Driving the Alaskan Highway in February

[MCtree]

Because of the many helpful blogs and posts I found and studied before my trip, I wanted to chronical my 2023 winter drive to Fairbanks for any who might want to try it themselves. I felt every little bit of information helped so this is an attempt to give back a bit. I apologize for taking so long to get this written.

To begin, I would like to thank @coleAK and @stonepa. Both of these fine gentlemen were a font of useful information as I prepared for the drive. I really appreciate their patience in responding to my many many questions.

I will try to keep this recount succinct, but forgive me if it runs long. There is a lot of information to convey.

Some background:

I’m in Houston Texas and wanted to drive up to Fairbanks to see the Aurora Borealis for my 50th birthday. I would be traveling in my 2021 Heritage Land Cruiser 200 along with my dog Ajax, a 75lb Giant Schnauzer-mix. My wife and friends would fly up to meet me in Fairbanks.

My LC is slightly modified with a 24 gallon aux tank, an aux battery on a Slee tray, a Slee rear bumper, Slee rock sliders and BD fog-lights in place of the stock fog lights – and I had it rewired so I could turn these fog lights on while my brights are on (something I never do when on an occupied roadway). And I have a single Goose Gear drawer on the driver side.

Before leaving I had 5 new Blizzaks (275/65 r18) mounted onto my vehicle. I did this three 5 days before leaving and they performed just fine here in Houston’s 70 degree weather and did not wear much/any in that time. I am no expert on winter driving, but it seemed to me that these tires handled very well in the snow and ice. I agree with the many others who have said it would be foolish to try to make this drive in the winter on All Terrains – and I believe Canada law requires snow tires on the highway.

I also installed a battery heater and planned on getting an oil pan heater installed in Fairbanks since nobody in Houston would know how to install one.

I did not change any of the other fluids from stock.

 

[MCtree]

Some Safety Gear I carried (in no particular order):

Full sized shovel strapped to my roof rack.

Flares

Small bag of kitty litter for traction

Jumper cables and a portable lithium jump starter

Snatch strap and some shackles, steel and soft

Viair portable compressor

Candles (a box of small votive candles because I read you could warm the inside of your car with a few of these in a dire emergency.)

A small gas stove

Meals for 7 days

Prestone AS253 De-Icer Windshield Wiper Fluid

Prestone AS247 Trigger spray De-Icer

A -20F sleeping bag

Blankets

Long handled snow-brush and ice-scraper to clean the vehicle in the mornings

A couple of types of boots for Ajax

A warm jacket for Ajax

A large box of chemical hand warmers

Lots and lots of warm clothing

Flashlights

Garmin Satellite communicator

Lighters and matches (because lighters won’t work if it’s too cold)



This thread was very helpful in helping me decide what to bring:

Considerations for Extreme Cold - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/considerations-for-extreme-cold.1301053/

 

[MCtree]

Day 1, Feb 13. Houston to Denver City Texas.

I tried to keep my daily drive times to about 8 or 9 hours since I knew I would stop along the way to give Ajax time to stretch his legs. This day was uneventful – except for stopping in Llano for some of the best BBQ in Texas (and thus the world), Cooper’s. That’s always an event! I spent the night in a roadside hotel in Denver City.

 

[MCtree]

Day 2, Feb 14. Denver City to Firestone Co, a bit north of Denver.

Another big-brand roadside hotel. Aside from catching heat for being away from my wife on Valentine’s Day, it was another pretty uneventful day. It started snowing as I pulled in to the hotel.

 

[MCtree]

Day 3, Feb 15. Firestone Co to Billings Montana.

When I woke up that morning, it was about 25 degrees F and it fell to 9 degrees while on the drive through Wyoming.

Happily, during one of his stretch-his-legs breaks on a side road in Wyoming, Ajax didn’t seem to notice the cold.

However, shortly after this stop, I noticed that my windshield wiper fluid had frozen solid. I had only put a little of the low-temp windshield wiper fluid mentioned above, into my reservoir. I had thought I would use some of the old stuff on the road and add more of the new as I made room. But with it frozen solid, I couldn’t use any fluid to make room for the new stuff. And with snow falling and melting and then re-freezing on my windshield, I was having to pull over very often to clean the windshield so I could see.

I was wracking my brain for a way to get my truck into a heated garage to thaw it out but as I descended into Billings, the temperature rose to above freezing and I was able to use up enough of the warm weather fluid to create room in the reservoir.

I would advise everybody to consider putting the low-temp fluid into the vehicle before they hit the road. There is no gain in chancing it like I did.

 

[MCtree]

Day 4. Feb 16. The plan was Billings to Calgary Alberta via the Coutts AB border crossing. It’s about a 5-hour drive from Billings to the border and I arrived there around 3 in the afternoon.

I was attempting to bring a pistol (Glock 10mm) into Canada so I knew this would be a delay. Pistols like this are heavily restricted in Canada and I was surprised that we Americans are allowed to carry them through Canada at all. Most of the gun sites I found said pretty much not to bother attempting – it was too much of a hassle. I took this as a challenge and wanted to see if I could do it (legally).

I won’t go into the details, PM me if you want to know more, but it requires getting permission from the Canadian government beforehand and submitting a bunch of forms about a month in advance. And then you need to have different lock-boxes for the weapon and ammo and then you will have only 7 days to travel through Canada. Also, make sure you have a squeaky clean police report – I did read that if you travel with a gun this means they will automatically do a background check at the border. Any past transgressions could bar your entry to Canada.

I announced the weapon to the guy at the drive-up window. He asked me the usual questions they ask everybody, asked to see the gun forms and then told me to pull ahead and over into one of the drive-in bays outside of traffic. There, a different group of 3 Canadian border guards politely asked me a bunch of questions about the gun and my purpose for it. Frankly, it was a lot of the same question in different phrasings; Why was I bringing a gun? I had read not to answer “self defense” since this is not a legal reason to bring a gun through Canada so I stuck to “protecting my dog from cougars on hikes” which is the most of the truth. I don’t think they liked that answer either but apparently it was sufficient. There is irony in the situation in that all of the guards had stickers on their uniforms that read “Keep weapons out of Canada” while I was trying to do the exact opposite.

Then they politely asked Ajax and me to go wait in a glass room while they searched my vehicle. I had to sit there while they took everything out of the vehicle. They brought dogs in to smell everything and x-rayed all the bags. Though, kudos to them in that they were very conscientious and put everything back where it had been, as best they could.

Even then, while searching my Land Cruiser, they would occasionally come back into the room to ask more questions about why I was bringing the gun.

It was around 8 or 9pm when they finally signaled to me to get back into my car and opened the door on the far side of the bay. This was 4 or 5 hours of my day. More irony is that all this time I could see car after car of people entering Canada from America who didn’t declare anything and thus didn’t get searched. They sailed right through. If I was trying to smuggle something into Canada, why on earth would I declare a gun? Like I would declare one gun while trying to smuggle a second gun in?

Either way, I was happy to be on my way. As I pulled up to the guy opening the bay door into Canada, he said something to the effect of “see you tomorrow.” On the permit, you have to pick a 7 day window and my window didn’t start until tomorrow, the 17th of Feb. I had built a one-day buffer into my drive north in case of weather and hoped they would be somewhat flexible at the border. I was wrong. He was just letting me out so I could circle back and get into the line going back into America. But he did say that all was in order and that I would be allowed into Canada with the gun on the 17th.

I drove back to Shelby Montana and spent the night in a Best Western there.

 

[MCtree]

Day 5 – Feb 17. Shelby to Whitecourt AB.

I contemplated leaving the pistol in Shelby. A contingency plan of mine was to leave it at a hardware store there that I knew had rentable lockers. Going through the search and questioning again was daunting. But I decided to give it one more go.

This time when I pulled up to the drive-up window, the guy was expecting me and told me to pull over into a different parking spot and leave the vehicle and come inside to a different building. There, two polite young border guards examined my forms, walked out to my LC to check the gun’s serial numbers and to ensure it was properly locked up and then sent me on my way.

Thankfully there was no second cross-examination or search. All this took only about 20 minutes.

Bottom line: you can legally bring a pistol into Canada, but it takes some effort, and you have to leave it locked away while in the country.

But having crossed the border – I was in!

Day 5 was a beautiful bluebird-sunny day.

Not a cloud in the sky and the temp hovered around 30F all day. Despite there being no snow in the forecast, it got cloudy and started snowing as I pulled into Whitecourt and found my hotel.

 

[MCtree]

Day 6 – Feb 18. Whitecourt to Fort St. John British Columbia.

This was going to be a shorter drive than normal; only about 5 hours. Because of the delay at the border, I had gotten off-track from the stops I had planned and a shorter day like this got me back on track for my 8 or 9 hour driving days. I was somewhat constrained by what hotels are open in the winter (and allow dogs) – so if I had not stopped short here, I would have had to drive a 12 hour day at some point.

Again, despite there having been no snow in the forecast, it had lightly snowed all night and there was about 3 inches on the ground and it snowed all day. Temps hovered around 25F. Due to Canada’s ever-working and diligent road crews, the road was mostly clear.

A few hours later, I hit Dawson Creek. This is the start of the Alaskan Highway. “Mile Zero!” as the obelisk marking the spot is engraved (never mind that everything else is metric on the drive).

Shortly thereafter, I came across my first wreck. A pickup truck upside down in a ditch. There was nobody around near the truck so I can’t say when it had happened. But it felt like it had been placed there as a warning to drivers. “Welcome to the Alaskan Highway!”

That being said, and as I continued the hour further to Fort St. John, I have to admit that I felt a bit let-down. The road was in great condition and the countryside was mostly farmland. And the roads were not empty. If you pulled over, a car would pass you every 30 seconds or so. It felt like driving through some of the bucolic parts of Pennsylvania in the winter – beautiful, but not the raw wilderness I was hoping for.

I arrived in Fort St. John around 2:00pm. Checked-in to my hotel and took Ajax to a local dog park to allow him to meet some local dogs. Happily, despite it being below freezing, the dog park was busy so Ajax had dogs to play with.

I don’t want to turn this into a food blog, but that night I went to a wonderful restaurant in Fort St. John, Indian Essence Bistro. Man, their vindaloo was fantastic! I would say it matched the best here in Houston. If you like Indian food, check this place out while there. I was very surprised and pleased to find food like this on the Alaskan highway.

 

[radman]

except for stopping in Llano for some of the best BBQ in Texas (and thus the world), Cooper’s.

whoa whoa... coopers?
What about Truth, Killens, and Snow's?

 

[MCtree]

Day 7 – Feb 19. Fort St. John to Muncho Lake, BC

The temperature had fallen to about 15F when I woke up. Again, despite there being no snow in the forecast, it was snowing. In fact, it snowed all day and the temps dropped down to -18F.

As an aside, this was a constant theme on the drive - the forecasts are always wrong on the Alaskan highway. I’m going to stop pointing it out. Just expect snow every day and ignore the forecasts.

I feel that after Fort St. John is where the Alaskan Highway starts in earnest. You finally leave civilization and farmland behind.

And the road becomes much less busy. Unfortunately, the bulk of the traffic now is 18 wheelers. And in the snow, these are horrifying. They travel much faster than I, as a Houstonian, am comfortable moving on snow. And since I saw two off of the road and into deep snow, having missed turns in the road, I feel comfortable saying that they travel much faster than is prudent. My advice to everybody is to find places to pull over to let them pass. They can’t stop, there is no gain in making them tailgate you.

But what’s worse is the 18 wheelers coming the opposite direction. Every vehicle on the road is putting out a large plume of snow behind them but the large trucks leave giant clouds in their wake. When you pass one going the opposite direction, you can’t see anything for a second or two except snow. Complete white-out. And you can’t stop or even slow down much, because if there is a car behind you, they won’t be able to see you slowing down in the snow. You need to just keep driving straight and hope there is nothing in your way. Like in the old movie, Days of Thunder – punch on through. I never got used to this on the drive or while in Alaska – it was harrowing each time.

The picture below does not do justice to the cloud of snow following a truck but it’s the best I have. Imagine that cloud blanketing your entire windshield.

Advice: I did notice that yellow lights (or blue) are much easier to see in the snow than white lights. If I make this drive again, I will replace my covers on my Baja Design fog lights with the squadron yellow light covers. Squadron Light Pod Lens Kit - Universal - Baja Designs - Off-Road LED & Laser Lights | Automotive, Jeep, Truck, UTV, ADV, Dirtbike - https://www.bajadesigns.com/products/squadron-light-pod-lens-kit/?sku=668413&gclid=Cj0KCQjwpPKiBhDvARIsACn-gzAYot8G08Etqe-z4JLoXodr82g696Ras8wwBPiKGVKNecb4KLcr0tIaAvipEALw_wcB

$25 is a no-brainer.

I’m not saying that yellow lights would help me see better. On that I can’t comment. But there is no doubt people would have been able to see me better had my fog lights been yellow.

Also, I very much envied @Markuson for his buggy whip

Post #3 here: What to do with Slee rear ladder? - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/what-to-do-with-slee-rear-ladder.1293395/

Driving in the snow on the Alaskan highway would be a wonderful use for this whip. That elevated light would work wonders in letting cars behind you know where you are since it would be above the snow plumes.

Also, don’t underestimate how weather will slow you down. Despite the day’s drive only being 385 miles, I didn’t arrive at my hotel until around 7:30pm.

I stayed that night at Northern Rockies Lodge in Munch Lake British Columbia.

Northern Rockies Lodge - https://www.northernrockieslodge.com/

I loved this place and highly recommend it. It felt like an oasis in the wilderness. It’s not luxury or anything but the rooms are clean and the staff is great. And there is nice walking for a dog out on the frozen lake where they have plowed paths.

And they have beer on tap!

Because of the inclement weather (and maybe the beer too), I decided to stay two nights there.

 

[MCtree]

whoa whoa... coopers?
What about Truth, Killens, and Snow's?

Ha! Truth could be as good. But it's not better either.
I fail to see why people like Killens or Snow.

And to be clear, I specifically mean the Coopers in Llano. There are other Cooper's around but none do brisket as well.

 

[MCtree]

Day 8, Feb 20. At Muncho Lake

The next morning, it was negative 18F when I started the Land Cruiser. Only after I had started the engine and was unplugging my battery-heater did I realize that the plug that I had used at the hotel was not working. But happily, the engine started – though it did make an ugly whining sound for the first 15 seconds (as it did every morning for the rest of this trip while below 0F). And it’s always worthwhile to check to make sure any plug you use up there it turned on.

On the other hand, I was happy to see that something I did to protect some of my electronics and batteries had worked: Knowing that extreme cold temps can destroy some re-chargeable batteries (cameras, drone, Bluetooth speakers, GPS devices) and not wanting to lug all of these into the hotel each night, I put them all into a small yeti cooler and each night placed a rechargeable electric hand-warmer into the cooler with the devices. The electric warmer would spend itself overnight, but each morning the temp inside the cooler was still above 32F (I put a thermometer in there as well). Happily, all of my electronics survived the trip. I imagine this would work with the chemical hand-warmers too, but maybe put some protection between those and your electronics to avoid excessive heat.

That day I went down to Liard Hot Springs. It’s about 50 min down the road from Muncho Lake and well worth the visit.

The drive itself is also very pretty and….. Animals!

In this same area I saw caribou on the way back to Texas, but didn’t get a good photo.

And the springs themselves are great. I had planned on just viewing them, but the park-service guard there encouraged me to take a dip. So I dug out my swimming suit and a towel and went to the changing rooms. The changing rooms are nothing more than wooden shacks. Not heated with large openings to allow the rooms to vent themselves. The temp that day had risen all the way to negative 14F so changing into my bathing suit was rough.

I had the springs to myself for about half an hour and then another group showed up and I left. It was very relaxing. Getting out of the water in the negative 14 temp and changing in the unheated changing-room, on the other hand, was not pleasant. I highly advise you to bring sandals if you go here. My wet feet kept freezing to the floor of the changing room as I put my clothing back on.

The drive back to Muncho Lake afforded me this nice view of the lake and sunset:

Note that this was at 2:30pm. The days are short up there and the roads can be very dark in the winter – plan accordingly.

Muncho Lake is also the first place where I was able to see the Aurora Borealis. Sadly, the moon was bright this night so the aurora was vague, but I was still happy to see it.

 

[MCtree]

Day 9, Feb 21. Munchow lake to Whitehorse Yukon

This morning I was greeted by the following warning:

I imagine snow and ice had built up on the parking sensors so I turned them off. In retrospect, I should have cleaned them off with the de-icer.

The Northern Rockies lodge sells gas – but it’s high priced even when compared to the already exorbitant costs of gas in Canada (you do get a discount if you stay at the lodge). I was happy to have my 24 gallon aux tank here and not need to fill up. But I think it’s worth mentioning that while the Aux tank was great to have, it’s not absolutely necessary for a land cruiser to have to make this drive. Even with many of the gas stations being closed for the winter, I think one would be fine if they solely relied on the Land Cruisers OEM tank for this drive. Though, without carrying extra fuel, I would also advise to not skip any open gas stations as you pass them.

But the drive that day was great. It was a beautiful and sunny day. The views of the Canadian rockies were magnificent and the road is pretty empty on this stretch. Not completely deserted, but maybe 20 minutes between cars. There are plenty of pull-outs to stretch one’s legs and let the dog loose. And it’s empty and quiet enough that he didn’t need a leash. Even walking on the actual highway, I could hear cars coming from far enough away to corral Ajax and get off the road well before the traffic arrived. Mostly it’s just the sound of the wind - which is wonderful.

I spent the night in the Best Western in Whitehorse. The Bar of the hotel was nice and I was happily surprised at how good the food was. Not wanting to leave Ajax alone for too long, I picked up food and took it back to the room. I was further surprised when I went back to my room on the third floor and Ajax greeted me in the hallway as I exited the elevator. The door to my room oddly opened outwards and he had managed to turn the handle and push his way out into the hallway.

Whitehorse is a larger town than I expected and a bit nicer too. While it’s awfully remote, it felt more cosmopolitan than similarly sized towns in west Texas; Perhaps because of its tourism industry. That said, I didn’t love my stay at the Best Western there. The hotel feels a bit like a fire waiting to happen and there were too many unsavory characters hanging around in the lobby and the area around the hotel. It was less than ideal when out walking Ajax in the evening and it made me worry about my LC while it was parked out in their parking lot. Also, their parking lot is small – which means if you don’t show up early you may need to park on the road where there are no plugs for any heaters in your vehicle. On my trip back home, I chose to stay in a lodge just south of Whitehorse so as to avoid the town.

 

[MCtree]

Day 10, Feb 22. Whitehorse YT, to Tok AK

The drive to the border was beautiful and desolate.

It started as a bright blue morning but by the time I got to Kluane Lake and Destruction Bay, it was snowing fairly hard and visibility became limited. But it was clear again by the time I hit the Alaskan border. The border crossing here was unremarkable though finally making it to Alaska was fantastic!

I spent the night at Caribou Cabins in Tok Alaska. I loved these cute little cabins and highly advise them. They are well managed and extremely ccozy and just far enough outside of Tok that one doesn’t feel like they are in a town.

And they have reindeer there!

 

[MCtree]

Day 11, Feb 23. Tok AK to Fairbanks, AK

It was overcast when I woke up and after another visit to the reindeer for Ajax, we hit the road.

And snow started coming down shortly after I hit the road. Happily, it’s not a long drive from Tok to Fairbanks so I was able to make it in before too much accumulated.

 

[MCtree]

So there you have it. It took me 11 days to make the drive from Houston to Fairbanks. 4301 miles. 317 gallons. A lousy 13.5 gallons per mile.

I won’t go into details about what we did in Fairbanks. Just some highlights:

Lunches at Lane’s Quickie Tacos - I went there for a quick lunch one day and was so pleased by the tacos that my wife and I went there two more times while in Fairbanks. Even now, here in Houston, I miss that “Po Boy Taco.”

Chris McCandles’ bus - The movie Into the Wild made this bus famous. It is now being refurbished in a building at the University of Fairbanks and is worth a quick peek.

Ice climbing at the University of Fairbanks - They provide the gear, instruction, and belaying.

Castner Ice Caves - The cave has somewhat collapsed but still worth the drive. It’s also a pleasant hike (insofar as anything at -15 degrees Fahrenheit with whipping wind is “pleasant”).

Chena Hotsprings. These are pretty touristy, but the springs make for a nice break from the unremitting cold up there.

Ice Sculpting Competition – It’s amazing what they can do with ice and worth a walkthrough one evening.

Dog sledding – I didn’t expect much out of this, but it was awesome. We had to lock Ajax away for this venture but I highly recommend that you take a tour while in the Fairbanks area.

Simard Automotive – I needed an oil change before heading back but was loathe to waste a day getting this done and these guys were able to get me in and out in about an hour and a half. Very professional and friendly. They take reservations in advance.

And of course, the purpose of the trip… the Aurora!

 

[MCtree]

Mar 4 – Heading back home.

I’m not going to give a day-to-day recount but will try to sum up the salient points in this one post.

I stayed the first night in Tok but couldn’t stat at the Caribou cabins because all of the cabins had been reserved. Because of the dearth of open hotels and Air BnB’s on parts of the drive, I suggest you book early because they do fill up. I ended up staying at Bearberry Lodge which was also great and I highly recommend it.

Crossing the border back into Canada was a 5 hour delay due to a bomb scare on the Canadian side. I never did find out if there had been an actual bomb. But I did get to talk to these guys while waiting in the border crossing line:



See the 7:00 min mark for them waiting in line at the border crossing. The 3:37min mark shows them checking in to the Caribou Cabins. I think they were traveling with several other Youtubers and their group is why the cabins were all taken when I tried to reserve a place. These guys have several videos on their trip to and in Alaska that are worth a watch for anybody planning such a trip.

Entering Canada from Alaska with the pistol was much less eventful than my trip north. There was no search. Oddly, the guard did make me move the ammo from my locked drawer to my locked glove box to ensure that the ammo was not with the weapon. Never mind that they were already in two sperate locked boxes in the locked drawer. I was just happy to be avoiding the search and didn’t argue.

I again stayed at Northern Rockies Lodge. It’s great.

On my way back home, I chose the path through Jasper and Banf national parks. I had never been to Jasper before and was blown away by how magnificent the mountains there are. I’m not sure any mountains in America are as impressive. They were well worth the deviation to my route.

The guards at the American border threw a curve at me as I came back into the States. It was late, maybe 2:00am, since I had spent too much time admiring Jasper and Banff and the guard reacted a bit aggressively to me as I pulled up. It was strange – he aggressively chastised me for not having the papers ready before I got to his window. This is despite there being no line and no other cars in sight. I had expected a line and would have dug out the papers while in line. But as it was, I had the papers and passport in a folder that I had readily accessible – he just didn’t like having to wait as I found them in the folder. Upon learning I had a pistol locked in the back, he asked me to come inside where another guard (who was politer than that first guard) asked me for proof that I had not acquired the pistol in Canada. That I had all sorts of paperwork for permission to carry the gun through Canada with the gun’s serial number on this paperwork didn’t impress the guy. Or that the gun would be hard to acquire in Canada because it’s illegal there. Eventually they let me pass with the gun and a warning. I had come across this in none of my pre-trip research, but apparently on the way out of Alaska, I should have gone into the American guardhouse and requested a form for proof that I had the gun at that time. Who knew?

Also, it’s interesting how the rules seem to change at all the border crossings. The guards have all the authority and can make up the rules as they go.

 

[MCtree]

Some random notes:

I regret having been in Fairbanks for 10 days and never venturing onto the Dalton Highway. At the time it seemed like a long drive after an already long drive, but having been so close to it, I now wish I would have taken the wife to see the Artic Circle.

Everybody pushes the book Milepost as an essential for this trip. I only opened it twice on the drive and that was more out of curiosity than anything else. Had there been somebody else along on the drive, the book would have been helpful/interesting to learn historical facts of spots on the drive. But since I was driving, I did not take the time to stop and read it along the way. And as far as maps and hotels, gas station and restaurants, I found the cell-service at the towns along the way more than sufficient for this purpose.

I Never did get an oil pan heater or engine block heater installed. Other than a 10 second whine in the morning, the vehicle seemed fine and seems fine now, 5 months later.

I ended up keeping the bottle of de-icer in the Trasharoo on the back of my rig. I did this out of paranoia of the chance that my car freeze shut with the de-icer out of reach. This ended up being helpful when I was caught on a closed pass in Idaho (going over the Tetons) for 5 hours as the roads were cleared. The handles of the Slee rear bumper froze solid and I could not budge them. But could get to the de-icer and with it I was able to eventually open my rear hatch and get to our dinner.

Bring some sort of dash covers – Alaska is cold. Awfully cold. The best times to see the Aurora are at night when it’s even colder and often you have to wait for the Aurora to show up. There were times when I drove to spots to get away from city lights and wanted to stay in the warm vehicle to watch for the light-show. Normally you don’t notice it, but there are a lot of lights inside the Land Cruiser that you can’t turn off. These lights become a bother when looking for the Aurora. I suggest you spend some time finding these lights and figuring ways to cover them before your trip. And not just the dash lights. Don’t forget the lights in the arm rests – they all add up and get bothersome in this situation.

Another thing my paranoid brain thought of on the drive that would have been nice to have, is a hose for siphoning. I relied on my aux-tank heavily; expecting the pump to work every time. It occurs to me that everything man-made is suspect at -30F. Why not have a short length of hose just in case the LRA pump gives up the ghost? You could siphon from one of your tanks to the other. It’s light and doesn’t take up much room.

Another thing that I will bring next time I make the drive is a neon vest of some sort. This occurred to me after I saw all the Canadian road workers along the drive sporting such vests. Visibility is so often limited up there that a neon vest to throw over a parka is essential should you ever need to get out of the vehicle while still on the road.



I don’t want to talk dog stuff too much here, but these Balloon Shoes were wonderful in the snow: Rubber Dog Boots Available In 7 Sizes - https://pawzdogboots.com/collections/dog-boots

I had two types of more substantial dog-shoes along with us but they are a pain to put on so I tried these and they worked wonderfully. On our longest hike of about 3 hours in sub -15F temps, Ajax was never bothered by the cold on his paws. Sometimes a claw or two of his would poke through, but that never seemed to bother him. These are easy-on and easy off and small enough that it’s easy to carry spares on hikes.



It goes without saying, but don’t skimp on cold weather clothing for this drive. North of Edmonton, the warmest temp I saw was Negative 14F and the coldest we saw was -30F. I bought myself and my wife nice parkas for this trip. While these are not absolutely essential, I advise you have a solid jacket along with good boots and head and neck wear. There are plenty of things to do on the drive and in Alaska that would be diminished if you were uncomfortable. Or you might just avoid doing them entirely. For example, standing outside under the Aurora is mesmerizing if one is comfortable. I’m glad we had the right gear to leisurely enjoy the majesty; not needing to run back inside after a quick glimpse.

In my planning for the trip, I prepared for the possibility of having vehicle issues and then needing to spend several days on my own. Food and heat for a week. In retrospect, the trip is not nearly as desolate as I expected. Even at night (up until midnight at least), a truck will go by once an hour. During the day, it’s a truck or passenger vehicle every 20 minutes at the longest. I’m not saying that one should blithely go without any preparations. Indeed, I say don’t go unless you have spent significant time preparing and ensuring that you have every contingency planned for. I just mean to say that it’s also possible to build it up too much in your head and then not make the trip out of an overabundance of caution – which would be a loss.

To sum it all up: It was truly a great trip. “Epic.” I can’t say enough good things about it and can’t wait to do it again. Hopefully I can/will again soon.

And one, last gratuitous picture of Ajax:

 

[sdnative]

Wow. Epic trip. Thanks for taking the time to write it up and share!

 

[MCtree]

Wow. Epic trip. Thanks for taking the time to write it up and share!

No problem!
I get so much from this forum I hope to be able to give back a bit.

And I know it’s too long of a read so I expect most people will scroll through looking at the pictures. But hopefully anybody who is contemplating the drive will read it and can glean something useful from it.