We’re driving the AlCan highway to Alaska in our RV
If you’ve been following our social media for any length of time, you know we are currently RVing to Alaska. The idea of this trip came about back in the winter of 2022 while RVing with some friends in Florida. We had originally planned a trip to Alaska by way of a cruise in 2020. And, well…we know how that year turned out! We had never really given much thought to actually RVing to Alaska.
There was a lot of preparation that went into actually doing this trip and we wrote about some of that here. If you’d like to read more about what we did to prepare ourselves and our camper for this trip, that is the place to start. But, for now, it is time for an update on where we are, and where we have been!
Starting our RV trip to Alaska
We departed the Temecula, California area on June 1st. We made our way to the Central Valley so our daughter could see her friend from 2 years ago in Bakersfield. We spent 2 days in the Bakersfield area and then moved on to our first boondocking spot in the Nevada desert. This was our first time ever boondocking out in the middle of nowhere. I found a great spot on the AllStays App and did some research online to make sure that the spot would be easy to get into and out of. I ended up finding a great video on Youtube that had been done by our friends LIVING OUR DREAM NOW! The video they did was in depth enough that we felt comfortable driving our big rig to this location. It was so peaceful and we immediately fell in love with boondocking, which is good because we knew we’d be doing plenty of it while RVing to Alaska! We only stayed one night at Snowbird Mesa and then moved on.
Our next stop was southern Utah. We ended up stopping for a quick one night stay in The Beaver Canyon Campground in the Cedar City, Utah area. We arrived a bit later in the day and didn’t have anything planned other than simply getting laundry done and settling in for the night. We knew we had to drive through Salt Lake City the next day and the traffic in that area is no joke. So, we wanted to be well rested.
We left the next day to make our way to Northern Utah to a town called Tremonton. We had booked a cute little campground called “Aspen Grove RV Park“, and the photos looked amazing! We had a feeling we would really enjoy this location. That feeling was well placed as we immediately fell in love with this campground and the staff. They even had fresh cookies for us and treats for our dogs! We actually made this video about the park. We hated that we only had one night here with this view and the amenities this campground offered, and we absolutely plan to go back for an extended stay. But, we had to move on to continue our trek northward. 
We visited some of our favorite National Parks on the way to Alaska in our RV
We knew that our journey from SoCal up to Northern Montana would take us by several of our favorite national parks. So we wanted to make sure we booked several days in areas that would allow us to visit these parks on our way north. Our next stop was in central Idaho, in a little town called Ashton. We stayed in this area on our last trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton as the park was very well priced and is only an hour from the west entrance to Yellowstone and about an hour and a half or so to the entrance of Grand Teton. We booked the same place again so that we could be sure to visit both parks while in the area. It paid off big time! We ended up seeing several moose on a hike in Grand Teton as well as 3 bears while exploring in Yellowstone! And of course, countless bison!
After the Yellowstone area, we made our way on northward to central Montana. We ended up staying at the Merry Widow RV park in Basin, MT. Basin is a little unincorporated area about halfway between Bozeman and Helena. We just made a quick stop here and got a few supplies at the Walmart in Bozeman. One of those supplies was windshield wipers. Shortly after departing Basin the next day, our new windshield wipers went flying off the wiper arm! We pulled off the road and attached them the best we could and continued on to Helena to exchange them for a different style. After getting that taken care of we moved on.
Our next stop was Shelby, Montana. This is in the very northern part of Montana only a few miles from the Canadian border. We booked this place specifically to meet our friends, the Haags, near the border. They are the friends with whom we are RVing to Alaska. But, we also wanted to check out the Eastern part of Glacier National Park. We loved Glacier when we visited with several friends in 2021. But, we had not really gotten to explore the Eastern side of the park. We knew the popular “Going To The Sun Road” was not yet open all the way through. But, we wanted to just drive as far as we could. Shortly after starting the drive up the road, we saw a small grizzly on the right side of the road! Our trip up the road was cut short right after that and we found a great hiking trail at the St. Mary Falls. We had a great time on this trail and we will definitely have to do an in depth article about Glacier very soon!
We met up with our friends to RV to Alaska together
The next day, we met up with The Haags and began our trip to the border. Our border crossing was not without its own annoyances. We had done lots of research on which firearm we could bring into Canada. We had all necessary paperwork completed and our fee in hand. However, the border agents STILL would not let us in with our firearm as part of our trip we had planned would have us going through the middle of Banff National Park. They had us turn around and ship our firearm up to a licensed dealer in Alaska. FINALLY, after several hours we were able to cross the border. Shortly after our crossing we had our first rock smash on the windshield. Ask anyone who has taken an RV to Alaska and they will tell you to be prepared for rock cracks in the windshield. We were expecting some pebbles. We were NOT expecting the giant boulder that nearly exploded our windshield. Finally, after a long day and a smashed windshield, we made it to Calgary. 
We only spent one night in Calgary in a mall parking lot. It was basically just a stop for us to resupply some essentials and make a Costco run to stock up on things. We got settled in and got our shopping done and just basically prepared for the next day. The next day was something we had been dreaming about for a long, long time.
The next day was Banff. We had heard so many stories about the beauty of this area. We had seen the beautiful photos of Moraine Lake and Lake Louise. We knew we would really enjoy this area, so we booked a spot in Banff National Park for nearly 2 weeks! It. Was. Amazing. Banff is by far one of the most beautiful places we have ever seen. Every turn we made was more beautiful than the last. We absolutely fell in love with this park! We explored Moraine Lake with its bright blue water. We hiked to the Lake Agnes Teahouse up above Lake Louise. We explored Emerald Lake(which is technically in Yoho National park. But only a few miles from Banff), and so many other beautiful places. Two weeks went by so quickly and we were so sad to leave Banff. We will absolutely be back!
Our next stop was the Columbia Icefields. We boondocked in a parking lot right across from the glacier. We had an absolutely epic view of the mountains and the glacier, and while there we saw an avalanche! Although about halfway between Banff and Jasper, the Icefields are actually part of Jasper National Park. We spent 2 days here and made friends with our RV neighbors who were also RVing to Alaska. On our second day, we actually spent time exploring several of the lakes and waterfalls in the area. There are so many beautiful lakes and waterfalls in the Canadian Rockies. 
Two days at the Ice Fields went by very quickly and we made our way up to Jasper National Park. We knew immediately we would love Jasper. It was not quite as crowded as Banff and just as beautiful. We had booked the Whistlers campground inside the national park. There were elk and bears everywhere. We only had 4 days booked in Jasper and we all knew it was not nearly enough time to do everything we would want to! We ended up making a plan to explore several of the lakes for which the area is famous. We actually saw a moose very close up on our way to one of these lakes! After our 4 days came and went, we began making our way north. Literally 5 minutes after leaving our spot at the campground we saw a mama and baby grizzly right at the entrance!
Our next stop was to be Grande Prairie. We had this stop planned as a place to resupply and make a run to Costco. We just boondocked for two days at the Great Northern Casino. This place allows RVers to stop in for a few days and stay for free in their parking lot. While there in Grande Prairie, we made a special trip over to the bowling alley just up the road from the casino. During our 2 days we were able to restock, get gas, and prepare ourselves for the next big part of our trip RVing to Alaska.
If you’re RVing to Alaska you have to stop here!
One of the most iconic places to see while RVing to Alaska is the Mile 0 marker of the AlCan highway in Dawson Creek, British Columbia. We knew we only had about an hour and a half drive to get from Grande Prairie to the Mile 0 marker. But after looking at the gas prices in BC, I decided to stop at the border in Alberta to top off my gas. Gas in BC is almost $.40/liter more than in Alberta! We made a quick pit stop to top off our gas and continued on to Dawson Creek. We arrived at the Mile 0 marker and honestly, this is when it all seemed real. I mean, we have known for months we were RVing to Alaska. But this moment, THIS was what made it real. We stopped for our obligatory photos. It was absolutely amazing and surreal to be there, in that moment, at the place we had seen in so many other RVer’s as they also were RVing to Alaska. But, we had a long travel day planned before we made it to our next boondocking spot. 
We left Dawson Creek and drove further into British Columbia. The further into BC we drove, the more wildlife we saw. I mean we knew with RVing to Alaska we would see lots of wildlife. But, it is still so exciting to actually see it! We saw four black bears between Dawson Creek and our boondocking spot by the Prophet River. We only spent one night in the Prophet River Area and continued on to the Toad River. As we write this update right now, we are currently in the Toad River area, deep in the wilds of British Columbia. We are here in the middle of nowhere, enjoying the peace and tranquility of the river and the sounds of nature. We had only planned to stay a night or 2 here. But, after arriving we decided to extend our stay. 
So, this is our last month in a nutshell, a very small nutshell at that! We have seen and done so much already, that we could turn around and go back to the lower 48 right now, and our lives would have been forever changed. We wanted to share the last month of travel with you now, so that we may come back and do regular updates from this point on. Our goal is to do weekly updates from this point on.
