Thinking of making this trip, kinda worried about tearing up the old Airstream if the road's rough.

The worst part is always the stretch from the border into Glenallenn. My niece is driving it now from Idaho and says it is good.

Had friend drive up last week stretch between ft Nelson and Watson lake was whit knuckle driving he said due to a bad storm and snow. Another fella I know is in ft St. John for the night they are going to try and make it Watson lake tomorrow. Said so far roads been good. I agree with Sitka the Tok hwy cut off is a mess frost heaves real bad ones I might add.

Father in Law did towing a car down here in August and towed an empty enclosed trailer up in September. Said he hadn't done it in years and its in better shape but still wasn't going over 55

Should have mentioned this will be a summer trip and not a quick jaunt. At that time I'll be a retired grandpa & driving like one.

roads are good either through BC or Alberta from Dawson Creek to ft Nelson good shape ,above that i don't know.

norm

I drove it this summer in my Ford Fusion and the road was in pretty good shape.. the worse part was from destruction bay to beave creek doing some major road work. But looks like they got that all finished up. As stated the worse parts are in Alaska .

Never been there

A coworker from South Louisiana drove to Fairbanks in August and he was surprised at how good the road was. He said it was good.

Been over it 14 times and as long as you have a brain its no problem. The frost heaves can be bad in and close to Alaska . Hers where the brain comes in. SLOW DOWN .Beautiful drive. ED K

Anybody ever drive it in the summer and check out fishing spots on the way?

[quote=ingwe]Anybody ever drive it in the summer and check out fishing spots on the way? [/qu

there's some good fishing in BC rivers but you need to talk nice to the locals to find them,,,90% of the people up there are transient oil patch guys .

good luck

norm

Yup. As noted, the locals will know the spots. Stop at the roadhouses and spend a little time. You'll be pleasantly surprised at what you can learn and do. Not many folks take the time and most of the roadhouse folks enjoy sharing with travelers.

As to the OP, please, please, PLEASE do not let traffic back up behind you as you take your time driving the AlCan. Most of the highway is fully capable of 60mph and there are folks who need to get from Point A to Point B asap.
Slowing traffic down to enjoy your trip is great, but it is discourteous and just flat illegal in places.
In Alaska, it is illegal to have five or more vehicles backed up behind you. Pull over at the first available place and let everyone pass, then carry on. Thank you!

BTW, we're showing our age just referring to it by that name , it's now called the "Alaska Highway"

If you haven't already done so, buy a copy of "The Milepost". It's a mile-by-mile (or kilometer-by-kilometer in Canada) guide to everything along the Alaska Highway as well as major alternate routes in Alberta, BC, Yukon Territory, and throughout Alaska. It's an invaluable resource for figuring out where attractions, services, and fishing spots are located along the road system.

The fastest I've ever driven the Alaska Highway was three days from US Border to US Border. The longest, from Border to Border, was a week.
Take at least ten days, drive the Cassair Highway, make sure to go to Banff!!!, and be careful when ordering breakfast in some of the smaller roadhouses. The portions will astound you.
A "Short Stack" of pancakes in one place was the size of a three-layer cake!

Ed

It's a fine highway, but there are always stretches under construction/repair. With a trailer in tow, there'd be no reason to do a "hurry up" should one encounter a rough stretch. Just slow a bit and quit when it suits you.

Some heaving south of Watson Lake caused us to slightly slow in our long bed crew cab Ford. Had I been in my somewhat lighter sports car, it would have been fun to push it there.

View property all the way, and Milepost is a must.

Drove it in march. Easy drive except for just a few gravel spots.

+1 on The Milepost.

Glad we did banff once, not sure I'd go again, but I damn sure am going to do the Cassiar once in my life, if I live that long.

Almost wears me out starting to think about driving up and back every year in the future... 5 day generally speaking would be rough. From here to Delta.

Maybe going to have to haul stuff up once or twice and leave the vehicles there and fly back a couple months in teh winters...

My brother once drove from Fairbanks to Bottineau North Dakota in 49 hours. Thats when it was gravel. I never tried to beat that time. ED K

46 RTs or thereabouts and again this March.

Take your time and stop often to enjoy scenery.
Toad River/Muncho area is still crooked but very scenic.
Most all of the surface is good with worst being Kluane to
Beaver Creek as it's all muskeg and permafrost country.
The frost heaves in that area could raise hell with trailers and hitches so slow down.

I've often watched travelers go like hell to get to Alaska to park next to another tourist. WTH

Atlin is worth driving into.....60 miles dead end.

Whitehorse is an interesting town even though it has become more green and gay.

Take a different route back.....Top Of The World Highway is interesting.....take the Haines cut-off and a short ferry ride to Skagway for another piece of scenery.

Don't overload your trailer!. We have stores in Alaska.

Last time ( only time ) was as a kid in the back seat of a super cab 350 with a camper on the back ( yes damnit , both ways ) . First 100 miles was paved , rest good hard dirt / gravel / whatever they used to bind it . 'Cept when it rained , 3" slop and hard road underneath.

Anyone every done the Alaska Maritime highway back on the return leg? Getting plans ready for a couple of years out. It would be great to some days on the ferry and land for a trip down the west coast. Could be a premier excursion.

John(dog)

Everyone is different. I prefer the Cassiar to the main stem highway.

Went down empty in march on the Cassiar And came back with a 32' gooseneck on the main Alcan. As I said above, smooth but for a few spots where prudence says slow down.

That's irrelevant!

Towing a trailer from Tok cutoff to ~Kluane is brutal in spots. The north end of the cassiar is simply awesome. If you can find an excuse to drive to Haines, that's a beautiful stretch of road as well. I've towed a ~12000lb boat trailer down the cassiar with no trouble. Steep in places but little traffic. You'll want a good weight distributing hitch or you'll bounce around like a sonofagun on the heaves west of Kluane.

If not towing, expect ~44 hours of seat time between border at Blaine/Sumas and Anchorage. That's 3 pretty hard days.

We took the Marine Hwy one January going outside to Bellingham and went clear to San Diego and later drove back. Heavy winds (sore neck from rocking back and forth in the berth), rain, low skys every day, and absolutely glorious the whole way. More wildlife than I could imagine. Can't wait to do it again. Get a cabin since 4 nights and 5 days can get you ripe if you sleep on deck. There are showers available for those folks but my son said it wasn't worth the effort when he and his cousin took the ferry outside. The absolute best moment was when the radio announced it was -63 in Watson Lake at the time we would have been going through there had we driven. If you want to take the Marine Hwy get your reservations in the year before or it will be too full to take a car and have a cabin.

Calcium chloride... great binder and relatively benign, but they resist it here in AK???

Not wild about taking big rigs on the ferry... Would prefer to do it without the rig and stay in a stateroom with the money saved.

Prudence went with you?

Many times. Drug my little jet boat all over BC, YK, AB, NWT and AK.

Sometimes heading to AK the fishing sidetracked me and I never made to AK.

Awesome country............