time consuming for sure.

There were parts on the entire trip where premium gas was not available for our VW Bug, so we had to use a fuel booster. 

Towns We Went through in Canada:

Sparwood, Cochrane, and Grand Cache to Dawson Creek where the Alaska Highway (AlCan) begins.

We visited Banff National Park and drove the incredible Icefield Parkway to Jasper National Park. This Was A Huge highlight!
We drydocked at the Columbia Icefield Parkway, overnight. It was $17 CAD: pit toilet and trash bin, if needing those.

Note: Boondocking is free/no services. Drydocking costs a small fee and has limited services like toilets, trash bins, and sometimes a dump station.

More On Driving On The AlCan

We stopped at the Tetsa Lodge to get their cinnamon buns, Summit Lake, Muncho Lake, Soaked at Liard River Hot Springs, and left our homemade sign at the Sign Post Forest in Watson Lake. Whitehorse, Haines Junction, Destruction Bay,  

After visiting Chistochina, back in Alaska, we made our way up north, again, went through Tok again and headed for another Border, again. We left Chicken, Alaska and entered Canada and drove “Top of The World Highway,” to reach the historic town of Dawson City Yukon. We crossed the mighty Yukon River by ferry in “The Whale,” with “Jonah” in tow. That was really something.

We loved Dawson City, too, but the road after leaving the Tok Hwy was awful. Washboard all the way, sans about 10 miles of pavement, before border crossing.

After Dawson City, we drove back down, south through Canada, through a lot of construction and more terrible roads, to our last stop in Alaska, which was Haines; vua, Stewart and Pelly Crossing, Minto, Whitehorse, Dezadeash, and Haines Junction. 

Returning Back Down Through Canada to the USA, via the Cassiar Highway 

Tagish, Iskut, Stewart, Prince Rupert, Terrace, Prince George, Beaverly, Valemount, Merritt and Hope

For the record, we enjoyed the AlCan Highway VERY much, going up, but after our Stewart and Hyder stop, going back down, we did not enjoy the rest of Canada, very much. It ended up being a means to an end for us. We were just done, the further we got away from Alaska.

We were so happy to cross the  border, into Washington State, where the road systems were far more advanced and easier to skirt around wildfires.

The original plan, upon our return through Canada was to see more of “what Canada had to offer,” by doing some camping, and not just the boondocking, like we did going up. 

This direction out (the Cassiar) was very populated by homes, with tons of road construction, so did not get the wildlife viewing we were hoping for. There were lots of fires and smoke to dodge, too. 

We left two campground, early: Prince Rupert was way out of the way and a total boring and drug infested place. A complete waste of time. Wifi promised at campground. They lied. (Prince Rupert RV Park).

In Hope, we also left early. It was an okay place, but the smoke from wildfires was so bad we couldn’t be outside, so we just left, to get down to Washington state, to get away from fires.

Due to so many fires, we could not go on Hwy 37 down, (out of Prince George) since there were closed sections. I was told this section normally is quite pretty with wildlife viewing. We were bummed-out because we had to drive extra hours over (continuing on Hwy 16) and through lots of construction to go around the closures.

I did not tally our fuel costs as we went along, to the exact dollar, but I do know we spent upwards of $6000.

We averaged 7.8 miles to the gallon in The Whale.

In modern day Alaska, due to the growth of humans residing, it is now necessary to pay for excursions to get to where the wildlife does thrive. I got to visit Alaska in the early 90’s. Wildlife seemed to roam everywhere, then. Eagles were much bigger and so many more around, too.

We literally did everything we went to Alaska to do and did not scrimp in this department. $8000 which included cost of excursions, flights, boats, ferry’s and overnight stays.

Our campground costs averaged around $300 a week for our Montana/Alaska/Canada stays; totaling four months: $6000

So, a grand total of around 20 thousand was spent. I budgeted for 15, so was pretty close. We know of people who did not invest in excursions in Alaska. As a result, they saw very little wildlife, just driving from point to point.

The unexpected (added) expenses were the repairs made to Jonah; above and beyond afore mentioned total…quite literally re-paying for work to get done right, after paying the creep in Kingman, Arizona for a crap job: $6000

So, no regrets and I’m not one to feel low for long, but our world was definitely rocked! We did not get that big of a bang for the dough on this trip, IMHO!

In fact: we traveled full-time, overseas for 4.5 years (I’ve been to 92 countries) and while that lifestyle isn’t super easy to do, hauling suitcases around the world, either, the 4.5 months on our Alaska trip was harder than anything we faced overseas, in 4.5 years!

In part, since Alaska is seasonal, there is a very short window of time, of three months to do five or six months worth of travel, in.

It’s an expensive trip to get up to Alaska, by RV, so we did everything we wanted to do, while there. Glad we did, too!

The long winters, up north make fixing roads challenging for sure. The short summer is all the time there is for construction. It’s just part of it; dealing with road construction every summer, driving in Alaska and Canada.

I suspect that during the Covid years, road repair/construction pretty much ceased. Getting behind like that, up there on road repair, is darned near impossible to ever catch up on, now. This is why the roads have gotten so bad, from pre-covid times. 

We got hit four times with rocks and got three chips on The Whale’s windshield. One rock hit hard enough to give us a crack.

Jonah took a beating. She got one chip on her windshield, plus another hit cracked her windshield. One of her headlights got hit with a rock, too, breaking it. (living in the land of the midnight sun was great, so we didn’t have to get that light replaced, till after we got back to the L48).

In addition, it appears one of her fenders took a small hit. Looks like somebody backed in to her? Hard to know when people are dishonest and don’t leave a note. The good news is, we did not repaint our Bug through her restoration process, intentionally. As long as she is our tow vehicle, there is no point. 

We are grateful for many things that did go right, like our health, which allows us to live as we do. Can’t even put a dollar amount on the value of good health.

God had his hands all over this trip, because the issues we had with Jonah did not happen while she was being driven more than a few mph, and though towed, she never fell apart, (underneath) till after we were stopped. It can always be worse, so there’s that.

I have shared all this, not to discourage anybody from making this trip in an RV, but simply being very transparent about what we experienced.

To be honest, had we known just how bad the roads really were, we would not have taken our RV up. We know others RVers who feel as we do, so it’s not just us.

Many rent Rv’s and aside from the obvious business name printed on said RVs…. We also noted these drivers drove very fast on the bad roads, without a care in the world.

We just cringed.

So yes, there are RVers who will say the roads are just fine.

We got flipped-off, honked at and yelled at, constantly for going so slow. We pulled off, often to let people pass and of course used the slow lane, when a passing lane was provided. I remember, specifically, a normally 49 minute drive; between two crossings in Canada, coming down from Dawson City, it took us over four hours, just to give you one example (bad roads/construction).

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If interested, I posted blogs through our entire trip: Alaska and Canada. I shared on the The good, The bad and sometimes The ugly. Lots of details to help answer your questions. If you have more questions feel free to ask me. I’m happy to help.

I offer a lot of detail to address the big rig issues and concerns in Alaska. I never read anybody criticizing the use of trailers, but for some reason trailer people criticized us with big rigs. Don’t know why. Also, I happen to love Glamping, so full-hookups were great, when I arranged camping spots. I could even do laundry as we traveled on long drive days. I love my dishwasher, and airbag suspension. Built-in generators, and having multiple lithium batteries are the bomb when boondocking. There are so many things big rigs add, not subtract from, for this kind of trip.

Anywho, the truth is, any RV can do this trip. While it’s true we do not fit in all spaces, we do fit in plenty and I like to reserve in advance, anyway, even in the lower 48 states and Mexico. In fact, I began reserving our entire trip to Alaska, the February, before. This included excursions.
Our mode of operation was staying in campgrounds for about five days, each stop and doing all excursions and exploring from each stop. (I think we stayed in 13 campground). We never had to search for a campground at the end of a tiring day of travel.

There are differences in types of RVs for sure, but do what you do. Go with what you have, and have as much fun doing it, as possible!

Oh, and keeping your rigs clean? We like to keep ours looking good. We had to get over this, though, while up north. It was near impossible. Also, Glacier dust is a very unique kind of mess. It’s black and it gets into every nook and cranny. We would deep clean three times, inside and outside of our rigs, before we got rid of the stuff! 

Be sure to change your air filters and fuel filters. Just keep extras on hand. Also, your intake vents for A/C and heaters….lots of dust there.

To access my blog posts:

Travel Blog Website:
“2 Gypsies In The Wind”
https://2gypsiesinthewind.com/

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