British Columbia 2018

[georgelesley]

We are beginning to plan a trip from TN up I-75 to Sioux St Marie in Canada then west to British Columbia. I have just read all the great tips about Banff, Jasper, Lake Louis, etc and plan a major stop there.

Then on to BC for a month or whatever works time wise. Some side trips we would like some info on if anybody has ideas. We would like to cross into Alaska, the part that touches BC. Just so we can say we were there. The same for the Yukon and Northwest Territories if that is possible. We would plan those areas as day side trips

My wife’s 95 yr old mum will be with us so hiking is out. She and her late husband always dreamed fo seeing the Canadian Rockies via train. We do not wish to do the train but we do have our motorhome and plan to use it and our toad.

We do plan to do a separate trip to Alaska, but a short day trip just into it would be nice. What route from North West BC actually goes into Alaska and what route would take us into the Yukon. Is there a route that would cross into the NWT?

We expect to leave TN in late April, spend some time driving the North shore of Lake Superior, then to where we used to live in Northern MN and leave there and cross back into Canada near International Falls perhaps in mid June and go West to BC from there ideas?

[c_traveler2]

I'm just going to address one area and that Stewart and Hyder/Alaska.
There are a couple of RV parks to base your rig at in either town. If you have a toad its a easy drive out to the Salmon Glacier and Fish Creek bear viewing area, both are on the same road out of Hyder. Remember to bring your passports to get back into Stewart. Also there's Bear Glacier just before getting into Stewart. Here's a few photo for you.

Bear Glacier


Hyder Harbour


Road out to Fish Creek and Salmon Glacier


Salmon Glacier overlook


This is a easy one day trip, any questions just pm me.

[paulj]

You also cross from Yukon to BC to Alaska when driving from the Alaska Hwy at Haines Junction, YK to Haines, AK.

So with only a few hours driving I could drive from Seattle to Bellingham, take the Alaska Marine Hwy to Haines, and then hit all three states/provinces/territories in only 3 hrs!

The furthest NW part of BC is indeed close to both Alaska and Yukon, but quite far from the rest of BC - that part with people and roads.

[SideHillSoup]

There is a beautiful Hwy that connects Skagway to the Yukon, called the Klondike Hwy. If you take the Hwy from Carcross Yukon into Skagway, you will actually be driving part of the trip through BC and the Canadian Boarder crossing coming back out of Alaska into Canada is at Fraser BC.
It may be just a spit of road between The Yukon and Alaska, but it is BC.
Soup.There is a beautiful Hwy that connects Skagway to the Yukon, called the Klondike Hwy. If you take the Hwy from Carcross Yukon into Skagway, you will actually be driving part of the trip through BC and the Canadian Boarder crossing coming back out of Alaska into Canada is at Fraser BC.
It may be just a spit of road between The Yukon and Alaska, but it is BC.
Soup.

[paulj]

Prince George is the largest northern BC city, with good connections east to Jasper via 16, and south via 97 to the TransCanada.

The nearest town in Yukon is Watson Lake, 800 miles, 15 hrs drive according to Google Maps (via Dawson Crk and the Alaska Hwy). The highway stradles the BC/YT border for a ways here.

The alternative is the Cassier Hwy, west and then north, 760 miles, but a bit slower.

The nearest town in Alaska (from Watson Lake) is Skagway, 320 miles, 7hrs.

The other town with road access is Steward/Hyder. That's 430 miles, 9 hrs from Prince George. (Watson Lake to Stewart is 400 miles, 10 hr).

So the shortest way to touch both Yukon and Alaska from Prince George is the loop to Steward, north to Watson Lake and back, 1700 miles, 35 hr of driving.

Years ago I touched on much of that in a 2 month trip.

Chicago to Edmonton; Alaska Hwy to Whitehorse; north to Dawson and on to Inuvik in the NWT; Back to Dawson and west to Alaska. By then we were 21 days into the trip.

The return was via the Alaska state ferry down the Panhandle, and on to Stewart (that route is no longer used), then east to Prince George and Jasper. That was about 3 days from ferry to the National Park.

Unless you intend to go all the way to Alaska, or at least really see the Yukon, I don't think it is worth the drive to try to 'touch' on the Yukon and/or Alaska. It's just too far of a drive from anywhere centrally located.

If you have time and the money (for the ferries) I think a loop via Prince Rupert would be more interesting (with a possible side trip to Stewart/Hyder.)

Vancouver to Vancouver Island, north to Port Hardy, ferry to Prince Rupert (a day trip in the summer), Prince Rupert to Prince George, south to Cache Creek. Then several choices - several routes south back to Vancouver, or east and south to see the rest of southern BC.

[daveB110]

Johnna, yes there is a rather strange strip of coastal land, sometimes called the Alaska Panhandle, that is separating much of B.C and Alaska. Except for the trip into Hyder, Alaska - linked by road from Stewart, B.C.- B.C. roadways do not access Alaska. Canada and Alaska are linked by the Alaska Highway, but through Yukon. There is a railway into coastal Alaska at Skagway, but that connects to Carcross, which in Yukon. This region is very mountainous where, not that far away, is located the highest peak North America, Denali (or Mt.McKinley) as well as the highest peak in Canada, Mt.Logan. Driving in the far north is driving long distances. If you decide on a day trip somewhere you may as well take your rig to it, otherwise you're looking at double the distances. But that doesn't apply to travel to Hyder, Alaska, from Stewart, B.C.

[racerguy351]

I live about 3 hours from Hyder AK in Terrace B.C.
We have nice campgrounds here, such as Lakelse Lake (http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/lakelse_lk/) and lots to see. The drive to Stewart and Hyder is beautiful. Also the drive to Prince Rupert on a sunny day is stunning and you could say you drove to the Pacific Ocean. An hour north of Terrace there are fossil beds from a lava flow. The highway goes through them on its way to some Indian villages.
In case you can't tell I do love the area I live in 😄

[SideHillSoup]

As for travel time distance..
My wife was raised in Stewart BC, next door to Hyder Alaska. We have done this trip many times over the years from Southern BC.
I’ll give you an idea of the distance in Time on the road.
We live just across the USA / CANADA boarder with the east side of Washington State below us. We are three hours north of Spokane Wash, and about 30 minutes from the Boarder.
When we drive non stop from our home in the south eastern side of British Columbia to Stewart it takes one 12 hr day drive to Prince George (PG) and then another 9 to 10 hr drive from PG to Stewart.( 21 or 22 hrs drive time)
We have done this trip many times over the years leaving at different times of the day and night and the only travel time that changes is the trip between PG and Stewart.
Traffic and road conditions always add time to this trip, it never fails. As well when I say non stop I mean, gas station and washroom breaks only. We always pack a lunch when we travel and will eat when we stop for fuel or washroom breaks. So when you see the times I give it means basically a straight through drive, no site seeing, no breaks of any kind, beside gas and washroom.
I entered the distance from my home to Stewart on Google to get an idea of “travel Time”. The travel time by google is way off on there calculation by about 3 hrs short of what it really takes.
We just did a trip down to Nevada and back, and again the travel time that Google gives was way off, 99% of the time. Their mileage calculation is correct, but not the time to do that distance.
So in my opinion don’t judge your travel time by google, they are not accurate.
Soup.

[GordonThree]

Check out highway 37, the Cassiar, it's a very scenic drive. At the Northern end you're in the Yukon and not far from the Liard hot springs. I doubt you can get there and back in a day, guess it depends where you leave from.

Btw LOTS of government campgrounds along 37, all rustic. As I recall there's a few private ones with hook up.

[georgelesley]

GordonThree wrote:

georgelesley wrote:

GordonThree wrote:
OP can you clarify what part of Alaska you want to visit?

The distances in that area are vast.

as mentioned in my post, the part that borders BC, the long skinny part. Just to be in AK for now. Another trip will do AK proper.

None of that can be driven to except Stewart and Hyder. It is accessible by ferry, like the Alaska Marine Highway System.

Thanks for the route. That is exactly the sort of small incursion into AK I was looking for. A previous poster mentioned a route that goes in and out of NWT that will do nicely. Another short trip appears to be able to get us in and ot of the Yukon.

It is all loose planning at the moment. It just depends on how much time we take getting to BC and how much time we spend in the rest of BC. We do not drive vast distances in a day 200-300 miles max, less if roads are challenging because of mum’s limited tolerance (and ours), and we all would just really see the local sights of where we are and not just rack up miles.

Some great ideas for campsites and things to see. We usually do not make many reservations far in advance but it looks like this trip we would be wise to. Any more info is welcome. Thanks to all contributors.

[Community Alumni]

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[GordonThree]

georgelesley wrote:

GordonThree wrote:
OP can you clarify what part of Alaska you want to visit?

The distances in that area are vast.

as mentioned in my post, the part that borders BC, the long skinny part. Just to be in AK for now. Another trip will do AK proper.

None of that can be driven to except Stewart and Hyder. It is accessible by ferry, like the Alaska Marine Highway System.

[johnna]

I think you do not appreciate the vast distances required to visit Alaska, Yukon, NW Territories and BC. BC is bigger than Texas, Yukon is larger than California and NW Territories is larger than BC. The only day trip into the NW Territories would be from Fort Nelson, BC to Fort Liard NWT (260 Miles round trip). Another day trip could be from Whitehorse, UT to Skagway, AK (156 miles round trip). Another day trip could be from Maziadin Junction, BC to Hyder, AK (82 miles round trip).

[georgelesley]

GordonThree wrote:
OP can you clarify what part of Alaska you want to visit?

The distances in that area are vast.

as mentioned in my post, the part that borders BC, the long skinny part. Just to be in AK for now. Another trip will do AK proper.

[MDKMDK]

John & Angela wrote:
I wouldn’t avoid the prairies to save on gas. The gas in the prairies right now is about a 1.03 per litre (Canadian) or about 3.08 per gallon (American funds American gallon). That’s not far off of what gas is in the west coast states right now. Paying an extra 10 percent for fuel to explore another country seems worth it to me. We like travelling in the prairies.

Gas prices in Canada may become more "volatile" in the very near future (tomorrow in some places) when some provinces institute their own, or the newly federally mandated, carbon taxes or cap and trade systems. Not just gas prices, but anything that burns carbon will have prices adjusted upwards. )