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driving the ALCAN in Feb
Posted by mariner on Dec 12 2005
When I retired from the Air Force I loaded up my 4x4, boat and dogs and drove north using the border in North Dakota. I made this trip the last week of January a couple of years ago. If you are traveling with a pet make sure you don't have any foods with beef in them, if so you will have to dump it. This goes for pretty much any beef product, including jerky. Initially the roads were terrible, but the further into Canada I went the better they were. Fuel and lodging where pretty easy to find, and fairly cheap with the exchange rate. Carry some Canadian dollars and change if you get the opportunity too, one hotel only took Canadian dollars. Oh, and whenever I allowed them to convert to US$ for some reason they always came up with a much higher cost then actual conversion came up with, so do your own conversions, or better off, use a credit card or Can$. All hotels allow dogs in the room with you, usually an additional $10 to $20 per night. As you travel into the far north, be careful of truckers. They drive like they own the highway. Had one nearly run me off a cliff in a snowstorm. Watch for ice storms, locals drive with studded tires so they give the impression that roads are better then they actually are, tempting you to speed up, don't do it!! The biggest piece of advise, prior to starting into steamboat pass, full up, make sure everything is in order and hold on. At the bottom is Laird Hot Springs (spelling probably a little off) and a very nice lodge. Pricey but nice. They also have a restaurant with home cooked meals, worth the money for sure. If you break down in the pass good luck. I lost both boat trailer tires and when I finally found a shop to replace them I paid $150 per tire, trailer tires mind you, not truck or auto tires. After you get out of the pass you are home free. Watch out for Caribou on the highway, they don't always get out of the way in a hurry. I've heard it's an awsome drive, for me, it was ice storms, snow storms and fog, oh, and fast moving truckers. I swore I'd never do it again between the months of Dec thru Apr. I know plenty of folks that have done it routinely in the winter and had beautiful weather, you just never know. Good luck.
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