Alaska and Back in our Jayco Melbourne 24K

[pamanc]

We left Northern Ca on June 1, 2017. Our plans were to be gone 6 weeks and drive between 200 - 350 miles a day. No rush. Our "destination" was the Kenai Peninsula to do some halibut fishing. We did make reservations for most over night stays, especially in the more popular locations. Probably not necessary if you get to a park early in the day but many filled up by evening.

The I kept track of our expenses on an app called Trail Wallet. It allows you to set up categories i.e. Fuel, Camping, Groceries, etc. we spent average of $150/day. That included fuel, eating out, groceries, entertainment (fishing license and charter fees) and gifts.

Our RV is on a Mercedes Sprinter chassis and we consistently got 14-15 MPG. It was not difficult to find diesel and it was consistently cheaper than gas. Gas was not as scarce as we were led to believe but some roads it was more spread out. Just watch your fuel gauge.

The mosquitos were terrible in British Columbia, but not nearly as bad as I was expecting in Alaska. We purchased a Clam screen room that was a lifesaver when there were bugs. It pops up in under 60 seconds and just as easily collapses. We have 2 nearly identical small mutts. One was covered in mosquito bites before we realized what was happening. The other one did not get bit at all.

RV Parks. Probably the most disappointing part of the trip. If you like dry camping I suggest state or provincial parks (Canada). We did so much "combat camping" it got old. Most RV Parks were nothing more than a gravel lot with RV's crammed in like sardines. Dry and dusty. Here are a few gems we stumbled upon. Chelan City Park outside Wenatchee WA, Claybanks in Merritt BC, KELLY's campsite in McLeese Lake BC, PAR 3 in Smithers BC ( the small golf course is very neglected but camping was nice) Caribou in Whitehorse BC, Rivers Edge in Fairbanks. Tight sites but great facility. Riley Creek in Denali NP, Klondike RV in Soldotna. Tok RV Village was huge! Cramped but trees and shade. Toad River in Toad River , A TRUE GEM! Lincoln Rock State Park outside Wenatchee WA A TRUE GEM!
Stay away from Volcano View in Ninilchik. Toilets backed up daily, no hot water, low water pressure, 1 washer/dryer. We basically dry camped but did have electric. The positive aspect is many Charters go out of there so a short walk to the launch. Eagles galore here.

Fishing in Ninilchik with Elby Charters. Limit of Halibut in a couple hours, one was 100#. Annual limit of 4 halibut per person per year, 2 per day, resident or not. We were able to bring home over 100# of halibut fillets plus about 15# of sea bass. We got skunked salmon fishing on the Kenai River.

Roads. We just went slow when necessary. With a class C you will rattle, and a lot. There are gravel roads that are full of potholes and washboard surface. Slow slow slow but the scenery was breathtaking. Many won't travel the "Top of the World" highway but the views are breathtaking. We camped in a pull out and I can't describe the views that night.... well, not really night since it never got very dark.....

On our way up we travelled the Cassiar Highway, another road I would not pass up. This is the only stretch we had no cell service or internet for an extended time. 3 days. Nada. Most other areas had cell service in the actual town but not between towns.

Internet at RV Parks is pretty spotty. VERY slow or they give you an hour free of decent speed and you could pay for more. I found that if a park had decent cellular then trying to connect to wireless just slowed everything down so I relied mostly on the phone to use the internet.

Wildlife. We saw so many bears and moose it was incredible. Several red foxes, a lynx with a rabbit in its mouth, lots of Eagles and ravens. Stone sheep, mountain goats.

Sea otters, whales, puffins and other critters on a boat tour of the Fjords National Park.

The mountains, lakes, rivers and glaciers along the way were breathtaking. Many lakes in BC are turquoise teal color and just beautiful.

It was truly the trip of a lifetime. It was more than I expected in the beauty and expanse, larger than life. Most of the roads were in better shape than anticipated, more gas availability than expected and mosquitos weren't as widespread as I feared. They were BAD in spots but not everywhere. Just go slow and enjoy the views.

Almost forgot customs. Crossed both ways at Osoyoos, BC. Going up they were focused on firearms, etc. never asked for proof of rabies for pooches let alone the health certificate. They can enter your PP number into computer and do a background check so just be honest in your answers. They are looking for dishonest answers that they already know the answer too. For instance " when did you last visit Canada" we almost forgot we took an Alaskan cruise 10 years ago... do you own any firearms? They know if you have any registered guns in the states before you even answer. No questions about liquor, produce, etc. coming home the US Customs were entering every RV. They took citrus and avocados and tomatoes. Did not care about other produce. Thank goodness they let us keep our halibut! Our friends had 2 portable freezers that they searched pretty well. Our agent was so nice. He apologized for taking our produce.



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[Vaquero]

Dang!
That sounds mighty nice.

[jkaras7]

Pamanc, thanks for starting a new thread about your trip to Alaska. The info you provided will be helpful to us on our trip next summer. I hope others will add to this thread.

[jimp]

Thanks for sharing your trip.

[jkaras7]

Originally Posted by pamanc

We left Northern Ca on June 1, 2017. Our plans were to be gone 6 weeks and drive between 200 - 350 miles a day. No rush. Our "destination" was the Kenai Peninsula to do some halibut fishing. We did make reservations for most over night stays, especially in the more popular locations. Probably not necessary if you get to a park early in the day but many filled up by evening.

The I kept track of our expenses on an app called Trail Wallet. It allows you to set up categories i.e. Fuel, Camping, Groceries, etc. we spent average of $150/day. That included fuel, eating out, groceries, entertainment (fishing license and charter fees) and gifts.

Our RV is on a Mercedes Sprinter chassis and we consistently got 14-15 MPG. It was not difficult to find diesel and it was consistently cheaper than gas. Gas was not as scarce as we were led to believe but some roads it was more spread out. Just watch your fuel gauge.

The mosquitos were terrible in British Columbia, but not nearly as bad as I was expecting in Alaska. We purchased a Clam screen room that was a lifesaver when there were bugs. It pops up in under 60 seconds and just as easily collapses. We have 2 nearly identical small mutts. One was covered in mosquito bites before we realized what was happening. The other one did not get bit at all.

RV Parks. Probably the most disappointing part of the trip. If you like dry camping I suggest state or provincial parks (Canada). We did so much "combat camping" it got old. Most RV Parks were nothing more than a gravel lot with RV's crammed in like sardines. Dry and dusty. Here are a few gems we stumbled upon. Chelan City Park outside Wenatchee WA, Claybanks in Merritt BC, KELLY's campsite in McLeese Lake BC, PAR 3 in Smithers BC ( the small golf course is very neglected but camping was nice) Caribou in Whitehorse BC, Rivers Edge in Fairbanks. Tight sites but great facility. Riley Creek in Denali NP, Klondike RV in Soldotna. Tok RV Village was huge! Cramped but trees and shade. Toad River in Toad River , A TRUE GEM! Lincoln Rock State Park outside Wenatchee WA A TRUE GEM!
Stay away from Volcano View in Ninilchik. Toilets backed up daily, no hot water, low water pressure, 1 washer/dryer. We basically dry camped but did have electric. The positive aspect is many Charters go out of there so a short walk to the launch. Eagles galore here.

Fishing in Ninilchik with Elby Charters. Limit of Halibut in a couple hours, one was 100#. Annual limit of 4 halibut per person per year, 2 per day, resident or not. We were able to bring home over 100# of halibut fillets plus about 15# of sea bass. We got skunked salmon fishing on the Kenai River.

Roads. We just went slow when necessary. With a class C you will rattle, and a lot. There are gravel roads that are full of potholes and washboard surface. Slow slow slow but the scenery was breathtaking. Many won't travel the "Top of the World" highway but the views are breathtaking. We camped in a pull out and I can't describe the views that night.... well, not really night since it never got very dark.....

On our way up we travelled the Cassiar Highway, another road I would not pass up. This is the only stretch we had no cell service or internet for an extended time. 3 days. Nada. Most other areas had cell service in the actual town but not between towns.

Internet at RV Parks is pretty spotty. VERY slow or they give you an hour free of decent speed and you could pay for more. I found that if a park had decent cellular then trying to connect to wireless just slowed everything down so I relied mostly on the phone to use the internet.

Wildlife. We saw so many bears and moose it was incredible. Several red foxes, a lynx with a rabbit in its mouth, lots of Eagles and ravens. Stone sheep, mountain goats.

Sea otters, whales, puffins and other critters on a boat tour of the Fjords National Park.

The mountains, lakes, rivers and glaciers along the way were breathtaking. Many lakes in BC are turquoise teal color and just beautiful.

It was truly the trip of a lifetime. It was more than I expected in the beauty and expanse, larger than life. Most of the roads were in better shape than anticipated, more gas availability than expected and mosquitos weren't as widespread as I feared. They were BAD in spots but not everywhere. Just go slow and enjoy the views.

Almost forgot customs. Crossed both ways at Osoyoos, BC. Going up they were focused on firearms, etc. never asked for proof of rabies for pooches let alone the health certificate. They can enter your PP number into computer and do a background check so just be honest in your answers. They are looking for dishonest answers that they already know the answer too. For instance " when did you last visit Canada" we almost forgot we took an Alaskan cruise 10 years ago... do you own any firearms? They know if you have any registered guns in the states before you even answer. No questions about liquor, produce, etc. coming home the US Customs were entering every RV. They took citrus and avocados and tomatoes. Did not care about other produce. Thank goodness they let us keep our halibut! Our friends had 2 portable freezers that they searched pretty well. Our agent was so nice. He apologized for taking our produce.



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As a follow up, a few questions:
1. Did you rely on Canadian currency or use credit cards for many of your purchases?
2. Which routes did you take going north and then returning south?
3. Was there any issue with the availability of propane?

I'm sure we will have more questions going forward. Thank you again for starting this thread.

[Pfflyer]

Sounds like a great trip except for the exam at the border.

[Cranetech]

Awesome thx for the info. We are planning on going in next summer.

[koko]

Did you get any dings/broken windshields/flat tires? These were the only reasons we decided not to go this year. Assume you weren't towing?

[pamanc]

We don't tow anything. No dings, windshield or flats. We checked tire pressure frequently and the couple traveling with us had a long screw they had to have removed and tire repaired. Air filters get clogged so I'd recommend carrying a spare filter. Our A/C quit until we got a new filter.


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[geezerbob]

Sounds like a great trip. We went to AK and back last year, our blog has more info if you are interested. We also were searched at Osoyoos but they were nice about it. No tire problems. But the opposite we didn't have any reservations and didn't have a problem except near Vancouver on a holiday weekend.
You should have reservations for Denali though. We would hit the road about 8:00 a.m. and look for a place to land before 4:00 p.m. There is a list of the type of camp grounds on our blog and costs. We used mostly credit cards and they take care of the exchange rate for a very minor charge.
We will be going again.
Bob and Lorraine
Bob and Lorraine's Latest Adventure

[geezerbob]

I forgot we also loved the Cassiar highway and took it up and back.
Pictures on our blog

[jkaras7]

Originally Posted by geezerbob

Sounds like a great trip. We went to AK and back last year, our blog has more info if you are interested. We also were searched at Osoyoos but they were nice about it. No tire problems. But the opposite we didn't have any reservations and didn't have a problem except near Vancouver on a holiday weekend.
You should have reservations for Denali though. We would hit the road about 8:00 a.m. and look for a place to land before 4:00 p.m. There is a list of the type of camp grounds on our blog and costs. We used mostly credit cards and they take care of the exchange rate for a very minor charge.
We will be going again.
Bob and Lorraine
Bob and Lorraine's Latest Adventure

Geezerbob, thanks for the info. This too is helpful. Also, thanks for the link to your blog, we are going through it now and enjoying seeing your experiences.