Moving to Alaska: Part Four

Location: Jasper National Park, AB to Dawson Creek, BC to Watson Lake, YT to Tok, AK to Anchorage, AK
Lodging: Comfort Inn, Ramada Inn, Young's Motel, Airbnb
Mileage:1,864 miles
Weather: 40-70°F, cloudy, rainy

The fourth and final installment of our road trip adventure involved driving through British Columbia, the Yukon Territory, and Alaska. Cody and I drove this part of the trip two years ago, and it definitely felt like familiar territory.

After leaving Jasper National Park, we headed for Dawson Creek, BC. My goal for our time in Dawson Creek was to get a picture of the "Mile 0" sign that signifies the beginning of the famous Alaska highway. The last time we drove this route, I totally spaced out getting a picture and was disappointed.  Thankfully, this time I was successful (also thankful that Cody has a better memory than me)!

After Dawson Creek we hit up another tiny town with a fun tourist attraction. Watson Lake, YT is famous for their Sign Post Forest. The forest contains rows and rows and rows of signs from all over the world.  It was fun to walk about and pick out familiar locations.  We even found one from Petoskey, Michigan! They do allow you to hang your own sign, which we didn't get a chance to do. My goal for next time is to remember a sign or old license plate, so that we can leave our own mark on the forest.

From there, we meandered through the Yukon and eventually entered Alaska at the Tok, AK border point.  The roads on this section of the drive were atrocious.  Long stretches of the highway were unpaved, with huge chunks of gravel and mud. We actually ended up with a cracked windshield just outside of Tok, thanks to a semi flinging rocks up with his tires. The crack was little (thankfully) and we were able to seal it with a simple kit we found in Anchorage. Another thing to point out about this part of the trip was that it is extremely isolated. If you ever plan to make this drive carry extra gas and/or stop at every gas station on this stretch.  Better to be safe than sorry, especially since the cell service is non-existent for hours at a time.

Throughout our isolated drive we also had many close encounters with wildlife.  We continued to see bears, wolves, deer, and mountain goats.

Our most exciting in wildlife sighting (in my opinion) was our run-in with a huge herd of bison.  The herd had taken over the entire highway, which forced us to sit in the shoulder for many minutes. Bison are huge, so there was no way we were inserting ourselves into the middle of the herd. Thankfully, a semi came up on our side of the road and we were able to follow him through.

Finally, after fourteen days on the road, we reached Anchorage.  It was honestly a breath of fresh air to be back in civilization.  Anchorage is a large city with roughly 300,000 people living inside city limits.  We enjoyed many days of shopping, restaurants, unlimited wifi, and other normal amenities.

Now, it's on to our next leg of the move...Pilot Point, AK!

Your turn...Have you ever taken a big road trip? Where did you go?
Currently listening to...Blood Bank - Bon Iver 

Moving to Alaska: Part Three

Location: Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan to Banff, Alberta to Jasper, Alberta
Lodging: Two Jack Campground and Jasper Gates 
Mileage: 687 miles
Weather: 40-60°F

This part of the trip was the stretch where we passed through Banff and Jasper National Parks in Alberta, and it was truly something to see.  Cody and I were extremely excited about this portion of the trip because we'd skipped it last time in order to save a day of driving. This time we knew that we didn't want to miss it, so we set aside the time. As we left Moose Jaw, the hills slowly became bigger, and as we hit Calgary the huge mountains of the national park were looming in the not-so-distance.

The first night that we arrived in Banff National Park, we decided to camp.  Originally, we had reservations, but they were double booked, which we found out on arrival.  This kicked us out into one of the "overflow" campgrounds.  Much as I would have liked to have been in an established camp with fire pits and such, I actually found the overflow area to be pretty nice. It had bathrooms and a ton of space. (However, I don't recommend this as a plan, as the rangers were even turning people away from overflow because it was so busy.)

A notice upon arrival let us know that our campground was under a "Wolf Warning."  I'll admit, this was equal parts scary and cool.  Wolves, up to this point, hadn't even really been on my radar as potentially dangerous predators because I was so worried about the bears. The rangers told us that a pack of wolves had been demonstrating aggressive behavior and approaching camps to take food. Luckily, no wolves tried to accost us while camping, but it was kinda fun to admit that we'd been under the warning.

Our second day in the park we wanted to drive the historic Icefields Parkway.  Now, if you are going to do this trip you have to make time for this drive. It only takes a couple of hours from end to end and the scenery and wildlife viewing is otherworldly.  There are literally hundreds of glaciers just outside your car window.  There was also wildlife around every turn, and it never ceased to surprise us.  We saw bears, deer, elk, and mountain goats just in the span of an hour or two.

After one of the most scenic days ever, we headed out of the park and towards the little town of Hinton, Alberta.  Before calling it a night though we first stopped in Jasper (the town) for some dinner and ended up falling in love with it. It reminded us both of the time we drove through the Colorado ski towns (Vail, Aspen, etc). We would totally go back to Jasper in the future, it'd be a great place to spend a long weekend.  Our busy and beautiful day wrapped up with a stop at one of my favorite hotels of the trip - Jasper Gates Resort.  It was a pretty and modern log cabin complex right inside the park gates.

All in all, I'd recommend the trek through Banff and Jasper if you are looking for a spectacular and unique vacation.  We would certainly do it again in the future, and even maybe just plan a flight into Jasper to rent an RV.  Lots of options in this mountainous destination!

Stay tuned for the next installment of our moving adventures!

Your turn...What is your favorite State or National Park? 
Currently listening to...As We Ran - The National Parks

Moving to Alaska: Part Two

Location: Thunder Bay, Ontario to Steinbach, Manitoba to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan

Lodging: Days Inn

Mileage: 840 miles

Weather: 80-90°F, humid, thunderstorms

The second part of our trip will be forever known as the "endless flatland experience." We traveled through Manitoba and Saskatchewan, which both happen to be situated directly above the Great Plains states, which tells you a bit about their geography and weather. Now, I'm sure many people appreciate the beauty of rolling farmland, but as a girl who grew up in the middle of farm country I was pretty bored.  

We stayed at a Days Inn on both nights, which was bit of a change from our itinerary.  We were actually supposed to camp at Pine Tree Campground in Manitoba the first night, but tornado warnings with extreme wind and rain drove us into the nearest town pretty quickly.  The weather stayed pretty crummy both days of travel.  Aside from rainstorms, the temperature was scorching hot and humid. The "real feel" one of the days was well over 100°F.  The dogs were miserable in the heat and didn't even want to get out of the car. 

With the severe lack of scenery and weather that pretty much confined us to the car (no hiking or exploring in that crazy weather), we ended up playing a lot of car games.  I think the game that lasted the longest was the Celebrity Name Game (where the first letter of the celebrities last name has to be the first letter of the next celebrities first name - not confusing at all - haha.) We actually kept it going for nearly an hour before Cody admitted defeat.  Finally, I was able to justify all of those years of watching E! News. Other than silly games, napping took up most of our time. 

Obviously, this leg of the trip was not my favorite.  I could see adjusting the route and hitting some of the more scenic parts or interesting cities of these two provinces if we ever do this trip again. Thankfully, when we drove out of Saskatchewan we knew we were headed for one of the coolest parts of the trip, Banff and Jasper National Parks in Alberta.  Stay tuned for the next installment of our road trip adventure! 

Your turn...What are some of your favorite car games?

Currently listening to...Go Your Own Way - Fleetwood Mac

ALCAN Road Trip Itinerary

We are officially one week away from heading out on our next big adventure. Cody, Specks, Luna, and I will be driving off at sunrise on Monday, July 18th.  This will  be our third time driving to or from Alaska, and I anticipate that it won't be our last.  The more times we do it though, the better and more well prepared we are for the trek.

  

The first time we drove to Alaska we took I-70 across the Midwest and into Colorado, and then jumped on a few more highways (heading through Utah and Oregon) that would eventually deposit us in Bellingham, Washington. In Bellingham, we jumped on the ferry and spent three days touring the Gulf of Alaska and eventually ended up in Juneau.  This trip was our shortest in terms of road time, but it was also the most stressful because we'd both never done a trip of this caliber on our own before.  The ferry was my favorite part of this particular trip.  We slept outside, watched the northern lights, and toured a bunch of tiny towns in SE Alaska.

The second time we took a big Alaskan road trip, we were leaving our home in Juneau and heading for Michigan. We drove the ALCAN highway for ten days.  First, we took the ferry from Juneau to Haines, and from there we headed through Canada and entered the United States in Babb, Montana. The drive was longer, but we were much more prepared and relaxed about the travel.  Our car was full of less stuff, we were able to stop and take a ton of pictures, and we got to do some camping (which we'd been to nervous to do the first time around).

Both trips had their pros and cons, and both were completely wonderful adventures in their own unique ways.  This time, we thought we'd try it out a bit of a different route and drive through Canada the entire time.  We will be adding two extra Canadian provinces to our itinerary this time around (Ontario and Manitoba). Our thought behind planning this specific route was that we wanted to camp on the north shore of Lake Superior and spend some time in either Banff or Jasper National Park. Both of these goals were possible with the adjusted itinerary. Here is our tentative schedule:

Day 1: Holland, MI to Wawa, ON (Border Crossing)

Day 2: Wawa, ON to Thunder Bay, ON

Day 3: Thunder Bay, ON to Winnipeg, MB

Day 4: Winnipeg, MB to Moose Jaw, SK

Day 5: Moose Jaw, SK to Lake Louise, AB

Day 6:  Banff or Jasper National Park

Day 7: Banff or Jasper National Park, AB to Grand Prairie, AB

Day 8: Grand Prairie, AB to Fort Nelson, BC

Day 9: Fort Nelson, BC to Watson Lake, YT

Day 10: Watson Lake, YT to Haines Junction, YT

Day 11: Haines Junction, YT to Tok, AK

Day 12: Tok, AK to Anchorage, AK

This schedule is tentative, and it puts us in Anchorage about five days before our flight leaves for our new home in Pilot Point, Alaska. I anticipate we will want to take at least one "rest day."  Our rest days usually consist of getting a hotel room, binge watching cable television, and ordering room service. This schedule also allows us to camp roughly every other day, which we've found to be more fun and MUCH cheaper.

If you're ever interested in driving through Canada and Alaska, and more specifically driving the ALCAN, I highly suggest picking up The Milepost. The Milepost, also known as The Bible of North Country Travel, is a travel guide that gives detailed highway information, community profiles, hotel and campground suggestions, gas station updates, tourist attractions, and so much more. It is updated yearly to keep it relevant. This kind of information is highly valued on this drive because there are long stretches without cell service, gas stations, hotels, etc. It's a beautiful and dangerous trek, which should not be done without proper preparations. Plan ahead, book hotels in advance, keep an emergency car bag with you (medical supplies, tools, etc), make sure you have everything you need to change a flat tire, and be hyper-aware of wildlife.

 If you're prepared, this drive across the vast northern countryside can be the adventure of a lifetime. And, if you're lucky like us, maybe you'll get to do it more than once. 

Your turn...What are some of your top road trip tips? 

Currently listening to... Wild Horses - The Rolling Stones