The Route...Kinda

Well we have been going back and forth for months now trying to decide which route we want to take to Alaska. We know we are going to pick up the AlCan in Dawson Creek, British Colombia, but we still are debating how to get to Dawson.  There are two frames of thought here, the first, and the one we tend to lean toward, is the direct route. Which would take us from Grayling, MI west through the Upper Peninsula to Minneapolis then north to Winnipeg.  From Winnipeg west through Regina, and then north to Dawson.  This would be the quickest route to Dawson and hence the quickest route to Alaska.  There are several pro's and con's some of those pro's are: quickest, shortest, new territory we have not seen before. Some of the con's are: more expensive IE gas, food, etc, many of the other sites we want to see would be easier to hit on the way up, and did I mention more expensive!

Although we are still leaning toward route one simply because we only have about 45 days before the snow will fly in Alaska, the other route we have started looking into is gaining speed. The second route takes us from Grayling, west through the UP, to Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, then to Yellowstone NP in Wyoming, north through Missoula to see family then on to Glacier NP. From there north through BC to Dawson and the beginning of the AlCan. The pros of this route are: cheaper, gas in the US and food will save us money, our route home would not have to take a huge dip away from the pacific coast to hit the aforementioned sites. The con: it would add 2 weeks to our route to Alaska so instead of getting there at the beginning of Aug and having till middle of Sept we would only have 4 weeks, hopefully, of good weather.

So as of right now we are still going to go with route one because we still feel the the most important aspect of the trip is getting to AK quickly, but with that in mind I have attached pictures of the other route below.

From start in Grayling to Missoula.

Missoula to Dawson Creek, BC

From Dawson Creek, along the AlCan to Fairbanks then Anchorage.

From Anchorage, back south along the AlCan till Kluane lake then south to Prince George.

From Prince George to Lees House outside Stockton, CA

From Lee's to Cabo BABY woohoo Party on the Beach!!

From Cabo to South Padre Island

We thought about going to Cancun, Cozumel or the Riviera Maya but the situation going on currently with all the cartels and violence are dissuading us from heading that direction. Cabo on the other hand is on the Baja peninsula which has a much lower rate of incidents.

South Padre to New Orleans

New Orleans to Orlando for my dive classes

Can't wait to get to New Orleans Nikki has a ton of family that still live in that area that I would love to meet. Also really excited about the classes in Orlando, going through the PADI Instructor Development Course to be licensed as an Open Water Scuba Instructor!!

Orlando to Key West.

After the classes are done I would like to at least visit Key West, but from what I have seen we won't be spending much time there, RV spaces are ridiculously expensive!! Then from Key west we would head north to Michigan to pick up our dog from my parents and then back to our lives in North Carolina.

We are not sure how long it will take us but plan on being on the road from late July of this year till late April or early May of next year. Route one basically cuts out the trip west at the beginning and adds it in as a long loop east after reaching Seattle on our way south then back to Stockton to see my friend Lee. Then we will continue with the southern portion of the trip.  So we shall see how closely our route follows either one of these routes once our tires actually hit pavement!! Till then...


Stay Frosty

USMCPatriot aka Justin!!