Alaska RV Trip Planning - Part 1 - Focus On National Parks And Nature; Initial Planning Resources

Like we do everywhere we travel, we had to get our bearings before I could even think about planning for Alaska. That process resulted in the prior entry - Alaska RV Trip Planning - Overview. If you are only vaguely familiar with Alaska, I would start there before reading this and subsequent entries.

Where To Start - National Parks

My starting point was my desire to visit all eight National Parks in Alaska. Well, that's a bit of challenge as you can only drive to three of them - Denali, Kenai Fjords, and Wrangell-St. Elias. Glacier Bay, Katmai, and Lake Clark can be reached by plane or tour boat, and Gates of the Arctic and Kobuk Valley can only be reached by plane.

 

 

My research on getting to the National Parks was discouraging. Flying in and taking boat tours is quite expensive, and though I'm willing to spend some money for the experiences, I have my limits.

Gates of the Arctic & Kobuk Valley

These two parks are located in the Arctic region and are quite remote. They are the most difficult to access and getting there is not cheap.

As I mentioned in the Alaska RV Trip Planning - Overview entry, you can hike into Gates of the Arctic from the Dalton Highway (2.5 miles), but there is no designated trail, and hiking into the interior from the Dalton is not recommended for anyone other than experienced wilderness trekkers. You can get more information at the Arctic Interagency Visitor Center in Coldfoot on the Dalton Highway.

Another option is to fly from Fairbanks to Anaktuvuk Pass which is a village located in the heart of Gates of the Arctic National Park. The flight from Fairbanks is $380 round-trip per person, and this appears to be the easiest, least expensive way to set foot in the park. Day tours to Anaktuvuk Pass start around $600 per person.

However, I was looking for a way to visit both parks, and have a bit more of a wilderness visit.

Unfortunately, the best price I could find on just a day trip to fly in, land, and fly back out of Gates of the Arctic AND Kobuk Valley was $2,275 with Golden Eagle Outfitters out of Kotzebue, not including about $1,000 to fly to Kotzebue from Fairbanks and whatever the cost of lodging would be. It is recommended to stay 2 or 3 nights in the base camp area because weather may delay your flight to the parks.

I also got a quote from Bettles Lodge for their "Park Collector Package" which would include flights to Bettles from Fairbanks, the day trip flight to Gates of the Arctic and Kobuk, lodging, some local tours, and meals. The range was from $5,100 - $6,100 for 2 or 3 nights.

Those options are just for day trips into the parks so you can step foot in them. Exploring in the parks with at least one overnight stay in a tent increases the costs significantly. You can do flightseeing trips over the parks for less, but it's still expensive and, if you are "park collecting" I suppose it depends on whether you consider a fly-over a "visit". 

Things may be different and we may find other options when we get there, but we're not including those parks in the trip plan or budget. Maybe, we'll go ahead and fly into Anaktuvak Pass, but that doesn't really appeal to me. Perhaps we'll check Gates of the Arctic and Kobuk Valley off the list someday if those are the only two National Parks we haven't visited and we get an unexpected, large inheritance from a relative we've never heard of so we can go and do some backcountry exploring. 

Katmai & Lake Clark 

These parks are located in the Southwestern region, and while you can technically reach them by boat, most tourists fly in on bush planes. And most people visit those parks on day trips for bear watching. Prices for day trip bear watching tours seem to run from $600 to $900 per person depending on the flight service, which park you are flying to, and whether you are flying out of Anchorage, Homer, or Kodiak. I've found it difficult to find straight up air taxi prices that aren't part of a day trip tour, but I suspect that will be easier once we fine-tune our planning and are able to select some dates. But even a the high cost of visiting these parks, almost everyone says it's worth it stating such things as "highlight of our trip" and "experience of a life time".

We're planning to visit both Katmai and Lake Clark, but I'm still figuring out our options. We're going to have our backpacking/tenting gear with us, so we are likely going to do some tent camping. I don't want to do just day trips, but we may have to.

Unfortunately, due to the earlier government shut-down, reservations for the Brooks Camp Campground at Katmai have been delayed. They were supposed to open reservations on January 5, but it has been postponed to an undetermined date and we have to continually check back to see when we might be able to make a reservation. UPDATE: Reservations are now scheduled to open on March 2. 

The campground has room for about 60 people and is surrounded by an electric fence which they say deters bears from entering. The park website goes on to say:

The fence is bear-resistant, but not bear-proof. Bears tend to avoid contact with the fence, but campers must take extra precautions to avoid attracting bears.

Lodging at Brooks is extremely pricey, but the campground is only $12 per person per night, and I want to get three nights at least. We'll see.

Denali

Denali is easy compared to the other National Parks. You can drive to it, and there are three campgrounds that can handle RVs within the park plus there are several options at private campgrounds not far from the park entrance. The campgrounds in the park are handled by the concessionaire, Aramark, and you get reservations through their site rather than Recreation.gov. We just have to figure out what dates we're planning to be there and how long we want to stay. You know we don't like to make reservations, but there are certainly some places in Alaska where it will be necessary, and this is one.

There are several tours available at the entrance to Denali, but most people take the buses into the park to view the scenery and wildlife on the 92-mile Park Road. You are not allowed to drive yourself past the 15-mile mark at Savage River (with one exception - you can drive your RV to the Teklanika River Campground at the 29-mile marker for camping for a minimum of three nights and drive it back out; however, motorhome owners cannot take their towed vehicles ("toads") to the campground and must leave them at the park entrance in a free parking area). 

Note there are two types of buses - Non-narrated Transit Buses and Narrated Tour Buses. Both are operated by the concessionaire. There are a variety of options including free bus rides in the first 15 miles of the Park Road, and all-day bus rides to the end of the road at Kantishna and back, along with a few "in between" routes.

The Narrated Tour Buses are driven by a trained naturalist and are a little more comfortable while the Non-narrated Transit Buses are driven by a variety of drivers with different levels of knowledge, personality, and willingness to provide information. All buses stop for wildlife viewing and photographs, and they drive the same road. On the Transit Bus system, you have a little more flexibility and can change buses if you wish.

There are three Narrated Tour Bus routes with prices ranging from $100 (Denali Natural History Tour) - $222 (Kantishna Experience Tour) depending on the length of the tour in time and miles. Non-narrated Transit Buses range from $33 (53 miles into the park) to $64 (92 miles into the park to Kantishna) with a couple of options in between. Rates shown are per adult. Skip the Denali National History Tour if your goal is to see wildlife, and, in my opinion, the Transit Buses are a better value, especially if you get lucky with your driver.

The bottom line is a visit to Denali is relatively easy and inexpensive compared to the other parks. Of course, that also makes it extremely popular.

Kenai Fjords

Kenai Fjords is also pretty easy. You can drive to Exit Glacier, the only part of the park that is accessible by road, or you can take a boat tour into the fjords from Seward. The boat tour was one of the highlights of our visit in 2004, so we will definitely do that again, although we may opt for a longer tour this time. Two main tour companies - Major Marine Tours & Kenai Fjords Tours - offer cruises of 6 - 9 hours in the price range of $149 - $224 per person. There are shorter cruises, but most "experts" don't recommend anything under the 6 hour cruise. Calving glaciers, whales, seals, otters, birds, and beautiful scenery make a Kenai Fjords boat tour one of the better tour values in Alaska, in my opinion.

Wrangell-St. Elias

The largest National Park in the U.S., Wrangell-St. Elias has only two road access points, the McCarthy/Kennecott area off of the Richardson Highway and the Nabesna area off the Tok Cut-off at the town of Slana. The main Visitor Center is between Glennallen and Copper Center on the Richardson Highway on the edge of the park, so I guess that would be a third access point, but what I would call a "soft" access point.

The McCarthy Road is a 59-mile narrow, gravel road that ends at Kennecott River, and you have to park at the foot bridge a half mile outside of McCarthy and walk into the park. This is a historic area with tours available and fairly easy access to Root Glacier. There is a private RV park at the end of the road - Glacier View Campground - but RV sites are limited per their website.

A more rural option is the 42-mile gravel Nebesna road on the north side of the park that has some primitive campsites along the road. There are far fewer people there, and fewer reports of what it might be like for RVs. It sounds like it would be worth at least parking the RV near the start of the road and exploring it by Jeep.

Glacier Bay

Glacier Bay is located at the northern part of the Inside Passage, and it is a place of beauty raved about by visitors. Many cruise ships enter Glacier Bay, but non-cruisers can visit by taking a plane or ferry to Gustavus and then shuttle to Bartlett Cove where the National Park visitor center is located in Glacier Bay Lodge. 

Technically, you are in the park when you get to Bartlett Cove and there are a couple of hiking trails, but you are a long, long way (40 - 65 nautical miles) from the eleven glaciers of Glacier Bay.  The best one-day experience of Glacier Bay is via the day tour boat. The lodge runs an 8-hour boat tour narrated by a park ranger ($227 per person), and the day tour gets you much closer to the action than the cruise ships. It's not cheap but it's pretty much a "must do" if you go because there are few better, cheaper options.

RVers can take the ferry from Haines or Skagway to Juneau and then take a connecting ferry to Gustavus - the round-trip ferry cost for two passengers would be around $400. However, due to the ferry schedules, this will likely result in having to stay two nights in Juneau in each direction and a few nights in Gustavus. So, you are probably looking at least $1,000 IF you were to tent camp in Juneau and Bartlett Cove, and more like $2,000 or more if you stay in a hotel, lodge, or something similar. This is one case where it may be better, economically to take an air taxi from Haines or Skagway, but you will likely have to go through Juneau, and it may be a close call price-wise.

Glacier Bay Lodge is, once again, very expensive, but the Bartlett Cove Campground is free. There is no RV camping and no van or car camping, only walk-in tent camping. 

The tour boat will also drop off and pick up kayak campers at points designated by the park, but the water taxi services are pretty pricey. Be wary of inexpensive "Glacier Bay" kayaking trips. Those paddle around Bartlett Cove, and are nowhere near the glaciers.

 

So, we are going to do our best to visit six of the eight National Parks, and our general route will be:

• Glacier Bay
• Wrangell-St. Elias
• Lake Clark
• Katmai
• Kenai Fjords
• Denali

We may do Kenai Fjords before Lake Clark & Katmai. It all depends on campground reservations at Katmai AND the timing of us getting to Seward. You see there is a huge foot race in Seward over the Fourth of July week and about 30,000 people descend on the town, so we will try to avoid that. 

 

Our Focus - Wildlife, Landscapes, Fishing, & Hiking

When visiting the National Parks, and pretty much everywhere else in Alaska and Canada that we will go, our focus will be on natural beauty and nature-based activities. We won't be spending our time going to museums or being immersed in history. We will take note of gold rush and mining history and pipeline information, and we may visit some native cultural centers, but those won't be our priorities. 

Our goal will be to explore some places off the beaten path on our own, but many of the highlights of Alaska are just not accessible on your own, so we will be joining a variety of tours and excursions.

We will be using the Alaska TourSaver book to help us choose tours and get 2 for 1 pricing and other discounts where we can. The TourSaver comes in booklet form ($100 plus shipping) or you can get an app ($90 for the statewide version). There are several tours that you can see online to determine if the TourSaver is worth it to you, but just in our early stages of planning I've come up with well over $1,000 in savings on tours we'd like to do.

Note: I've seen many references to another tour coupon book called the Northern Lights Coupon Book which some have used in the past. Apparently, many thought it was a better option than TourSaver, but it has been discontinued for 2019. Rumor has it that it may be back in the future, but not for this year.

 

Travel Planning Resources

For our travel planning, we tend to be independent, and I like to do it myself. You all know I don't like being told what I "should" do, but we will take suggestions and weigh them against what we come up with on our own. There are tons of Alaska blog posts by RVers on their travels, and we'll check those out if we are looking for specific information about an area, a campground, or a tour.

Right now, for general planning, I'm using the Lonely Planet Alaska (Travel Guide) which is free with our Kindle Unlimited plan with Amazon.

 

 

I've found a couple of things that are outdated and quoted prices have increased, but overall it's a really good, pretty detailed guide that I can refer to on my Kindle. There are a lot of hiking and paddling suggestions and references to campgrounds, and there are good descriptions of what there is to do in most areas, but we can skip through the information on lodging, restaurants, nightlife, transportation, etc. that is often geared to a different audience.

Also, I'm using Alaska.org which I've found to be far more helpful than Travel Alaska, the state's official travel website. The tagline is "We Show Independent Travelers a Better Way to See Alaska - See Alaska’s highlights without crowds or cookie cutter experiences." 

With that said, you can get a nice, free Official Travel Planner from Travel Alaska. I'm not sure I would call it a "travel planner" as much as really nice overview of Alaska.

Of course, as I zero in on particular areas, I'm just using the tried and true Google search method. That's my go-to strategy to better find what I'm looking for and to get multiple perspectives to make the most informed decisions we can make.

Camping & Routes

Other than Denali and Katmai, we're not too concerned about camping and campgrounds at this point, but I'll have a good idea of the options in each area before we go. Some people highly recommend the Traveler's Guide to Alaskan Camping: Alaskan and Yukon Camping with RV or Tent (Traveler's Guide series).

 

 

I've just ordered it to check it out. If nothing else, I can at least give it a first hand review.

From everything I've read, RV parks with hook-ups are mostly just parking lots without much character or aesthetics and close-together sites. They seem to be priced in the $35 - $50 range mostly and sites for bigger rigs in the 40-foot range are somewhat limited. We will likely boondock in free areas or stay in public campgrounds without hook-ups the vast majority of the time. The public campgrounds are reasonably priced with a general range of $10 - $20 a night, and there are lots of places to take on water and dump tanks. Alaska is probably more boondocking-friendly than the lower 48. And, with our 30-foot rig, we'll be able to get into more places than we would have with our 39-foot fifth wheel.

For boondocking spots, we'll be using the Day's End Directory available to Escapees RV Club members for $15 a year. It includes free and low cost camping options across the U.S. and Canada. It's not the most visually appealing or user-friendly guide as it's a text-only database arranged by state and province that is written in a shorthand that requires a bit of a learning curve to decipher. But if you use it, you'll save way more than the $55 annual cost of the guide ($15) and the $39.95 Escapees membership fee (Join Escapees - Select RV Dreams in the drop-down under "Referred By:"). 

Other good resources for free and low cost camping are freecampsites.net, Campendium's free camping pages (still a work in progress but has some reviews with photos and cellular connectivity info), and UltimateCampgrounds.com, a pretty comprehensive listing of public campgrounds throughout the U.S. and Canada. Note that all three of these have listings that may be suitable only for tent-camping or car-camping and some have access roads you won't want to take your RV on, so read the listings carefully.

We're also not real concerned about routes as there just aren't all that many choices getting there and within the state. Certainly, we will carry The MILEPOST 2019: Alaska Travel Planner to help with gas stations, roadside stops, etc.

 

 

I have been using The Milepost website and the Bell's Travel Guides website to help with planning a little as well.

Oh, and we have one other planning tool. On our RV-Dreams Community Forum, there is a discussion thread entitled Alaska - Summer 2019 - RVDreamers Sharing Plans. Along with the sharing of trip plans and suggestions for 2019, other RV-Dreamers that have been to Alaska have shared links to their blogs and offered suggestions.

 

First Big Decisions

Now, I'm mostly trying to figure out an outline of a schedule and a budget. It's going to be an expensive trip, but I'm trying to quantify it as much as possible to see how much flexibility we may or may not have.

We've made two big decisions so far.

First, we're going early by most people's standards. I want to cross into Canada around May 1. Under one travel plan, I had us crossing about a week earlier, but I found some camping options didn't open until the first of May.

Second, we decided that we want to explore the Inside Passage. We haven't done an Alaska cruise, but I do want to experience the Inside Passage on this trip. We really enjoyed our time last year along the Canadian Inside Passage off of north Vancouver Island, so having some of that comparable scenery and time on the water is enticing. Plus, because the weather is more temperate and May is one of the drier months in the Southeast, starting with the Inside Passage allows us to begin exploring Alaska earlier without too much concern about weather.

In the next Journal entry, Alaska RV Trip Planning - Part II, I'll go through our planning to explore the Inside Passage using the Alaska Ferry system. It can be fairly simple if you just want to do a point-to-point transfer of you and your RV, but if you want to stay a couple of days or so and explore in and around the various ports, it becomes far more difficult to plan, and it increases the costs quite a bit. For those interested in following in our footsteps on that part of the trip, there's a good chance you will change your mind once you read through the challenges.

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Comments

[Dave Burdick]

PLEASE don't forget the NPs in Canada....we went through Banff, Kootenay, Yoho, Glacier, and Jasper on our way up to Dawson Creek. Since Marcia has MS, we don't hike, but we were in Banff for a week, no reservations, in early May. We saw MANY bear, and just enjoyed the scenery, and HOPE that we get up there again. I KNOW you will enjoy Alaska. We have a 28' Dynamax Isata, and towed our HHR without problems (although 10-15 mph in that last part of the Yukon where they were working on the roads) with NO problems.

[Cheryl & Dennis Gleaton]

Thanks for all the details on the Alaska adventure. We are heading north in April and hope to cross into BC in early May depending on the weather. We’re at Butterfield now too and would love to talk with you & Linda if you have time. We’ve driven to Alaska 6 times, doing one way rentals for Great Alaskan Holidays, so this is the first time we are driving our own rig.

[Howard]

Hey Dave,
We're probably going to drive through that area on the way up, and we'll visit those parks for longer on the way back in September.

[Howard]

Hey Cheryl & Dennis,
Great to hear and certainly we would love to chat with you. We'll be in touch.

[Neil laubenthal]

If you stay in Glenallen...there are 2 CGs I know of. One is close to the Glenn/Richardson highway intersection on the north side of the road. The second is 3 miles or so west on the south side. Do t stay at the second...it’s the worst place we stayed up there by far. Small sites, bad access, and unfriendly owner.

[Guy Ethier]

Howard,

You might want to check on "driving up through the Rocky Mountain National Parks" in either April or May as that is way too soon for most places to be open. Most campsites that high up in the Rockies do not open that early, so it is a no-brainer to do most of your "checking" out these Canadian Parks in September after your Alaska trip. Even then, you will be cutting it close due to the elevation of most of those beautiful parks. Try to do a bit more research of our Canadian Parks before you leave on your trip. Wouldn't want you to spoil you seeing our beautiful scenery because the campgrounds were closed and the lakes were all frozen over. When I drove Chartered Bus, the earliest I remember taking visitors up there was early June! And even then there was no guarantee that places were open and one could always expect snow during that time, as well as during the summer. You may find that you are stretching yourself a bit thin by trying to "squeeze" in those parks as there really is too much to really see during the shoulder seasons. Take some time and come back and do those parks properly....you will not be disappointed.

Speaking from personal experience.....

Guy from Surrey

[Susan Anderson]

Boy you aren't kidding when you mentioned how expensive tours can be in Alaska.
Like you my lifechanging moment was my tour with Alaska Wildland Adventures in 2014. I was going to suggest you consider 2 nights stay at their Kenia Fjords cabins and then I saw the price! This place is a little slice of heaven on earth. We canoed to a glacier, walked in the woods sampling what bears eat, yes there were bears in camp; went sea kayaking and of course the long boat ride sightseeing. Not to mention the comfy cabins and wonderful meals. All included in the price.
I am enjoying your planning process, our trip is tentatively scheduled for 2020. Great job.

[Frank and EJ Putnam]

This last time we were in Alaska was 2014. At the time we were pretty good at chronicling our adventures. We preferred boondocking in our 34 foot motorhome and using the DaysEnd Directory when possible. That was our second trip to Alaska and our general impression was that there were many more RVers than in 2011, our first trip. But since EJ and I prefer to wander on our own, we did manange to get away from most of the crowds. Here is our blog to Alaska beginning at the Sweet Grass border crossing into Canada. Hope you find it helpful. https://fnej.blogspot.com/2014/05/hide-liquor-honey-border-patrols-coming.html

[Mary Klinger]

Did you look at Mike & Terry’s Church’s book, Alaska campong?

[Howard]

Hi Mary,

I have that book on order from Amazon. Should be getting here soon.

[Marsha]

We stayed at the campground in McCarthy NP - Nabesna Rd. Pulled our 24’ travel trailer with no problems. Unhooked and drove to the end of the road. Although we didn’t see any wildlife, it was a very scenic drive. You can pick up a CD from the visitor center that describes the route through that part of the park. Definitely worthwhile.