Please help - alaskan rv trip starting in ancorage - 12 days.

Please help me I am planning a road trip in x 2 RV's with the whole family (ages 11 - through to 66) for 12 days starting in Anchorage.

We don't love loads of driving, no more than 4 hours a day and want to see and visit as much as possible.

If anyone could advise that would be fantastic. We arrive on 13th July and drop RV back on 25th.

I have tried google mapping some stuff but there are a lot of road closures?

I don't really know what i'm doing and would much apprecaite some experienced help?

Jo x

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

What kind of help and advice are you looking for. We'll certainly be able to offer suggestions and ideas, but everything still is going to start with you. The number of things you could do with 12 days starting in Anchorage is virtually endless, and no one on the internet will ever know more than you what you and your families interests are. The more you tell us what you've already come up with, the more we can offer additional ideas, suggestions, and other advice.

As far as google maps, I assume many of the roads are marked as closed because they are currently closed for winter. This is one (of many) reasons that paper maps really are still the best tool when just starting to plan for a trip. That's going to give you a visual idea of what you've got to work with far better than anything you'll find on a computer screen.

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

As it happens, one of our contributing writers just finished detailing a trip through Alaska. That would be an excellent place to start as he covered much of the state, did so recently, and wrote with enough specific information to be useful in your own planning. My own trip to Alaska was long enough ago (more than 15 years) that I was not in the habit of writing up my experiences, but I will say that my three fondest memories of that trip were a sight-seeing flight out of Talkeetna, the train ride from Fairbanks to Anchorage, and a whale watching excursion out of Anchorage. You're in for a great adventure.

AZBuck

Well we are from the UK and would just love to see the best things in the time we have. Most of us are quite adventurous.
We don’t love fishing but love exploring, site seeing and up for some white water rafting and stuff like that. Some wildlife stuff.

Thank you AZBuck. This looks amazing but we have a x7 person RV and I’m worried as this trip was done with a 4x4.

The point of looking through the Field Report that Buck linked to isn't to give you an itinerary that you also need to follow, instead, it's an example that you can pull ideas and inspiration from. Yes, there may be areas you can't get to in an RV, but that doesn't mean every place mentioned will require 4 wheel drive - just like not every thing that Peter did may interest your family, it doesn't mean there wouldn't be some places that do sound interesting.

Remember, the beauty of a Roadtrip is that you get to go where ever you want to go, you don't have to be locked into a pre-approved, pre-planned trip filled with generic stops designed for the broadest possible audience. The more you embrace that aspect and customize your plans to your tastes, the more enjoyment you are likely to get out of it.

There are plenty of places accessible in Alaska on paved roads.

While the stunning images of Alaska show wilderness - mountains, forests, wildlife, untamed rivers, etc., etc., etc., and indeed there are very few inter-city highways in Alaska, the fact is that much of that stunning scenery is just a short hike off those few highways. You're going to need four days at your driving pace to go from Anchorage to Fairbanks and back. You're going to need a day at either end of your trip to attend to changing transportation modes. Then add another couple of days each in Anchorage and Fairbanks, maybe a day in Talkeetna and that's 11 of your 12 days.

This is where it's fortunate that so much of 'civilized' Alaska is 'wilderness adjacent'. Just outside Anchorage is Chugach State Park, nearly half a million acres (200,000 hectares, 775 mi²) of forested coastal wilderness with RV hookups. Denali Park (formerly McKinley Park) is approximately halfway between Anchorage and Fairbanks on AK-3, the main road between those cities. It is just south of entrance to Denali National Park and the jumping off point for the tour busses through it. All travel in the park is on these busses, so your RVs are not a show stopper. From Fairbanks, AK-2 and AK-6 are both paved highways that will take you as far into 'out back of beyond' as you care to go. As long as you're willing to hike even a little, there will be no shortage of 'wild' country that you and your family can get to and enjoy.

AZBuck

One other thing you need to keep in mind as you plan your trip is that in Alaska in July, there will literally be no night. The sun will set in Anchorage and (barely) in Fairbanks, but in both cases you will only get twilight, not real black sky night, and only a few hours at most. Even in the 'south' (Anchorage) the sun will be above the horizon for 18 out of 24 hours. Plan on making the most of those 'evening' hours to get as much sleep as you can.

AZBuck

I highly suggest waiting until March and then pick up the 2020 issue of The Milepost, which is very much a "bible" of sorts for travel to/from, in and around Alaska. It will give you inspiration about what you'd like to see, annotates what is where along the main highways (and some of the smaller ones) in Alaska, and contains a lot of good articles and descriptions.

We have a forum about camping road trips, and you'll find the Alaska listings here. Our forum focuses on the public campgrounds (state and national parks and forests, city parks, county parks) rather than the commercial ones.

Like AZBuck, my own trip to Alaska was many years ago. While I did keep a journal (and still have it), I have lots of fond memories without re-reading it. We loved our trip through Denali National Park and the boat trip we took out of Seward to Kenai Fjords National Park. Those were two favorites.

If you're there in July, when you stop for groceries, get yourself some sort of mosquito repellant. June and July can mean lots of those little pesky things around.


Donna

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AZBuck

One other thing you need to keep in mind as you plan your trip is that in Alaska in July, there will literally be no night. The sun will set in Anchorage and (barely) in Fairbanks, but in both cases you will only get twilight, not real black sky night, and only a few hours at most. Even in the 'south' (Anchorage) the sun will be above the horizon for 18 out of 24 hours. Plan on making the most of those 'evening' hours to get as much sleep as you can.

AZBuck

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Another thing is that, while you still need to get adequate sleep (particularly for whoever is driving, since they have to be awake to do so, unlike those on the bus/train tours who can grab a nap while riding), the long daylight hours do also allow you to see more than you would many places.

For instance, while the bus tours going into Denali can be 8 or more hours (depending on how far you want to go into the park on the 90ish mile road, which is mostly dirt/stone and sharp turns, so speeds are slow), they will start as early as 5am
Thus you can have an 8 hour tour and still be done by early afternoon, allowing for you to work in something else as well, which would not be feasible in too many places you travel to with more "normal" days.