Alaska – Here we come!

After talking about it for years, we’re finally heading for Alaska. Alaska is on many people’s bucket list, and we’ve been seriously looking at making the trip since before I retired. This year, everything seems to be lining up for us, and – barring more unforeseen events – we’ll reach Alaska this summer.

The concept of the journey as the destination is especially applicable to this trip. With about 4,000 miles one-way from home to Denali, and probably about 10,000 miles for the entire trip, this adventure is all about the journey. While there are lots of things we plan to see, and Alaska is literally the end of the road, calling Alaska our destination is a bit like calling the entire southwest our destination. (Alaska is big – you could fit Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado and Nevada into Alaska and still have room for part of California.)

We have some route ideas, but even there we expect to be flexible depending on the state of the roads, weather and timing. We have only two “reservations” at this time: a service appointment in Iowa when we leave, and campground reservations in Denali in August. Otherwise, we have no commitments.

For sure, however, we’ll be starting in the Canadian Rockies. We’ve been there before, but this will be the earliest we’ve visited. From there we’ll drive up to the Alaska Highway and start covering new ground. For the way home, we have more options. Which way we go, and when, will depend entirely on how long we stay on the road and how we and the animals feel. Best guess, unless something goes seriously wrong, is that we’ll get home sometime in September.

Since northern Canada and Alaska are not places that the average person drives, I’ll be trying to post more about the route – miles driven each day, road conditions, and a bit of the nature of the places along the way.

So join us on our journey through western Canada to our 49th state.