Carolyn J. robinson

We are planning a trip for late Spring, probably mid-May. We'll drive to Washington, take the ferry to Haines, and drive into Anchorage where we have family. On our return trip, later in the summer we plan to make the entire drive. What can we expect as far as road conditions (ice, etc.) and availability of accomodations for May? Thanks for any input.

tony

I can tell you that the ferry trip from Washington to Haines will be a great rest from driving and a great chance to relax and meet lots of people. Its a great adventure.

John

By mid-May you ought to be okay, although there will probably be some road construction, big potholes, and other hazards that will keep your speed down. Many of the roads get "frost heaves" that create bumps and hollows that can be hard on the old undercarriage, if you get my meaning...

Get a copy of the Milepost for all the information you'll need on accommodations, roadside sights, etc.

Mike

We drove to Alaska from Illinois during the last week of May. On the return trip we took the ferry from Skagway to Washington. Here is what we experianced on the drive up ( Alaskan highway). There are service stations every 50 or 60 miles. Some have a cafe, or rooms to rent, some don't. In late May the road construction starts in both Alaska and Canada (BC & Yukon). Since they only have three months to do road work, they do long stretches and work 24 hours a day. The shortest work zone was 5 miles, the longest 20 miles. They rip out the entire road, you are driving on rock, dirt, in ditches, over branches. You are constantly being hit by rocks from motor homes and construction equiptment. We only got two rock chips on the windshield, but several paint chips. I would recommend a car hood bra. Also we lost three headlights to rocks. They were $30 up there compared to $12 here. Take a couple of extras with you. We had two flat tires, luckily I took two spares. $ 20 to get tires patched. A broken heat sheild on the under carriage from the frost heaves. The frost heaves were worse in Alask. If you drive fast enough, the seat of your pants hardly ever touch your car seat. I took a video out the front window while jumpin the frost heaves, it was interesting. Along the coastal towns Homer, Haines, It was cool and dreary, foggy in May, early June. If you should Go to Fairbanks and think about driving up to Prudoe Bay, think about this. If you were to break down on the Dawson highway, it could cost $3000 to get towed back to Fairbanks. You see alot of people drivng rentals on the Dawson highway. Over all the trip up the Alcan highway and the ferry trip back was great, I would like to drive it again sometime.

Carolyn

We will arrive in Haines on May 12 and drive to Anchorage so I don't know if the road construction will have started by then or if we just have to watch out for the frost heave. Thanks for the information about taking spare lights. I had already heard to get covers for the lights and a wire mesh for the front of our van.

John

Let me just mention that one of the AMH cross-Gulf boats departs Juneau for Seward on 5/13, so you could book your car on that boat, layover in Juneau for a couple of days, then ferry all the way to Seward, arriving 5/15. This would cut off over 1000 road miles and unknown damage to your nerves etc. See the schedule at http://www.dot.state.ak.us/cgi/amhs/...y=2003&vessel=