Road trip to Alaska

[BavarianBeast]

Hey All,

I did a bit of searching but could not find too much about road tripping to Alaska. My fiancée and I just came back from a 4 week trip in our 1989 Westfalia down the coast to LA and back up through Nevada, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming. We had so much fun that we decided to cancel our flights to Europe and we've decided we will keep driving north to Alaska. I was just wondering if anybody has any done this trip before? What to see and what to avoid?

We plan to complete the trip in about 4 weeks.

Thanks for any suggestions or info.

Cheers,
BB

[EK 2.0]

While not totally Alaska, this might give you an inkling??....


click me!!...

[spikerS]

Didn't a beyonder recently do this in a clown shoe? like within the last 2 years? I swear there was a big write up on it..

*edit* should have clicked the link above before commenting.

[tch7]

I spent 2 months doing it about a decade ago, and have been back up there other times for shorter trips.

The Milepost is the staple that most people buy since it tells you things to see mile by mile along the Alaska Highway.


For a 4 week trip I'd suggest you have two main options:
1. Alaska Panhandle & the Yukon - Take the ferry one way and drive the other way. You can easily spend 2 full weeks covering the stretch from Prince Rupert up to Skagway/Haines. Juneau is my favourite place of all, provided the weather is decent. Sitka is nice too. Then once you reach Haines or Skagway make your way as far north as Dawson before heading back south.

2. The rest of Alaska & the Yukon - Drive both ways (Cassiar Hwy one way, Alaska Hwy the other), blitzing it till you get to Whitehorse basically. Then slow the pace down somewhat and do part of the Dempster Hwy to Tombstone, then Dawson, Fairbanks, Denali, Anchorage, Seward/Kenai Peninsula, Valdez, Haines, and/or Skagway. Stewart/Hyder is a great little detour when taking the Cassiar Highway. Denali requires reservations to get into the park, but it is the most interesting inland part of Alaska in my opinion.


Personally I much prefer going along the coast on the AMHS since that's where the best scenery is and the most interesting towns are. A lot of the driving on the inland routes is monotonous forest that goes on forever, with podunk towns breaking it up every once in a while.

[BavarianBeast]

Thank you for the info! That M write up looks amazing, going to have a read through that later.

We figured 4 weeks would be plenty, would you suggest going longer tch7? We can potentially go up to 6 weeks before we have to be back.

[finboy]

Glad to hear you are enjoying the westy, take lots of pics!

[zipdoa]

Go see The Magic Bus 142 on the stampede trail.

If you're unaware, read 'into the wild' by krakauer.

Glad to hear you've been infected with the rubber tramp fever - I would take a westy to AK vs euro trip any day. I'll be out there soon enough in my 80!

[tch7]

4 weeks should be decent for either of those options I mentioned. If you want to see the main body of Alaska and the panhandle then 6 would be better.

Southeast Alaska is good for about 2 weeks on its own if you do decide to do it by ferry, whereas driving inland the equivalent distance is only a 2-3 day trip.