Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Driving to Fairbanks

Next June my friend is driving from Oregon to Fairbanks. He will be pulling a 5th wheel travel trailer with a Ford 350 diesel deuly For those who have made this drive what four or five pieces of advice would you give this seasoned traveler he might need to know?

Take bug repellent.

A friend did that trip and brought a electrified bug zapper racket thinking he would use it to kill the mosquitoes. It got so many that the smoke it created set off the smoke alarm in his trailer.

Slow down and enjoy the trip....bring the binos and scan the hills.

There's several waterfalls and hot springs to check out.

RTd it more than 50 times and never tired of it.

Windshields usually get chipped ......live with it.

I like a screen to protect radiator from rocks.

I live on the Alcan. Tell your friend that Ft Nelson fuel prices are INSANE. Tell him to fuel up in Ft St John. He should then be able to make it to at least Toad River, if not Contact Creek. Contact Creek Lodge is located about 45 min SOUTH of Watson Lake, and it will have the cheapest fuel on the entire Alcan highway so fuel up there for sure. Owners name is Richard, his wife name is Denny. They are open 7-days a week, real nice folks who have been there for decades.

The Smith River falls are worth seeing. They are located about 2km off the highway and the access road is good. Tell your friend to look at a map to locate the Smith river, it is north of the Liard river. The road into the falls is on the north side of the highway about 1-km past the Smith River bridge. My fishing lodge and trapline are located at the headwaters of the Smith.

The Liard river hot springs are worth seeing. He cant miss them.

The section of road from Haines Jct. Yukon to the Alaskan border will be the worst. Lots of frost heaves through that section and a lot of guys bust axles on their 5th wheels in that section each summer....SLOW DOWN.

On the BC and Yukon section there is no need to pay to park. Pull off the road and camp anywhere. No one will bother you.

Your friend will enjoy the drive, and tell him to pull over and let locals get past him when he sees a line of cars behind him ! Also if he wants to take a few days and experience some world class fishing, we are located 90 air miles out of Watson Lake! He can check us out at www.grizzlycreeklodge.com

I need to correct my post he has a Chevy silverado 3500 duel

It's actually a pretty good road. I've made several trips to Alaska driving semi truck. All my trips were in winter except 3. I had to go in June and twice in September. I did it for winter work from the farm. Last time I was there was 2002. I really enjoyed it.

Buy a Milepost, of course.

Radiator screen and rock guard. They help. Expect rock chips anyway. We made it all the way down to CO last summer without damage, Then on way back picked up a good one in WY, and a couple more in Canada. Heavy oil and timber truck traffic. The chances of needing a spare tire (take one). are small, even less so for hoses and belts, etc, assuming the vehicles are up to the mark to start with.

As above - take your time, keep the binocs and camera handy. If into video, something better than cell phone. (I never seemed to have my Canon handy last summer, or forgot it had video capability). Stop every couple hours for a walk around, not just the vehicles, but some hiking. One doesn't HAVE to do 500 miles a day!

Smith River Falls! ( What Yukon254 said. Canadians aren't much for advance signage.....usually small signs RIGHT THERE...). Waders and fishing rod, with appropriate license. I'd overnight there. Will next time down. I have pics- will see if I can post some below.

Cheaper is always better but don't overly obsess about fuel prices, Even if you hit every most expensive place on the way, it is only a couple hundred dollars difference at most. Better to fuel up than sphincter up wondering if you will make the next station. We tried never to get below a quarter tank, but did once or twice - still no worries - it was planned. More or less.

Smith River Falls parking



Smokey!






The river is not on a slant - but my wife might have been.....

A Yukon said- quite a few places to roadside camp in northern sections. (a LOT fewer than the last time I did the Alcan, about 20 years ago. Fancy new highways eliminated most of them) Keep your own notes as you come north for potential overnight/break sites, including distances from checkpoints (towns, rivers, etc) so one can plan nightly stops on way back down, as one travels. Milepost does not list gravel pits, etc...

Wish we had done so on way south...

If one is into hiking, there is a good one at Kluane Lake, going up the mountain. Once out of timberline, one can go quite a ways back into the alpine. Part of it is real, up to the historic point viewing platform. From there it is a game trail up the ridge beyond. Take some flagging tape to mark the "trail" where you break out of timber, not that we had any trouble coming back down after missing it. But then, we are used to stuff like that. Next time we'll take more water, and get back in more. Dall sheep.

That little white dot down there in the parking lot is our camper pickup. I got a bit of a slant to this one also




And in the other direction..... I'm telling you guys, some of this scenery is just too good for Canadians, not that I have anything against them.....



IIRC, just north of Smith River (we walked in on SRF road, and there was bison crap on it). BE CAREFUL! Truckers don't slow down for anything - this herd of 40 or so were on both sides of the road, even up on the gravel shoulders. Those mother-truckers barreled right on through, doing 70 or 80 - whatever the speed limit was there. Saw one bison road kill., as well as one caribou (missed a big bull by inches ourselves), one sheep, a black bear, a moose, an elk, a couple deer.

Great pictures las! The fishing is pretty good at the falls most of the time. Our place is about 90-miles upstream. I forgot about the bison. Good info to watch for them. They were introduced with the idea that the herd would grow and create hunting opportunities but they never leave the highway right of way, and many are killed by vehicles every year. A few people have died as well.

I always give the folks at Contact Creek my business as they are one of the few that stay open all winter.

I usually wonder why Watson Lake is on the map......only a small percentage of the gas pumps in town
will work.

If there are oil folks working around Ft Nelson or Pink Mountain, the prices for fuel,food and lodging
will be high.

The 5th wheel can be easily pull-through parked at the Visitors Center in Whitehorse and it's within walking
distance of the Stern Wheeler and shopping.......a nice town.

Vern Ft Nelson is a ghost town now. The oil crashed and they cant give houses away. I've never seen it so slow there and they dont think it will ever come back to what it was.

Lot's of good advice here. The Milepost really is a big deal to have. It will tell you when the next gas is, the next rest stop, what is that lake out there, all kinds of good stuff. Biggest thing is taking your time to make the trip. Lot's of good campgrounds, and they fill up fairly early. They have firewood there available so enjoy the evenings.
Take a Mosquito net, if you aren't around them much, it will bother you. Fuel is expensive, it is what it is. slow down and let people get around you, but it gives you the opportunity to get a lot of pictures. You may see more animals on the trip than you will in Alaska.
Instead of dealing with the frost heeves from Haines Junction, when you get past Whitehorse, head north to Dawson city and the Top of the world highway. It's on the Yukon river and there's a drive on drive off ferry there that takes you and your vehicle across the river for free. There are campgrounds there and it's really nice. It will take you through the rest of Canada and back into Alaska, then through Chicken and on into Tok.
There are some serious frostheeves there also, take it easy. Forget getting in a hurry. There's a couple of campgrounds in Tok also.
I left off, don't miss experiencing Liard Hot Springs, a natural warm water springs. Enjoy your self.

ROFL! Yep, I have made 4 trips up and one back down. This squares with what I found.

must be a rule north of 58 degrees that only about 1/3 of washers/dryers can be working at any one time.

I've been in Fairbanks since the mid-fifties and driven the highway close to 50 times and made it in every month of the year. You've got solid information from Yukon254, Las, and more. Can't add much more to what has already been said, but I'll confirm that its a great drive that everyone should make at least once to be able to appreciate beauty and breadth of the trip and terrain. In '58 it was a challenging trip, now, to me, it is always enjoyable, interesting and though it's basically the same road there are always new experiences to whet the palate. At 86 I'll be making another trim down and back next year. Tell your Bud to relax, take his time and enjoy!

Last time I went by Kluane Lake where las took that picture, there were Stone Sheep on that mountain and I saw a grizzly on the side of the road a few miles past the pull off. Tell your friend to keep his eyes open as there is lots of game on the Alcan. Camping is definitely the way to go.

Along that stretch of road, where LAS took the picture there are many small pullouts. In the spring they hold ridiculous numbers of bears, hidden just off the highway.

The one I was talking about is on the left when headed south, it was a pretty decent sized pulloff. Been a long time since I've driven it so I'm sure things have changed.

Last time I drove it was just a couple years ago... answered the age old question about where bears crap... They do it right on the edge of the road.