New Jersey to alaska and back again!

[m. gorhon]

hi!
so in May, my friend and i are going to be driving from nj to alaska then down the coast to san francisco and then back to new jersey. this is our route, for the most part. still up in the air if we are going to go across to montana and then up through calgary to edmonton or if we are going to go up to manitoba and then across to edmonton. any suggestions? thanks in advance for your help!

[Mark Sedenquist]

so in May, my friend and i are going to be driving from nj to alaska then down the coast to san francisco and then back to new jersey.

Wow! What a trip -- Welcome to the Great American RoadTrip Forum! How long do you have planned for this little adventure?

Mark

[m. gorhon]

oh i forgot to include that! we are taking 4 weeks. that is all the time i could get off from work so that is all we have to work with.

[Mark Sedenquist]

oh i forgot to include that! we are taking 4 weeks. that is all the time i could get off from work so that is all we have to work with.

I looked again at the Google number and 10,000 seems intuitively to be a little low -- but the legs look reasonable. It is certainly doable, as long as you don't break down anywhere or face too many weather delays. What are you traveling in?

still up in the air if we are going to go across to montana and then up through calgary to edmonton or if we are going to go up to manitoba and then across to edmonton.

Given that it is still pretty early in the year, I would favor I-90 for the early part of the trip and take advantage of the slightly better road conditions. Are you camping or motelling or?

Mark

[Midwest Michael]

One idea for your trip.

Instead of backtracking by land to Seattle, have you considered taking the Alaska Marine Highway (the ferry)?

That would let you drive down to Anchorage, and its the only way you can see the Coast along the Alaska panhandle. You could get off the boat in BC, or float all the way down to Washington State.

[m. gorhon]

we were thinking about the ferry but it seems really expensive. i think when i looked it was $1500 for us and the car.

we are driving her car, a hyundai elantra i think it is a 2001. it's in really good shape and she always gets the oil changed on time and whatnot.

that is a good point about the better road conditions on I-90, i will mention that to her when i see her this weekend.

we are staying with friends and family along the way as much as we can and then motel/hotel/hostel for the rest of the way. we have places lined up in chicago, edmonton, fairbanks, vancouver, portland, olympia, san francisco and probably some places in between yet that we haven't sorted out.

[greg in ak]

Hi
I did this drive 11 years ago when i moved from NJ to Ak. The route up through Sask. to Edmonton is the best route; that's what we did. Going across Montana is longer: skip it. You don't need to go through manitoba, that's also out of the way. By May the weather should be good for almost the entire route. The roads and weather should be good until northern canada. When you get to the rockies be prepared for the chance of snow. Also we have a had a fairly cold winter so there may be a bit of snow in Ak.

Question: Are you planning to do things in AK? If you are then you don't have that much time here. Your route ends in Fairbanks. Why? There isn't much of anything in Fairbanks. Denail is a couple of hours south though. Remember, Ak is huge, so if you are planning to get around the state that will take time.

If you don't allready know, buy the Alaska Milepost. It will tell you everything you need to know about driving the ALCAN. By May most places will be open but it still will be early in the season.But you still don't want to get to low on gas. Every year some parts of the ALCAN will be under construction so there will be some slow going.

You mentioned staying in Chicago. Careful, make sure you avoid rush hours in the big cities along the way. Nothing sucks more on a very long road trip then siting in rush hour traffic.

[Mark Sedenquist]

I did this drive 11 years ago when i moved from NJ to Ak.

Thanks for the info about the route and welcome to the Great American RoadTrip Forum! Hard for me to imagine crossing the Sask. in May, but it is probably the shortest route.

Mark

[greg in ak]

We did it in April. I don't know how hard the winter has been in that area, but it shouldn't matter. The roads are all good, there isn't really any adventure to driving through there in May. Even in Ak by May it is solid spring. You don't hit the rockies until after edmonton where there may be weather. Sask. is like North Dakota. It is either kind of flat or really flat. It sounds like you have the impression that Sask. will be sketchy. It won't be much different then manitoba or alberta.

[m. gorhon]

we leave this coming saturday! both very excited and we can't wait to get on the road!