Epilogue
Epilogue |
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Here are some closing thoughts on this trip and what we might do the same or different.
This trip was about 6 weeks in length, which is just about too short for this trip. While 6 weeks is a short time for this trip, sometimes there are limits to how much time can be taken. Given 6 weeks, we don't think we would have changed our overall plans at all. If more than 6 weeks were available, then a lot of things would have been changed. For us, the time on the Alaska Highway could not have been chortened much. The distance between main towns is such that those are the main places to stop at. If you wanted to go another couple hours, you would be in the middle of no where in most cases.
For a first trip to Alaska, we hit the highlights. If we were to do it all over for the first time, things we would do again would include:
Things we did not do, but would like to have done:
There really wasn't much that we did that we would not do. When not doing the main attractions, we were just checking out the area we were at, or laundry or shopping. This was important to do as well. So, as you can see, really more time is needed in Alaska to do everything we wanted to do.
This coupon book is a "must have" if you are planning on spending any money in Alaska. It is a lot like "Gold C Coupons" which are available in many communities accross America. The big difference is that it costs $100. That sounds like a lot, but it saves a lot more. Mostly these are "buy one - get one free" type coupons. The big ticket items are where this makes it worthwhile. The small ticket items are mostly just to get you in the door at some place. We had no trouble with using the coupons at any place. These books can be purchased on the internet or at the Safeway stores in Alaska.
We traveled up the "Alaska Highway" (so we could say we did it), then back on the "Top of the World Highway" and the "Cassiar Highway" coming home. This worked well for us, partly because we wanted to say that "We drove the Alaska Highway" and wanted to get down into the state of Washington to visit relatives. Even if we didn't visit relatives, the "Cassiar Highway" was a change from the "Alaska Highway" so it would be worth doing anyway.
We did not stop at many places along the way. Time limited us in this way. There are many good places to see or side trips to take that would be worthwhile. We would do them if we had more time
Generally, roads were much better than expected, especially the "Alaska Highway". Having some basics supplies along a is good idea, but not as necessary as it probably was years ago. The "Cassiar" and the "Top of the World" Highways had significantly more dirt sections, but were not all that bad either. If we did this trip again, we would have no problems planning to repeat driving on those roads.
We did not do the Dalton Highway to the Artic Ocean. This is somewhere we would have liked to go, but this road was described as a very tough one on vehicles. Supposedly even car rental agencies will not rent certain vehicles to someone who might be traveling this road. The rocks are described as large, and sharp. The trucks on the road have the right-a-way, and they move at fast rates. Supposedly, it is best to pull over and stop when they come flying past you. 500 miles of very tough roads to get to a place that has very little there didn't seem like a good investment in time, and possible vehicle wear and tear.
We got the Good Sam Club Emergency Road Service to cover us while we traveled. Since we never had a problem with the RV while traveling, we do not know how well that company handles problems, especially in remote areas. We felt safer with it, so it was probably worth it. So we would get it (or AAA) again for a trip like this.
Having a Cell phone was valuable in Alaska and in some parts of Canada. It did not have service on much of northern BC or the Yukon, so you can not count on it. Many places (not all) have phones that you can use phone cards with, so calls home can still be made in many places.
We made reservations ahead of time for RV Parks in Alaska, but did not make reservations for RV Parks along the way in Canada. While thismight not have been always necessary, some of the better parks in Alaska had no vacancies by early afternoon each day. If having flexibility and assurance of a place to stay, the best way would be to make reservations a day in advance. If you are traveling tomorrow, then make call ahead to make the reservations for tomorrow night before leaving. We saw quite a few people being turned away in Anchorage at that RV Park.
Along the way in Canada, we did not have any reservations at all and depended on spaces available when we arrived. Usually this worked fine. The one exception was in Whitehorse, where we had to go to a a different RV park when the first choice did not have any hooks spaces remaining. Calling ahead that day would have solved that case. Part of the reason we did not call ahead was wanting to see what the places looked like before committing to stay there.
The one reservation that was messed up was one near Oak Harbor. We're not sure what we would have done differently. We rechecked their website and don't see anything about the supposed restriction of two nights or more. The request was for one night and the reply didn't indicate a change to 2 nights. We still think it was crappy the way the RV Park handled it, but they did give us back the money. It sure messes up plans and sours us on that part of the trip.