We successfully completed our summer trip about a week ago - on Aug. 22. We had really hoped to spend more time on the way home, but the smoke was so bad it was not healthy to spend any extra time. We first came into the smoke just south of Watson Lake, Yukon and did not get completely out of until just north of the Arizona border. We basically drove in smoke for 7 days and nearly 2500 miles. Sometimes the smoke was so thick the sun was mostly obscured and other times it was a haze on the nearby mountains.
We have decided that this was one of the best trips we have ever taken. The beauty the Prince William Sound at Valdez was awesome but the trip up to the Arctic Ocean was the biggest highlight of the trip. As we have said before, we cannot find the words to describe the beauty and vastness of the arctic wilderness. By flying up to the arctic from Fairbanks and driving back on the Dalton Highway, we feel we had the perfect experience as we had the opportunity to view it from the air and experience all 500 miles of the return trip.
One of our major goals in the summer is to see interesting wildlife. On the way up, we were disappointed in that we really did not see anything interesting all the way through Canada. However, once we got to Alaska our luck changed in a major way. Here is a list of our major sightings not including birds and sea life:
Antelope | 20 |
Black bear | 6 |
Elk | 1 |
Coyotes | 2 |
Musk Ox | 28 |
Caribou | 14 |
Moose | 15 |
Deer | 2 |
Bighorn Sheep | 4 |
Lynx | 3 |
Porcupine | 2 |
Beaver | 1 |
Arctic Fox | 1 |
Red Fox | 7 |
A few status from the trip:
Miles driven: 8047
Days on the road: 44
Nights in RV parks: 20
Nights in state/province/territory parks: 18
Nights boondocking: 5
Lowest gas price: $2.82/gal (Chandler AZ)
Highest gas price: $6.23/gal (Dease Lake BC)
Average miles/gal: 9.1
Cost per mile: $0.40
Track Logs:
Day 41 – Aug. 19, 2018, 382 miles
Day 42 – Aug. 20, 2018, 314 miles
Day 43 – Aug. 21, 2018, 212 miles
Day 44 – Aug. 22, 2018, 140 miles
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