Guys, i have to go to Anchorage Alaska to pick up the content of a storage unit and i'm starting just south of Seattle wa. and was wondering if anyone was interested? pm me.
In 1988 I drove from San Diego to Fairbanks (and back-7500 miles total) and it was a great trip except for a 200 mile stretch of the Al-Can Highway in the Yukon which was unpaved. The gravel road was extremely dusty and rutted and it tore up my car pretty good. Hopefully our friends in Canada have paved it by now. Does anyone know if they have? Good luck on your trip....
Mid 70s a buddy graduated from college. Bought a new Chevy pickup, headed to Alaska for a gov't supplemented teaching job. Al-Can beat the paint clean off it getting there. Beautiful country though. Gotta be better now days I'm sure.
Been to Fairbanks and back about 6 years ago and I don't care if I ever go back. Roads in the northern Yukon weren't all that good even the paved ones. Keep your gas tank filled when you can because sometimes you will go along ways before the next fill up.
i have been twice in the last 5 years,driving a very expensive motorhome,towing a jeep. No damage,just drive slower than the speed limit and you will be fine. You will find unpaved roads,and rough roads,just take your time. The frost heaves will be mostly marked with a cone or paint on the road,watch for that and slow down. Both time i went with 3 other coachs,none of us had damage.
in the 70's myself and two friends left S.W. Pa. for Alaska, driving a brand new SAAB. 96 hours total driving time to get there. drove in 12 hr. shifts. had a blast.
I did that trip in 2004; drove up and came back on the Alaska Ferry. The Alcan really wasn't that bad, with only a few stretches of gravel. Great trip, wouldn't hesitate to do it again...
As you leave Fort Nelson [a town] look at the back of the south facing "welcome to Fort Nelson" sign on the left side of the highway and see if the spray-painted warning "hitch-hikers are bear food" is still there.
There is a hot springs past Ft Nelson [can't remember the name] and of course my wife HAD TO go to it. Walked in to look at it on the raised wood sidewalk, looked good but for some reason it creeped me out big time. Got the last room at the hotel down the road and came back to cook in the hot springs. I tucked a big bear pepper spray in the wife's bag just in case. Had a good soak, and went on our way. YEARS later I'm flipping the TV remote and see some familiar landmarks. Turns out I was watching an hour do***entary on bear attacks and this very same hot springs was the sight of a doozy. Teenager is walking along the raised wood walkway and along comes a black bear. Bear decides to chowdown, kids starts screaming and mom runs to the rescue. Hits the bear with a rotten stick and the bear kills her. Well, bears are poor killers but great eaters but somewhere along the process she expires. Other people get whacked by the bear [can't remember all the details] and everyone is running and screaming. Luckily, this is the main hiway to Alaska so eventually someone runs out to the parking lot and asks if there any evil Americans around [they have guns] Finally a guy unwraps and unlocks his rifle and unwraps and unlocks his ammunition and runs to the hot springs and kills the bear. No doubt the cops later seized his rifle and charged him with something nasty. He's probably still in jail. This was just a few months before we showed up at the hot springs. For some reason it never made it onto the TV Newshour.
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