few questions re: touring alaska in RV

I will be driving to Alaska in my RV via Whitehorse. I will be travelling with my husband and two kids aged 16 and 18 and two dogs. So far, I would like to spend a few days in Whitehorse with side trips to Skagway (not sure if I should do a day trip and leave trailer in Whitehorse), go to Fairbanks and spend a couple of days, go to Denali National park (although unsure what to do with our dogs as I see that dogs are not allowed on trails in park) Any suggestions would be wonderful. Because we are travelling for such a long time, leaving them at home is not an option. From there, we were planning to drive to Anchorage. We love to hike (especially with the dogs), I would love to try dog sledding, seeing wildlife, see the glaciers, do the hotsprings and ice museum north of Fairbanks and see some sea life (no fishing). I would appreciate any help with my itinerary. I have about 10 days in total to tour around Alaska not counting my driving days to get there.

few questions re: touring alaska in RV

Entire books (in fact many of them) have been written to answer your hugely complex series of questions. Reading through TripAdvisor, the Canada-Alaska forum at RVNet ( rv.net/forum/鈥?5 ) and the BC/Yukon/Alaska highway guides at explorenorth.com/library/roads/highways.html will get you off to a good start, and the reading list at http://www.greatnorthbooks.com/rvtravel.html (many of the books may be available at your local library) will expand from there.

Murray

few questions re: touring alaska in RV

Dogs can be walked on leashes in the campgrounds that allow RVs in Denali but cannot go in the trailless backcountry or on the couple of trails that do exist in the park. The easiest thing to do in Denali would be stay a few days %26amp; rotate who goes into the park each day, leaving a dog sitter back at the campground.

Or Coalminer may be able to direct you to a doggie kennel around Denali.

There are lots of trails in Alaska that are dog-friendly, although it%26#39;s a prudent idea to have leashes %26amp; be bear-aware. However, Exit Glacier trail outside of Seward does not allow dogs.

Hi SunnyAlbertan

There are a couple of routes you can take depending how long you want to stay in each place and how much driving in a day that you want to do.

You could drive up to Fairbanks, down the Parks Highway stopping at DNP, on down through Wasilla stopping at one of the kennels and the Iditarod headquarters along the way, from there you can go into Anchorage down the Seward Highway to Whittier then Ferry across to Valdez and up the Richardson and then veer east back towards Canada, I%26#39;m assuming you want to make a loop rather than doing a one way trip right?

Or you can skip Anchorage, head east along the Glenn Highway, stopping at the Matanuska Glacier for some ice climbing/walking on glacier, down to Valdez for a day cruise looking for whales, at glaciers and so on, or kayaking if you want to be more active.

The two options for dog sledding are to take a ride on one of the wheeled carts which is pulled by dogs, or pay (lots) extra to fly up to a glacier where there is a summer camp for dogsledding and have a go on the snow. This can be done out of Seward or Girdwood.

The longer loop would include going down onto the Kenai Peninsula, but I think you could do well to spend longer at each location and doing activities, particularly if you need to double up the time so that there is a dogsitter taking turns and less time on the roads.

Happy planning!

Hi Sunny Albertan

After you have stayed in Whitehorse for a few days, drive down to explore Skagway and then board the ferry for a short cruise (1 hour) over to Haines, stay a few more days here and then continue North to Haines Junction to rejoin the Alaska Highway..... you will see glaciers, wildlife and sealife on this little detour.....and Haines is doggie heaven, locals hike with their dogs everywhere.....Be sure to book passage for you and your vehicle ahead of time.....

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