On the Road Again...Alaska, or Bust!

Our next big road trip begins tomorrow -- 11,000 miles to Alaska and back!

For the past two months, we have been busy with a combination of planning and shopping. Once we cross the Canadian border, the route is fairly remote all the way to and through Alaska, with gas stations far apart and spotty cell service along many of the highways. One official Alaska website states

If you have an emergency, plan to figure it out on your own. If you do have cell service, call 911.

We heard stories from folks about waiting in a town for days for a car or trailer part. Another guy we spoke with had to leave his wife at the RV while he walked five hours to the next town for help. So...since we recently bought a new trailer and just replaced our older truck with an almost new one -- and we aren't getting any younger -- we figured this was the best time to drive to Alaska!

Shopping has been a bit different for this trip than all the others we have taken...

Shopping List

extra tire for truck
extra tire for trailer
dual fuel generator (propane & gas)
gas cans
truck fuses
tire chains
spare parts for the truck (headlights, brake lights, turn signal lights)
heated water hose (for hooking up to water at campgrounds)
travel insurance
bear bells (to alert the bears and hopefully get them to mosey out of the way when we are hiking)
3 months of dog food purchased in smaller bags so we don't have to cross an international border with an open bag of dog food
certificate of health for dog for crossing the Alaska border
printed rabies certificate for crossing the Canadian border
completed CDC form for taking dog in and out of the lower forty-eight of the US
dog tag that holds an Apple Airtag so we can locate her if she gets separated from us
Bordetella vaccine for dog, so we can board her when we go on excursions that don't allow dogs

Our trailer is equipped with solar, which works great -- so we can usually last without electric hookups for several days. This trip will give our boondocking (camping without water & electric services) set up quite a test, since we anticipate more cloudy days (less solar charging time) than we are used to. Hence, the purchase of a generator as a backup power source.

Planning the Route

Our planned route. Coastal route on the way out, inland route on the return.

Since this trip is not related to my genealogical research, the planning process for me has been different than our most recent trips -- all recreational! We reached out to friends we want to visit, identified sites we want to visit and found potential camping spots all along the way. Traveling so early in the year will have its challenges -- the weather might require us to pause or adjust our route. I did make several key reservations (boat trip, dog kenneling, specific campgrounds we need), but left most of the nights unreserved so we can have as much flexibility as possible.

Did I mention our kids are joining us for a week once we get to Alaska? Excited! So, we found dates that worked for both of them, bought airline tickets and reserved campgrounds for that week that would allow both a trailer and a tent at a site.

We learned valuable information from numerous books and websites, Facebook groups (RVing to Alaska), and actual real people we met who have made the drive. For detailed route planning and finding camping spots, we used RV Life Trip Wizard, Google Maps, and created a spreadsheet. It has been a bit overwhelming, but I feel very (well, mostly...) prepared!

The plan is to stay mostly in state and provincial (Canadian) parks -- resorting to private (more expensive) campgrounds when we have to. When we can, we also use Harvest Hosts, where can can park one night for free at a business (brewpub, winery, tourist shop, etc.). They just ask that you make a purchase or a small donation. On our last trip, we stayed in the parking lots of a taphouse in Kingman, AZ, a private swimming center in Tucson, and a tourist shop right outside the Petrified Forest National Park. Sadly, there seem to be very few Harvest Host sites along this route.