Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Question for the Liza Murcowski voters

What part of the state? Expect temps down below freezing until mid to late May, but not likely colder than in the low 20's unless your'e heading far North.

Diesel has been consistantly $4/gal in Anchorage and I doubt the price will be dropping significantly. If you're driving the Alcan expect to be paying more through Canada and more remote spots in Alaska.

Like anywhere south of the Huffman Safeway.

Are you moving or visiting?

Gotta love living around the corner from a refinery, and paying more for gasoline and diesel

Don't get me started.....

Bet you don't feel the same way about that fat check you get back from AK nearly every year that comes, effectively, from Big Oil....;)

That "fat" check, derived from the profits of money saved by the State, money which came from royalties paid by Big Oil for resources which belong to the State - to all of it's citizens, I would gladly forgo if we didn't have to pay between $7 and $9 for our gasoline and oil, or could get natural gas piped in locally. For us it's kind of like living in Detroit, buying and American car which was built in Detroit, shipped to Germany, and then purchased from them. Somebody apparently makes good on it.

Jealousy is not becoming...

just saying

We have McCain down here so understand the situation with Murcowski!

We'll be spending as much time up there as possible -- maybe late May to Sept. Will hit Alaska at Tok or maybe come Top of the World from Dawson and spend some time working down to Tok. Thought we'd head for Fairbanks for a week or so and then Prudhoe, just to say we've been there.
Don't yet know if we want to drive up to Prudhoe Bay. Maybe better to take a tour and save the truck/camper?

Actually it's good to hear the diesel price is still around $4.00. We pay $3.65 in Tucson. Kinda hoped we could average not more than $4.50 -$5.00 across the trip. Guess we'll see how that pans out.

Thanks for the comments. Appreciate any info directed to sites/experiences/hwy condition/weather available to 2 old folks on their last long drive about. Is there anything along the Richardson Hwy worth seeing?

Cheers

It's okay to ferry a vehicle; you'll still be within a hose length of a standard fuel spigot at the other end of the ride. Just don't barge your vehicle anywhere; it's to 'barge-only' places that fuel gets real spendy - and sometimes questionable.

Never said I was purty... :0

You should be ok in May, be aware that the Taylor is a snowmachine trail in the winter (not plowed). If there is a big late dump of snow, you might have an interesting couple of days. Some cool country up there though, and worth the trip even if you did it later in the summer as a side trip.

Driving to Deadhorse is certainly doable. Just keep in mind that it is a trucker's highway, and it belongs entirely to them (just ask). It is a gravel road, and sometimes 70mph is too slow and you'll be holding trucks up. But I'm sure they will figure out a way to let you know if that happens. I'd bring a couple of spare tires, and you'll want to figure out your fuel situation before making the trip. A CB isn't a terrible thing to have there either.

If you had a clue, we could have a discussion. Alas....

Nor is ignorance.

That is directed at Brent, BTW.....was merely expanding on your spot on observation, bearhuntr.

Jeff

The Rich is mostly "fly over country" 'tween Fbx and Valdisease. There are a couple spots to get close to the TAPS for photo ops, but that can be done at Fox, near Fbks too.

Lots of scenery along the road though. Not sure what old roadhouses are left. Sourdough burned a few years back.

Thompson pass would be worth a look-see for AZ folks, especially early in the season to see it snowed-in.

The thing with Prudhoe is you can't drive onto the oilfield, you can only go as far as Deadhorse, and then you have to take a tour to get onto the field. I guess it's because I've been there enough times that I feel it really isn't worth the drive, as it's 400 miles of gravel road each way just to say you've been there. Definately figure on a couple of spare tires and replacing your wiendshield after the drive. The road can very from dry and very dusty to muddy and sloppy, even within the same day. There is essentially no services from Fairbanks to Coldfoot, and nothing from Coldfoot to Deadhorse. And there really isn't much at either Coldfoot or Deadhorse.

I do believe y'all have talked us out of driving to Prudhoe! Maybe we can get in on a tour from Fairbanks and let the tour company buy tires and winshield. 10 yrs ago we drove our motor home up to Fairbanks but didn't do the haul road then either.

The Richardson, on the other hand, sounds like something we will do. Missed that too on previous trip. Our son is coming from MN (flying) in late June and will meet us in Anchorage, but he only has a week. Wants to see Denali.

Thanks much for all the comments. We are really looking forward to this trip and hope to fill in most of the voids from 10 yrs ago. Faribanks and Valdez were our favorites from that trip. No barging for us.

Hope y'all have a great '13 and stay well (flu down here has got a real grip on the elderly).

Cheers.

McKinley (I'm old school) has a small % of visibility. IIRC, it's something like 15% - 20%.

That does not mean you won't see it, but don't get your hopes up too high.

Our best views of Mt McKinley have been from Anchorage and the hill just South of Talkeetna.

Theresa, of the many great places and things we've seen in Alaska over 3 weeks each in 2010 and 2012, our vote for the single most impressive was a Denali flightseeing tour from Talkeetna with K2 Aviation.
If I can get videos loaded on Photobucket I'll post a few from that trip into the alaska Range with a glacier landing at Don Sheldon Mountain House. Great stuff.

Actually, it's really difficult to say what was the best because we have managed to make friends with a bunch of really great folks from here at the Campfire. There is a lot more to Alaska than just scenery.