Alaska or 8411 miles

[netllama]

I've just returned (with my son) from a (likely) once in a lifetime road trip to Alaska (from the SF Bay Area). Over 19 days, I drove 8411 miles, and saw tons of stuff from Seward in the south all the way up to Deadhorse on the Arctic Ocean in the north. Thankfully, I had no car problems (not even a flat tire or damaged windshield).

Here are the photo highlights of the trip.


Along the Alaska Highway in the western Yukon Territory by netllama



Mushrooms along the Skookum Volcano Trail in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska by netllama



The Copper River near the McCarthy Road, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska by netllama



A lake along the McCarthy Road, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska (this road is 60 unpaved miles) by netllama



The Portage Glacier, south of Anchorage, Alaska by netllama



Matanuska Glacier, as seen from the Glenn Highway (AK-1), Alaska by netllama



The Exit Glacier, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska by netllama



The Exit Glacier from Marmot Meadow on the Harding Ice Field trail, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska by netllama



Mount McKinley, Denali National Park, Alaska by netllama



Caribou grazing in Denali National Park, Alaska by netllama



Dall sheep inside Denali National Park, Alaska by netllama



Seasonal streams in Denali National Park, Alaska by netllama



Three grizzly bears spotted from the (only) park road in Denali National Park, Alaska by netllama



Looking westward towards Denali along the (only) park road in Denali National Park, Alaska by netllama



Grizzly bears spotted from the (only) park road in Denali National Park, Alaska by netllama



A random moose leisurely crossing the Alaska Highway (AK-1) somewhere between Fairbanks & Tok, Alaska by netllama



Northbound on the Dalton Highway heading towards Deadhorse, Alaska by netllama



Fireweed in bloom along the Dalton Highway, in northern Alaska by netllama



Driving north on the Dalton Highway, towards Deadhorse, Alaska. by netllama



Looking southward towards the Brooks Range, along the Dalton Highway in northern Alaska (about 145 miles south of the Arctic Ocean) by netllama



Mount Sukakpak looms on the horizon, along the Dalton Highway, heading north towards Deadhorse, Alaska. by netllama



The extreme northern end of the Dalton highway, about 40 miles south of the Arctic Ocean, in northern Alaska by netllama



Prudhoe Bay, and the Arctic Ocean of which it is a part, along the north Alaskan coast by netllama



needs a wash by netllama


Keep in mind what I've posted above are merely what I've selected as the highlights. There are hundreds more posted here: https://netllama.linux-sxs.org/pix/trips/2011-07-alaska .

[chuchu]

beautiful pics. this is something i dream of doing someday.

[Seabass]

Awesome! I'm envious!

[netllama]

Originally Posted by chuchu

beautiful pics. this is something i dream of doing someday.

Thanks. It was definitely a monster of a trip. I had several days where I logged over 800 miles in an effort to get up there (or back) as quickly as possible. A few thoughts & comments from the trip:

• Of the 19 days, we were camping for 14 of them.
• Oddly, the warmest day of the entire trip was when we were camping over a hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle and the high was 76F with bright sun (all night long)
• If I did it again, I'd bring a lot more long pants/shirts, not because of the temperature but to keep the bugs off. We had bug repellent with 30% DEET, and it did almost nothing. The mosquitoes up there are absolutely horrific in some places. At one camp ground, any time we were not moving, literally *dozens* of mosquitoes would land on us.
• Americans are absolutely spoiled on the cost of gasoline. After converting to US dollars & gallons, gas in Canada was, at cheapest, about US$5.16/gallon. When I was in New Zealand last March, I was paying upwards of US$8/gallon for gas.
• I found wifi in the strangest places. One night we were in this incredibly isolated camp ground in Dease Lake, British Columbia, which didn't have running water or electricity. Yet they were running a generator to get internet access over satellite.
• Grizzly bears are HUGE animals. Respect them, as they will never respect you.
• If you're taking a child into Canada, and *both* of its biological parents are not present, you must carry a notorized letter signed by all absent parents authorizing you to bring the child across the border (with specific dates of travel). Canadian customs is very stringent about this (to avoid kid-napping situations, etc). Oddly, US customs didn't care at all.
• If you drive through mud, sand, rocks, gravel that is not completely dry, make sure to clean out the wheel wells and inside circumference of the tires as soon as possible (preferably before it dries out). Once that stuff dries, it becomes like cement and will completely screw up the balance/alignment of the vehicle.
• The standard rules of the road do not apply on the Dalton Highway. Expect all sorts of crazy stuff, like road graders travelling the wrong direction (towards you), large water trucks dumping onto the road to suppress dust, creating massive mud pools for miles, private contractors stopping all traffic to allow trucks to use the entire road to avoid pot holes, a complete lack of signs for a hundred+ miles, etc.

I'd be happy to answer questions from anyone considering a trip like this. It definitely requires a lot of advanced planning.

thanks!

[Seabass]

My biggest concern for a trip like this is gas availability. Were there gas stations within 200 miles of each other the whole way up? I only get about 22mpg if I'm lucky, so I'm worried about that and more specifically the availability of premium fuel. I've been dreaming of this trip for a long time. I'm hoping I can make it in the next 2 years now that I'm almost 100 miles from BC.

[netllama]

Originally Posted by Seabass

My biggest concern for a trip like this is gas availability. Were there gas stations within 200 miles of each other the whole way up? I only get about 22mpg if I'm lucky, so I'm worried about that and more specifically the availability of premium fuel. I've been dreaming of this trip for a long time. I'm hoping I can make it in the next 2 years now that I'm almost 100 miles from BC.

Other than the Dalton Highway (in Alaska) and the unpaved portion of the Campbell Highway (in the Yukon), neither of which are required roads to get to Alaska from the lower 48, I never went more than 80-100 miles without seeing a gas station. However, there are a few caveats:
* The vast majority of gas stations in Canada are *not* open 24 hours, nor do they have pay at the pump credit card terminals. So you need to plan ahead with gas purchases if you expect to need gas outside of roughly 8AM-8PM. Oddly, there were a few rare cases in tiny towns (such as in Deadhorse, AK & Faro, YK) where the gas station was completely unstaffed, and they had this bizarre credit card terminal unlike anything that I've ever seen in my life. Thankfully they had printed instructions posted, or I'm not sure I would have figured out how it worked.
* Most gas stations outside of the larger towns only had regular unleaded & diesel. Premium was only available in the larger towns (definitely more than 200 miles apart in some cases).
* I brought a 2.5 gallon gas can with me (filled up right after entering BC from the US) as I was not sure what to expect, and wanted the added insurance, which I thankfully never needed. If you are concerned, the best solution is to bring enough gas storage capacity. I remember a few cases where I passed a gas station in the middle of no where during the day where they were out of gas. Never assume that you can get gas at town X just because a sign or guidebook claims that one exists.

Unrelated, I brought along a full size spare tire mounted on a rim, which I also thankfully never needed. But considering the condition of some of the roads I was on, it wouldn't surprise me if i was very lucky. I'd never want to drive a donut out there, as it wouldn't last any better than the full size M&S tire that came stock on my 2011 Outback.

Hope this helps. Let me know if i can answer other questions.

[borislanger]

How closely did you get to the bears? or good zoom lens?

[netllama]

Originally Posted by borislanger

How closely did you get to the bears? or good zoom lens?

HA, there's actually an amusing story for that photo. My son & I had planned to do a hike up a mountain that day, but the trail was closed due to "bear activity". When we inquired with a park ranger what was going on, he said that someone spotted a wolf with the remains of an animal in its mouth up on the trail, and as wolves do not normally hunt/kill in the middle of the day, they assumed it might have been from a fresh bear kill that the wolf was stealing. The trail was going to remain closed for the rest of the day until a wildlife ranger could investigate further.

So we decided to start walking the park's (only) road back towards the campground. We were at mile 62, and our campground was at mile 29. The only way to get beyond mile 15 of the park road is to take the park's shuttle bus (basically a school bus painted dark green). Its perfectly legal to flag down a passing bus at any time to get a ride, so we figured we'd walk the road for a while, and when we got tired, we'd just catch the next bus. The buses ran roughly every 30 minutes, so most of the time, the road is completely deserted in the middle of the wilderness. We were walking along, and came around a bend in the road, and spotted two shuttle buses (facing opposite directions on the road) stopped ahead. Normally, the buses don't stop unless they're at an official stopping point (which this was not), or if someone spotted an animal. We started looking around, but didn't see any animals, so we continued to walk towards the buses. Suddenly the driver of one of the buses stuck his head out of the window and motioned for us to stop. We still had no clue why, so we slowed our pace but continued to walk. The driver started freaking out, and in a hushed voice told us to stop as there were 3(!) grizzly bears less than 150ft from us. We still didn't see anything, but there was a steep hill just beyond the edge of the road, so we guessed that's where they were. The driver offered to let us board so that we could be safe and view the bears. As soon as we climbed the steps onto the bus, we saw all 3 of them, just as the driver said, less than 150ft away. They were HUGE. Had the buses not been there, we likely would have walked even closer to the bears before running into them, and who knows what would have happened. While my camera does have a 10x optical zoom, we were close enough to the bears that the zoom was really not needed. We were truly that close.

Interestingly, earlier that same day, plus the previous day we saw a bunch of bears as well, but they were much further away (maybe a half mile if not more).

[subiesailor]

Dang why do all the other people get to have all the fun ha ha. That trip is on my list to do and going all the way up the Dalton was part of it. Great to hear that someone did it with a lowly subaru and not some big 4x4 rig. Guessing you put the spare on the floor in the back?

[netllama]

Originally Posted by subiesailor

Dang why do all the other people get to have all the fun ha ha. That trip is on my list to do and going all the way up the Dalton was part of it. Great to hear that someone did it with a lowly subaru and not some big 4x4 rig. Guessing you put the spare on the floor in the back?

Yea, I had it standing up vertically directly behind the front passenger seat. It fit well (with a half-inch of wiggle room) there. You can sorta make it out here right under the green sleeping bag and in front of the huge cooler:
https://netllama.linux-sxs.org/pix/2011-06/31.html