Sharay, we had seen those places on previous trips, so our last trip was straight to AK, with a day spent in Banff/Jasper area, and a day used as a sidetrip to Haines. I think we were at Tok in 9 days. Cheryl can be more help since she's made the trip more times than I have.
Nice to catch up with you again! We will have less luggage this year since my sis won't be with us this year but still two bags each and a carry on each. Still have to have my computer to do payroll while I'm traveling. Maybe it will be warmer and we won't need so many cold weather things except for the arctic ocean trip. It was 90 degrees here today and it's still March. The Cassier is beautiful with some great Provencial Parks along the way. Last year we also went over to Stewart/Hyder. Beautiful but not a lot to do this early in the year. Neat glacier and lots of bears.
Sharay:
We have done the Calgary, Edmondton Mall, Glacier NP, Badlands, Mt Rushmore, Banff, Jasper, Devil's Tower, Yellowstone (not on the GAH trip) and they are all great to see but if you spend more than a few days seeing these sites you miss out on the beauty of the Yukon and Alaska. That's why we have done this trip so many times. There is still so much to see around every corner. Last year we even said it was our last trip and here we are doing it again. This year we plan to spend more hours on the road for the first few days so we have enough time to go up to Dawson City and the Top of the World Highway (25 mph and stopping ever 10 to 15 miles to check the tires). We probably won't be this way again until we retire in 5 to 7 years. I think 8 to 10 dys to Tok is more than generous.
Some of our favorite campground/parks are Kiskatanaw Bridge just north of Dawson Creek, BC; Boya Lake PP on the Cassier Hwy; Congdon Creek PP on Kluane Lake, Yukon; I try to think of otthers!
More Campgrounds/RV Parks: Awesome KOA in Hinton, BC; Tunnel Mountain Park in Banff; Talkeetna CamperPark in Talkeetna; don't know of any great parks outside of Denali (most are rock parking lots and you can reach out touch your neighbor), we have not stayed inside Denali yet); River's Edge in Fairbanks; Bear Paw in Valdez; Heritage RV Park in Homer (expensive but awesome); Municipal Park in Seward along the waterfront; Northern Lights RV Park on Muncho Lake (just north of here is where we experienced our first blizzard). Dinner is ready, more later!
We have an 8:15 orientation, so will be able to get an early start. By the time we get done at Walmart though, you'll liable to catch us! The only campgrounds that really stand out in my mind are TEK and Savage River in Denali, the Seward city campground, the Fishing Hole in Homer (cheapest alternative in Homer) and Laird River. Loved all of those!
sharay - there's a small grocery store close to the Winnebago lot where you can pick up your groceries if you want - they usually give you a $5 coupon for that place. You just have to remember that there are some things you can't cross the Canadian border with. (You can do a search in this forum for lots of information on that) We did that last trip.
We originally had 8:15am orientation too, but changed to 11:15am so we would have a later drop off time at GAH. Probably will stay as far out as Talkeena, Wasilla,etc on the last night. We have not found an RV Park/campground that we like in the Anchorage area. Anyone have any recommendations?
Talkeetna, Wasilla/Palmer, Houston CG is nice, or south of Anchor town at Portage.LOL We tend to stay at the Homestead RV Park in Palmer now that the Anchorage RV Resort is closed. Cruiser, I suspect you mean the Northern Rockies Lodge and Campground on the south end of Muncho Lake. The new campground at the Muncho Lake Lodge looked good last summer. I stopped in to talk to the owners as I noticed they had demolished the old lodge building. It is a campground only now with new shower buildings etc. They told me the cost of fuel inventory was just more than they could afford so didn't plan to sell fuel. I Plan to stop there next trip, if the timing is when I need to stop for the night.
I would appreciate it if any of you early spring travelers would take a copy of the fuel stop "sticky" at the top of the forum thread and let me know of any changes I need to make to it to keep it somewhat current. Not prices but are they open, selling fuel, etc. Are any of the ones I have listed as closed, now open? Thanks
Last year, I read somewhere, Anchorage Paper perhaps, that GAH and others were looking for drivers to do the reverse trip south with the used units they were replacing. They wanted them driven to the lower 48 so the companies could sell them. If you hear of anything on this, please post as well, thanks and have a good trip.
joe b.
Stuart Florida
Formerly of Colorado and Alaska
2011 Chevy 3500 DRW Dmax CC 4X4- Rockwood 8281 SS 5th Whl & 2008 Lance 845 TC www.pajbcooper.com web site
Alaska-Colorado and other Trips posted
"Without challenge, adventure is impossible".
I'll copy that Joe and see if I can help on our route. I'd never heard of GAH sending their units back south, but will definitely check that out too.
Cheryl, we have a morning flight out of Anchorage that day, so will probably spend our last night in the GAH lot as we did last time. It was fun reviewing our trip and comparing notes with a few other couples spending the night there.
I'm more than happy to work on your list and update it too!
I did mean Northern Rockies Lodge not Northern Lights (Northern Lights is in Dawson Creek and my least favorite place on the highway (unpleasant bath house but not as bad as the ones on the Haul Road at the Yukon Crossing).
I'll check out Houston Campground. I was looking at all the options this evening on the Parks Highway and took a look at Hatcher Pass RV Park at Mile 71. At least there are some trees between the spaces in their website pic. We want to enjoy our last night in Alaska this time and we are looking for a little quiet before we head back home! Last year we spent the last night pulled off in a parking area along Turnagain Arm. Not the best choice we've made choosing a spot for the night. I now realize that Alaskans don't sleep when it's light outside.
Any word from SueT on when she will have last years trips updated on her website? She is my hero and her website has made me fall in love with Yukon!!!!!!! I check it at least once a day for new pics and more info about the area. My favorite campground is Congdon Creek and I have only seen it frozen solid, so her pics are the only way I can imagine what it looks like without the 10 to 12 inches of ice on it. I have followed her story about Tazz, Kodi & Ursa. Since there was nothing new one night last week I re-read 2010 and cried all over again.
Sharay: I will have a bright yellow jacket on when we meet at MSP!
Grandma Carol: We fly home on Sunday, May 27th at 5:05pm. For the last few years we have caught a taxi downtown to the Market and spent the early afternoon enjoying Anchorage before the beastly trip home.
Had to look up the name of the campground in Houston Alaska. It is the Riverside RV, as it backs up to the Little Su river. Some of the sites back up to the surrounding tree line and some of the center are pull throughs. We tend to request a center one out on the grassy area as there tends to be less bugs, away from the tree line. There is a very good ice cream shop next door to the CG if a person is into that kind of stuff.
Sue t. is such a treat and has been just swamped with the job she accepted with the Yukon Quest Dog race. She has recently resigned from that position so hopefully she will get on with the important issues of life, such as finishing last summer's web page. She needs to get it done soon as she and her husband will be headed back south to the Island to get their home there ready to put on the market for sale. Suspect is will occupy a big part of her summer to get the place ready and haul the personal items to their new home just north of Whitehorse. I haven't been bugging sue much over not getting her web site up to date but may need to do so. She and I tend to email each other several times a week and have for several years. There are a few of us that correspond with each other about all sorts of matters, but primarily about Canada and Alaska but not necessarily about RVing. Just easier/cleaner to do outside of this forum, at times. Sue's photos and writing ability are just superb, IMHO
Sue has the ability to check on where her web site "hits" are originating from by country. Her site is not only popular in the US and Canada but many foreign countries. She has a good sized following in Afghanistan and Iran, as I remember as well as most European countries. In Afghanistan, we figured perhaps the followers were Canadian military troops stationed there, but Iran? I would just guess that people everywhere love to look at beautiful photos, no matter where they were taken.
* This post was
edited 03/30/12 06:36am by joe b. *
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