alaska etc.

[Boxster1971]

I was in Alaska for a month last summer. Drove our Airstream converted Sprinter up the AlCan Highway and then took a BC ferry part way back from Prince Rupert, BC to Port Hardy on Vancouver Island. The ferry was about $1,100 but saved a lot of driving.

[Applegater]

We have driven to Alaska three times,driven up the Alaskan Highway and down the Cassieras well as up the Cassier and down the Alaskan Highway. We travelled on all of the highways and major routes in Alaska including the Dalton highway to Prudhoe Bay, the Denali highway between Paxton and Cantwell, as well as the Klondike Highway to Dawson City, across the Top of World to Chicken. The third time drive was as much a ferry ride as a drive, took the Canadian Ferry from Port Hardy to Prince Rupert, the Alaskan Ferry from Prince Rupert to Junea and on to Haines. We prefer early August thru September, less bugs, most construction is finished, and less travelers. The year we drove the Dalton we had Fall colors all the way home to Oregon. Since Alaska, Yukon, and N. BC is so large, use the flexibility of the "B" to go where the best weather is, fires are not, and fishing is good.

[Davydd]

Impressive Alaskan resume there Applegater. Makes me jealous.

Our first trip was a bus/train inland the first week and then on a cruise ship the second week. We ended our trip in Vancouver the Sunday before 9/11. We flew out of Canada on 9/9. Had we stayed over like some expressed on the cruise ship we would have been stuck in Canada. It was a good introduction and made our RV trip a bit easier to plan.

I think coming up from Oregon might be easier to extend a stay through September. We have to cross back over the Rocky Mountains at some point and I think that would limit us to the middle of September at the latest unless we swung way south. Glacier NP starts closing up the weekend after Labor Day and is usually complete for all practical purposes by mid-September. We have been caught in freezing weather and snowstorms in Yellowstone and the Wyoming Big Horn Mountains the weekend after Labor Day. The Black Hills was closed up for camping by the end of September.

On the ferry trip did you get off and get on with your B and spend some time in the towns? The ferrys don't plan their trips to get in early and allow you to spend time in the towns all day like the cruise ships. You can't get to Juneau, Sitka and Ketchikan with a B other than a ferry. Skagway and Haines are accessible off the Alaska Highway and Hyder via the Cassiar Highway.

[Applegater]

David, didn't spend more than the scheduled layover this time. We got our reservations late in the year which cuts down on choices if one wants cabins on board. But we have spent time in the past, but not with RV. Flew into Gustaveus for halibut fishing and have cruised in SE Alaska. Looking forward to next trip to Alaska and Northern Canada when we get our next B.( flying to Cleveland next week to visit Advanced).