Trip Planning

Introduction to Cindy and Henry's Alaska trip

We are leaving Indy, June 10, 2018.  Our plan is to make tracks for the first week or so, until we get to Calgary, Alberta Canada.  Our thinking is that we have seen (many times) the trip from Indy to South Dakota.  We are planning another trip to hit the Rockies in Wyoming and Montana in the next year or so.  Given that, we will spend some long days driving, getting to Calgary.

Below is a general map of our planned trip.  This was hand drawn so forgive the accuracy.  The red lines represent the trip out, and blue are the trip back.  Where the line is orange, represents what is officially the Alaskan Highway.    We duplicate some of the highways in Canada, but are trying to take different routes where we can.  About 1/2 of our miles will be in Canada.

Once we hit Calgary, then we will slow way down, visiting Banff National Park and Jasper National Park for about 1 week.  We have had great experiences in Canada National Parks on other trips.  We hit the Alaskan Highway (official)  just north of Calgary/Banff/Jasper area.   The Alaskan Highway will take about 1 week as we will take our time thru there. It is about 1400 miles for the Alaskan HW.  We cross the border into Alaska at  a small town called Alcan Border.  From there we meander to the Fairbanks area. 

After Fairbanks we head towards Denali National Park, where we will spend about 1 week(maybe more).  From Denali, we pass thru Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula where we end up in Homer. This part of the trip will be along the ocean.  It will be a lot cooler and the weather will be possibly more wet.  From there, it will be Seward, Valdez and places around them.  The drives in these areas are supposed to be fantastic.

At this point, we start (kind of) heading home (blue line on the map).  We will take some days and head towards Haines and Skagway.  These drives have been highly recommended.  We are not sure how we are going to handle these areas, as we are trying to avoid the popular Cruise Ship areas.  Skagway is a big stop for Cruise Ships.  Haines, not so much.

After Haines and Skagway, we really do start heading home.  We duplicate a part of the Alaskan Highway, but then cut south where we will take a more western route, taking our time thru British Columbia.  We cross back into the US in Washington State.  Planning on taking a more northern route home, thru Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Normally, we travel with our dog Max, but this trip we are leaving him home. Daughter Sam and Family will be dog/house sitting (thanks Sam and Charles, Wesley and Nora!) while we are gone. This will allow us more freedom to take day cruises, go out to eat etc.  Will miss Max, as he is a great travel companion.

Travelling in an RV like this isn't for everyone.  Grateful that we have the freedom to take 2 months of our lives and make a trip like this. We are very loose in our travel plans.  Rarely have reservations for spots to camp until the day of, unless we are in a popular area. This gives us great flexibility.  If we find a fun area, we might hang out for an extra day or two.  On this trip we have set some milestones of being to a certain point by given date.  We have a tendency to borough down into an area if we like it, and then later miss out on something else.  So we will stick to our overall timetable pretty much.

Our travelling setup - Camper towing the jeep.

As we are travelling during the day in our RV, we may put in a long day of travel, or we might cut out to take an afternoon hike or go golfing.  (We are taking our clubs).  We have lots of fun playing the small town courses.  Another fun thing to do is to find a small town along the way with a city park and stop for lunch.  Google maps are great!  We can look ahead on Google maps and find a small town close to the highway.  Fun to check out the small town as well.

My intent is to post on this blog nearly daily with an update. Of course, this depends on availability of the Internet/wifi as we go.  I will be taking a lot of pics, but posting only the favorites of the day.  If you are interested in following along, hit the "Follow by Email" link in the top right corner.

Thanks for reading my meandering tale!  Hope you can follow along on our travels,  Henry