Making an Alaska trip with our Newell Coach

[Newell Attack]

Thinking of heading up to the great land of Alaska and wanting to hear hopefully from some of you who have made the venture and can give me some ideas of the best months to travel there, what to check out or try. Recommended campgrounds or anything else that could make for a nice adventure?

[lbrachfe]

May 15 to Sept 1 is the only real window of time and will take all of that to travel it. We have done it and saw Prevost's and Newell's there and in BC

[tuga]

Jeff & Leann,

Alaska is an awesome trip; we did it in the summer of 2010. The campgrounds leave a lot to be desired. Or put another way - they are crap! 30 amp service if you are lucky, no sewer at each site, no cable, gravel sites, plenty of dust (they haul it in), and packed in like sardines. They are not all this bad: Tok, Alaska, Haines & Haines Junction Alaska, Skagway, and Dawson Creek, BC were fairly nice. There was one in White Horse that was also nice. Just use a Big Rigs Best Bets catalog and don't expect too much.

Be sure to stay OFF of the TOP OF THE WORLD HIGHWAY! It is 80 miles of gravel road that will cover your coach with mud and rocks and make the biggest mess you ever saw. It connect Dawson City with Chicken. My advice would be to go to Dawson City and when you are ready to leave go back the way you came from - skip Top of the World Highway. It's dangerous!

Canada is beautiful. Some of their provencial parks are nice. You will probably just boondock in a rest area most of the time with no hook-ups. Make sure your house batteries are fairly new so you won't have to run your generator too much. Night time temps are in the 50s so you won't need AC. Food and diesel is expensive. When you see a good price on diesel buy it! MasterCard & Discover card charge a 3% surcharge in Canada; so we just brought cash!

So much for the bad news: now the good news. Canada and Alaska have some of the most beautiful and breath-taking scenery I have ever seen. It is definitely worth it. You will see more wildlife than you could imagine.

It is the trip of a life time. Take your time and drive slow and enjoy all of the splendor. Denali National Park is one of the highlights of the entire trip.