The Estate Takes on Alaska, An Amazing, Awesome, Slightly Anxiety Filled, Adventure

Copyright 2019, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Some of you may remember that last year Man and I purchased a 50th wedding anniversary/70th BD combo present for ourselves, our little motorhome we call "The Estate".

One of the primary reasons for the purchase was ALASKA!

And, the time has come.  Tentative departure is around June 10th, after we get those grandtwins graduated from high school!

I have spent more than a few hours deciding on a "primary" route.  This is to just get us in the general area(s).  Going west, I have us on a route that is about 4600 miles, with the target of Homer Alaska.  Coming back east, from Homer to Michigan, one route has a distance of 5200 miles.  If, we however, take this opportunity, which may be the only one we will ever get, to take in Crater Lake, we will add even more miles to the trip!  Yes, all those miles for one lake. Like I said, tentative.

This is the rough draft of the trip, which has already had several changes, I am pretty sure, knowing us, there will be more.

Map 1, takes us from the general vicinity of our home in Michigan, down around the south west of Chicago and then we head north to join up to I - 94.

Map 2, Heading to Minneapolis - - 

Map 3, And, forward to Medora North Dakota, where we will stop for a couple of nights to see the northern part of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  We saw the southern section a few years back, missed the north.

Map 4, After that little bit of sightseeing we will head to Great Falls Montana and Waterton, Alberta, Canada to see that part of the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park.

Map 5, Now in Alberta Province Canada, it will be all brand spanking new territory for us.  Calgary, and then on to Baniff and Jasper National Parks.

Map 6, Dawson Creek, British Columbia (not to be confused with Dawson City, Yukon) is next - - 

 Map 7, Watson Lake - - 

Map 8, Between Watson Lake, Whitehorse we will cross back and forth between British Columbia and the Yukon for a few miles, then, in Yukon we will point our noses towards the Alaska state line.  Heading to Tok Alaska. 

Map 9, Now, along here, we can do one of those "change my mind" things.  Just past Whitehorse we can choose to go to Dawson City and Chicken, taking the "Top of the World" highway.  Man is still thinking and researching that.

Map 10, After Tok we head to Fairbanks, which is the furthest north we contemplate driving.  Then, we head south to the Denali National Park area, Anchorage, and eventually Homer.  That is as far west as we will go and is the end of the trip out.

Here starts our trip back east, and south, and home to Michigan.  At this time the trip has a lot of "change my mind" opportunities.

Map 11, We start heading home by driving from Homer to Seward and then back to Anchorage and Tok.

There is Valdez to consider, and we may, no map at this time.  We have also looked hard and long at taking the ferry along the Inner Passageway.  It's quite pricy.  Close to 2 grand, gulp!  Then there is the little issue that Sir W must stay in The Estate while underway, by himself!  Many dogs do not do well down under the decks with all the noise, etc., and knowing our Sir W, he would not do well.  So, the Inner Passageway has been dismissed.

Map 12, So, from Tok we head east and south till we intersect the Cassiar Highway, this is well past Whitehorse and we will be retracing some of our steps/miles as we came "west".

Map 13, Once on the Cassiar Highway we stay on it till Prince George.

Map 14, From Prince George it is pretty much due south to Vancouver, Seattle and then the Olympic National Park.  We missed the Olympic National Park on our first trip along the Pacific coast due to a landing leg break down at Seaside Oregon. That break down changed the next month or so of that trip, and even tho we were very upset to have missed the Olympic National Park, those unexpected weeks were truly some of the best of that trip.  "Change my mind" due to breakdowns, not entirely a bad thing.

Next are three maps, the first takes us to Crater Lake National Park and then back to Michigan.  Another takes us even further, hitting the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and Cedar Breaks National Monument. The third map takes us from the Seattle area back to Michigan.

Map 15, The Crater Lake National Park route takes us back via Salt Lake City, genie research mecca.  Nope, I will not ask Man to stop.  *Wink, wink*

Map 16 shows the extended driving we would need to do to add in the possibilities of North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Cedar Breaks? Of course, each extra stop starts adding more days and lots more miles.

Map 17, This route, directly from Seattle home, takes us back on some of the roads we plan to take on the way out to Alaska.  Since we have not made any decisions on anything past the Olympic National Park, I have not really messed with this.  Much will depend on how tired we are, how broke we are and how late in the season it is getting.  In other words, to be determined.  Change our minds fodder.

So, as of now, that is the "plan", such as it is.

.