road trip to Alaska Camper/ or TT or hotels

[JFought]

We are planning on going to Alaska in about 18 months from north TX.



it will be us two and one boy about 18 months old at that time. We are thing about a 3 week round trip. I would like to take the mega cab, but it rides rough unless i am heavy pulling or got about 3K pounds in the bed.



So i am leaning towards getting a slide in camper. Any thoughts on the sleeping arrangements of the trip?

My only worry about the camper is space, but in the future when my family grows, we might be totally to big for it/never use it. (I am an avid backpacker so i like to rough it occasionally. Wife is a decent camper, but really a car camper type of person but is not prissy (AKA-pull vehicle close throw a tent at camp site)



Never had any type of rv/camper, but i think dragging a trailer all they way up and back would be hard at our short time frame, plus restrictions, and national parks, thus the camper idea.



Recommendations/idea please?

 

[Tractorat]

3 weeks is a really really short time. I did it from Seattle a few years ago pulling my 19ft TT in about 3 weeks. That was OK for me. But when you add the extra time from Texas, that will be a long long trip.

 

[bheiting]

I personally don't like the idea of pulling a trailer on an extended trip. We have a Four Wheel Camper that I think is perfect for anybody that's reasonably adventurous. It's welded aluminum frame is really tough and it flexes with the truck bed when off road. Mine only weighs about 1200 lbs loaded. You could go quite a bit heavier. If you have claustrophobia, this is not the answer. It's cozy for two adults. I agree with Tractorat that you may want to allow more time. It will take a good week to get up there unless you drive straight through, and that's not much of a vacation.

 

[chrishenderson1970]

you'll likely drive through my town bit of a long haul, but idk what you'll save time wise w/o a trailer unless you want to drive fast? i think the biggest factor is fuel usage/savings vs. hotels/staying in trailer.

 

[Tractorat]

If you go the trailer route, I pulled my 19ft TT up the alcan a few years ago with no problem. And people do it all the time. I only drive about 55mph when towing, so it takes a little longer, but not much. But, on the other hand, I can stop anywhere to have lunch, snack, bathroom, etc. And it really doesn't take that much longer. Once you get into northern BC, you will slow down no matter what you drive because of the frost heaves.



If you dont want to invest in something for the long run, you can probably pick one up pretty cheap and sell it when you get back. Depending on how you buy it, you can probably get back what you bought it for.

 

[GAmes]

If you only have three weeks, fly up. My wife and I went there two summers ago with our RV and three months was too short. Not only is there a lot to do/see in AK but Canada has a lot of places to visit as well. If you drive the trip up and back you will be spending most of the trip behind the wheel.

 

[Tractorat]

I think I would have to agree with GAmes

 

[BIGNASTY]

Tractorat what route did you take? The wife and I were thinking about it but naturally we would go from a different route from MT thru Calgary and then up. Was thinking about the Alaska Maritime Highway back to Vancouver then home. You said 3 mo time is about rite I like the way you travel

 

[GAmes]

When we went up from TX we crossed the border a Sweetgrass, MT. From Calgary we headed west to Banff, then spent a week in the Banff and Jasper National parks. North out of Jasper we took highway 40 thru Grande Cache to Grande Prairie where we picked up hwy 43 to Dawson Creek and the Alaska Highway. On our return trip, going to Washington state, we made the mistake of taking hwy 37 from Upper Liard (Watson Lake) down to hwy 16. There were three stretches of gravel road shown on my map, and sure enough, there are three stretches of gravel road, and of course it rained. I won't take that highway again!



If you fish, take a rods and reels with you. Nearly every provincial park is next to a lake.

 

[Crazy Horse]

I agree with the other posters, 3 weeks is way too short of a time to make the trip from Texas to Alaska. That is unless you are going to hammer down like you just got a new job and need to get there. I could not believe when I drove up to Alaska for the 1st time in 1982, we pulled into White Horse at 2am in the morning while the sun was still up in the north. That day we had drove almost the entire Cassiar Hywy, all dirt and rocks road and one lane bridges at the time, all way up to Watson Lake, then continue into White Horse. We drove from Kitwanga BC to White Horse YT in one day, we have a log that we always keep when we travel and that day I drove a little over 22 hours. A mapquest today with that road paved all the way puts that leg of the trip at like 18 hours of driving time. Then consider your stops, fuel, p breaks, food, sight see??? with the family and everything, you loose allot of time stopping for say 10 minutes a few times every day; do the math and consider what that alone would cost you in daily down time, or milage lost from stopping. It all adds up and these are things some people never think of when planning a trip. .



The moral of the story is leave enough time to "Enjoy The Ride". The drive alone from Montana to Alaska is like driving from New York City to Los Angeles, Kalifornia on the interstate system let alone consider the down time/slow down time for construction on the Alcan. Sometimes there are 15-30 miles of consrtuction you must drive through with a pilot car just to get through the areas of the road they might have completely torn up and be repairing, and very rough going at times. The cab over camper is a much better choice for making time as long as you are not over taxing the load capacities of your truck.



Good Luck.

Phil

 

[Tractorat]

Bignasty



I crossed from Washington over to Canada at Sumas Wa into Abbotsford (?), where I picked up hwy 1 which becomes hwy 5 in Hope (?). In Kamloops, I got on hwy 97 to Dawson Creek BC, which is where the alcan begins. I drove up thru Tok to Fairbanks (spent a day or 2 there). Then I drove down to Anchorage (spent a couple of days in Talkeetna on the way down which is the town that the old TV show Northern Exposure was based on), and out to the Kenai for a couple of days. (it was beautiful)



Now, I imagine that most folks would want to take more time and stop more than I did. But for me, it is the adventure of the drive. I didnt drive fast. I wanted to get the best mileage that I could. And when I got up north, I was watching our for frost heaves. And I did stop periodically



The fastest legs for the 1st couple of days in southern BC. After that, maybe 350 to 400 miles a day. I started every day between 7:00 and 7:30, and usually stopped by 3:30 or 4:00 so I could enjoy the different places that I camped at.



It was a great trip.

 

[BIGNASTY]

We have several things that we want to do 1 of them has got to happen within the next couple of years because WE AINT GETIN ANY YOUNGER and the others can be done from a different drive's seat with 4 wheel's instead of 4 hoof's Thanks for the info BIG