3 Months and 9,000 Miles – Wrapping Up Our Alaska Adventure

In the camper van we traversed 9,437 miles in 96 days through the Canadian Rockies, all the way up the Dempster to the Arctic Ocean, across the Top of the World Highway, into Alaska and Denali National Park, down into the Kenai Peninsula, across to Kodiak Island and back around to Valdez. For the return trip, it was 2,800 air miles in less than six hours.

We saw amazing mountain landscapes, glaciers, ice bergs, frozen lakes and two oceans – Pacific and Arctic. Wildlife frequented our journey including bears (Grizzly, Black and Kodiak), caribou, moose, elk, lynx, wood bison, Chilcotin wild horses, porcupine, pronghorn antelope, beaver, weasel, deer, Big Horn sheep, orcas, fox, mountain goats, seals, sea lions, and lots of birds including bald eagles, puffin and ptarmigans.

To explore beyond the road system, we flew a float plane through the mountains into Twin Lakes and Dick Proenneke’s cabin; took the Lu-Lu Belle boat out into Prince William Sound and took advantage of the Alaska Marine Highway System with a 10-hour ferry ride to Kodiak Island.

We hiked in Banff National Park, joined park ranger for an all-day off-trail hike at Denali National Park, took a water taxi across Kachemak Bay from the Homer Spit to hike up to Grewingk Glacier Lake, and donned hip waters and got out the boat to fish (and catch!) salmon in the Kenai River.

Acting like locals, we also participated in the Midnight Sun Festival during the summer solstice in Fairbanks, watched the Slippery Salmon Olympics at the Bear Paw Festival in Eagle River, and took a jaunt through the Scottish Highland Games in Palmer. Small town parades are fun like the one we saw during the Valdez Gold Rush days. Also in Valdez, we joined the local Elks for a steak dinner and fundraiser for the high school volley ball team.

So many state, provincial and national parks throughout Alaska and Canada were incorporated into our journey. National parks such as Jasper, Banff, Denali, Lake Clark and Wrangell-St. Elias are an amazing sample of the various public lands we visited and are fortunate to have preserved forever.

We volunteered a couple times at Kids Kupboard while visiting Wasilla, and provided a dog named Prince an escape from the Valdez Animal Shelter while we took him for a walk and gave him a chance to splash around in a creek.

Every day presented new wonders of Alaska- from the wilderness to wildlife to local culture. But the Fire Weed flowers were starting to turn and it was time to get out before the cold inevitably returned and winter snow started. We were very lucky and thankful to experience great weather for the vast majority of the trip and really appreciated it during some epic adventures.

The camper van was always just for this Alaska trip. The size and mobility was perfect providing the flexibility to be agile. Instead of the 4,000 mile drive back to Kentucky, we opted to sell the van and fly back.

We were very happy to meet an Alaskan who was looking for something just like ours. From our initial idea of buying a van, to fixing it up, and to packing, we had in mind the possibility of selling it. In the final week, we backed up to a motel and unloaded everything. Our first night not sleeping in the van. We sorted, packed and cleaned.

A trip or two to Walmart and we had suitcases and pet crates. We shipped a couple small boxes and left a few things for the new van owner. Organized and packed, and plane tickets in hand, we were off to spend the last three nights relaxing in a cabin.

The final hours in Alaska were a whirlwind. We rented a pickup truck for the day and transferred our suitcases and pets into the rental. Then we met the van buyer at the Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and completed the sale. I mailed the paperwork and license plate back to Florida DMV, helped screw on an Alaska license plate while Mary Beth shared all the details and inner workings of the van; and we were off the airport with two big suitcases, a carry-on and personal item each…and the pet crates.

An overnight flight – a first flight for both pets – into Chicago. We opted for Chicago so that we had a direct flight with no connections, to minimize the stress on the pets. Arrived in Chicago early in the morning, rented a car and drove to Louisville.

Our trucks and RV were stored in the back lot of an RV park, so we got the RV pulled into a spot, setup and returned the rental car. A lot of logistics planning to pull off the last 48 hours, quite a contrast to the last three months on our Alaska road trip where we rarely made any reservations and just planned general routes and frequently changed directions on the fly.

We are now back at the 5th Wheel RV and taking time to reset and figure out our next adventures!