By Road NJ to Colorado Parks to CA to Alaska (and back - doesnt have to be same way)

Any recommendations on road trip safety at this time.

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

The simple fact of the matter is that if you're thinking in terms of days, such a trip is NOT possible. Just to cover the miles between cities (reasonable guesses) in each of the four states you've mentioned would take almost a month if you did nothing every day but get in your car and drive at Interstate speeds for the entire trip. And even that doesn't take into account 'detours' to parks and other interesting sights along the way, nor does it account for the fact that the Alaska Highway is nowhere near Interstate quality. Roundtrip of the entire Alaska Highway alone often takes three weeks depending on weather conditions - which are totally unpredictable. If you wanted my best guess, I wouldn't set out on such a journey unless I had two months well in hand and a third one available if I needed it.

AZBuck

Somebody edited that post so I'm not sure what time frame he was thinking of.

About 20 years ago, our family towed a 5th wheel up to AK and back from southern California. We allotted about 8 weeks to the trip, and wished we'd had a couple of extra. It takes time to drive! Oh, in the US you can buzz from SoCal to the Canadian border in 4 days, if you don't want to stop to sightsee. Once we crossed into British Columbia, we took our time driving up TO the Alaska Highway, then time to enjoy the highway sights, stop at both gorgeous places and touristy kitschy places (like the Sign Forest, which is also historical), have to stop for all sorts of wildlife sightings and those on the road, drive down to Skagway for the history, back up to Yukon Territory and into mainland Alaska. Depending on what you want to do there, you can spend a few weeks just "doing it up". We came back down the Alaska Highway, then looped from Prince George over to Alberta to catch Jasper, Banff, and Yoho National Parks. We reentered the US at Montana, pretty much heading straight home since we were out of time and three of us had to get the school year going! We were gone 8 or 9 weeks.

I remember meeting a couple from St Louis, also towing a fifth wheel. They had 4 weeks to go from STL up to AK and home. They were racing through Canada, which was a shame, because it's so gorgeous! When the lady showed us their planned schedule, I nodded, but privately to my husband, I told him, I wouldn't have taken that on. We do speed runs, but this is rare on a trip where there is so much to be seen.

BTW, we left right after school got out in early June, and got home in early August. We got LOTS of rain in British Columbia, so much that we started wondering if we were going to have to row up to Alaska. It made it difficult to see the mountains along the approach road to the Alaska Highway, in BC, from Prince George. When we finally saw them on the return trip, we were in awe!


Donna

...if you continue to edit your requests after you receive advice and/or replies. Please simply respond to those who are trying to help you rather than making their lives more difficult. As it stand now, you're asking for advice on a non-existent trip!

AZBuck

I have re-opened this discussion for your benefit. Again, please be courteous and do not so alter your posts that information needed by responders is lost. Instead, use the 'Reply to Thread' at the bottom of the discussion to add new information. Your cooperation will be appreciated.

AZBuck

As for trip safety:

The Alaska Highway has sections that are in constant rehabilitation. Take it easy through them so that no one else's vehicle is a victim of a rock thrown by yours!

Traveling during COVID-19. Since you altered the initial post, all I have to go on is "summer trips" where this thread was placed. If this trip is THIS summer, realize first that the last I knew, Canada was still closed to tourists except under certain circumstances. So you may have to hold out on this trip.

As for the Colorado parks mentioned in the thread title, you may have more "luck" there. Colorado has opened up a little more now that vaccines have become more plentiful and more people have been able to take advantage of them. You will still find some restaurants open for indoor dining while others are not. You may have to wear a mask in a lot of places, especially in national chains because of their company policies.


Donna