CS's EPIC Alaska-Canada Road Trip Megathread

The Sandbox General
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After completing a recent road trip that passed through the great city of Wausau, I’ve been inspired to finally complete the driveable portion of my EPIC road trip by visiting my 49th state, Alaska! Trip is planned for summer 2025.

My preliminary route will go through:

  • Milwaukee
  • Madison
  • Minneapolis
  • Rapid City
  • Yellowstone
  • Butte
  • Helena
  • Glacier National Park
  • Calgary
  • Banff
  • Edmonton
  • Jasper
  • Dawson Creek
  • Fort Nelson
  • Watson Lake
  • Whitehorse
  • Tok
  • Fairbanks
  • Denali
  • Anchorage
  • Alaska Department of Insurance
  • Chugach

Return route TBD, will probably include Vancourver/Seattle/Portland.

Preparations include:

  • Travel insurance?
  • Canadian cell service
  • Bear spray
  • Mosquito repellent
  • Full size spare tire/wheel
  • Octane booster
  • Research premium fuel availability
  • Milepost guide book

Co-pilot needed. I plan to take maybe 1 month or so off work.

This is going to be epic!

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You should stop in Juneau on the way back!

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Great plan: enjoy it!

Are you returning along the coast by taking Alaska and BC Ferries? Highly recommended. Reserve well in advance. If you do, when you get as far as Prince Rupert, take a side trip via BC Ferry to Haida Gwaii. HG is a unique experience.

BC Ferries can take you down the inside passage from Prince Rupert to Port Hardy at the north end of Vancouver Island. You can then drive to Nanaimo to catch a ferry to Vancouver and then on to Seattle and Portland.

If you make it to Vancouver give me a shout.

Alan

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Bike or car?

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When we went to Haida Gwaii from Vancouver some years ago we did it all without a car. Just took buses and boats. The inside passage was spectacular.

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I hope you’ll be spending some time in some of these beautiful places.

In SD I hope your route takes you through the Badlands and the Black Hills, as that’s basically on the way.

A possible minor detour: on your Helena to Calgary drive, you could easily visit Glacier National Park.

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I left Juneau out because you can’t drive there. I’d have to take a ferry so I’ll put that in as a maybe until I check out how feasible it is.

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Both Alaska and BC ferries take cars. Just reserve early.

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:popcorn:

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In Minneapolis, I would suggest visiting the James J. Hill House. A very interesting look into both St. Paul’s history and early America.

Let’s just say . . . Roller skating nuns . . .

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You found the joke. I had no real reason to suggest going there other than the extra challenge.

Took a ferry once on vacation… it made things stressful as it was first come first serve and forced some conservatism into the getting back for the day.

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My mom loves to schedule ferry rides in the middle of road trips to get a break from driving but still feel like you’re making progress.

I can see being stressed on a first come first served ferry that didn’t run very often.

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I always reserve when possible. The reservation fee is a small price to pay to remove the anxiety!

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Sure, where possible. The President made it sound like this wasn’t possible.

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I am not familiar with the policy on the Alaska Ferries routes but BC Ferries offers reservations on all its major routes. In summer season you may need to book months in advance though to get a reserved spot.

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I don’t think The President’s anecdote necessarily related to Alaska specifically.

Certainly there exist car ferries in the United States that do not take reservations (and lots that do).

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any time for meetups in any of the cities? Can’t promise i’m home or open, but throw us a message for MPLS

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Yup, first come first serve, and not Alaska. It was a bit of a novelty adventure, and glad we did it, but yeah, didnt want to get stranded for the night so we came back early.

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There should be. I’ve done several meetings. The one thing you should watch out for is there may be a very wide arrival window (like me being an hour+ late due to the distances involved) but I will usually text a couple hours ahead of time if I know I’m running late.