Driving to Alaska

By Frank J. Parry

It's not the destination, but the journey.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Travel tales with a guide for trip planning.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 22, 2021
• ISBN: 9781637101063

Book preview

Why Drive?

Why Alaska?

Why visit our forty-ninth state? Also, our largest state? Alaska contains North America’s highest mountain, Denali (the tall one). It has glaciers galore and miles of vacant tundra and forests. Most key sites are easily accessible—even the Arctic Circle. It is rich in history. The Alaskan people are very friendly and helpful and very proud of their state. The native Alaskans are a key ingredient in culture and business while still maintaining important links to their native heritage. Alaska is, in my opinion, the optimal place for a lower forty-eighter to visit.

It’s not the destination, but the journey.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

Fly, drive, or cruise?

Other than a ten-month walk, there are basically three ways to visit Alaska—go on a cruise, fly to Anchorage or Fairbanks and take a bus or train tour, or rent a car to drive around Alaska or drive to Alaska from the lower forty-eight. For us, cruising is too restrictive and regimented. One very expensive alternative is to ferry you and your car from Seattle or Bellingham, but it will set you back thousands of dollars.

On our first trip, in 2013, we flew to Anchorage and rented a car for nine days. On our jammed redeye return flight from Anchorage to Chicago, I said to my wife, Next time, we’re driving.

On our second trip, in 2015, we drove to Alaska from our daughter’s home near Columbus, Ohio, and returned to our home in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

On our third and longest jaunt in 2018, we drove roundtrip to Alaska from Hilton Head Island, South Carolina—over eleven thousand miles.

By driving, you can create your own itinerary, have a cooler full of food and beverages, and have clothes for any type of weather or occasion. You can also create your own budget. Do you want to go bare bones for about $8,000 (maybe with some camping), or travel in relative luxury for about $15,000?

Driving to Alaska, especially if you’re a senior citizen, requires some in-depth planning. It’s important to realize that in northern British Columbia, the Yukon and parts of Alaska, you may be two hundred miles from anyone who can repair your car or your body.

Dumbest thing we’ve ever done

All our Alaska drives were fantastic experiences. All the highlights and special moments were too many to tell in one book. So what stood out? How about getting out of the car to take pictures of a five-hundred-pound grizzly bear twenty yards away in remote British Columbia during our 2015 trip! Yep, it’s the dumbest thing we’ve ever done and is covered in more detail later.

Book in advance

Since driving to Alaska is about a five-week road trip, I prefer to plan well in advance. Six months in advance is a good time to start. I put everything on an Excel spreadsheet, which makes it easy to record changes and to sum budgeted expenses. First, I sketched our route and decided what we want to see along the way. Then, starting at our point of departure, I calculated the distance and driving time to each destination. It is very important to have advance reservations in some popular tourist areas—Yellowstone Park area, Black Hills, South Dakota, around bike week, Banff and Jasper, Denali, Haines, Seward, Homer, and Fairbanks. Many of these areas are fully booked months before you plan to arrive. It is also advisable to have reservations in some remote areas—Northern British Columbia (Alcan Highway and Cassiar Highway), Watson lake, Kluane Lake, and Teslin in the Yukon Territories, Copper Center, Tok and Delta Junction, Alaska. Without a reservation, you may have to drive another two to three hours to find suitable lodging.

Confirm all reservations about one month before departure. Some motels and cabins do not have a computerized booking system, or maybe not even a computer. We stayed at Buckshot Betty’s Motel in Beaver Creek, Yukon (pop. 93) in 2018. The only confirmation of our reservation was by phone. Not sophisticated management like we’re accustomed to with lower forty-eight chains! What a pleasant surprise. Nice cabin. Great little restaurant—kinda the only place in town. They even had Drambuie to make my wife her favorite drink—a rusty nail.

Pick sightseeing spots along the way

I use AAA tour books and Travelocity to identify places we want to visit along the way, then plan the time to see them. A Milepost book is also very helpful. Along the way, you may find there are more worthwhile places to visit than at the destination! In 2015, we drove from Whitehorse, Yukon Territories to Skagway, Alaska, then took a ferry through the fiords to Haines, Alaska. Thankfully, we planned several hours to visit the Carcross Desert along the way and spent several hours in Skagway—a little touristy but a neat historic town.

Out-of-the-way places

There really isn’t much great scenery between the East Coast and Edmonton, but there are still some worthwhile stops along the way. We stopped for lunch at Starved Rock State Park