Moving from MN to AK- 7 days of travel, 2 kids and a camper full of stuff!

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When going on a trip like this, the hardest part is starting the process. I had no idea where to look or who to talk to. Plus, we were just getting out of a pandemic and the boarder rules were still changing from month to month between the US and Canada. We did it though! It was a blast and we would love to do it for fun next time!

How to Plan:

  1. When do you want to arrive? It seems counterintuitive to start with the end date, however, when looking at a long trip, it is importance because a lot of different factors contribute into where you go before you get there and how many stops you need to take along the way.
  2. How many days to you want the trip to be? Here is that follow up question! For our family, we needed to be out of our townhouse on the 31st of the month so we were going to have a week to get through Canada to the final destination.
  3. How many hours each day would you like to travel at max? Now add 2 hours onto that time. I suggest adding 2 hours onto the trip so that you can take into account bathroom stops, construction, and traffic, plus the occasional fun stop here and there. Also, it is important that if you are traveling with children or animals to be aware of how long they are capable of being in the vehicle over an entire day.
  4. Based on 1-3, what is your start date? Let’s say, you want to get there on July 3rd, you have 6 days to travel max, and you only want to travel 6 hours a day (remember that this is 4 hours if you look at miles plus an additional 2 hours for incidentals.) Take the total number of miles you are going to travel from point A to point B and divide by the number of hours you want to drive. Find the miles you are going to drive per hour according to your vehicle.
    • Example: 1000 miles total/ 6 hours of drive time (lets say 70 miles in an hour) (70 miles an hour * 4 hours= 280 miles a day)=
      • 1000 total miles/ 280 miles a day= 3.6 days . So, now you know that if you want to get there on July 3rd, you should leave on the 29th of June!
  5. Are there sights that you for sure want to see along the way? This is important because if you have a specific arrival time (I don’t recommend this) then you will want to adequately plan for extra stops and not live with that regret! In our trip, we have 2 that I really wanted to see and they happened to be very close to each other!
  6. Plan out your stops based on travel time, NOT MILES! Do not plan according to miles because 1 mile in the mountains takes a lot longer than 1 mile on beach; trust me. Use Google Maps for this; it will tell you how long to each stop. This is also a good place to look at gas stations along the way. If traveling from the US through Canada to Alaska, use the Milepost!
  7. Schedule what days you want to see sights. TRY NOT TO PLAN TIMES. Again, there could be traffic or a detour or something else that happens on your trip so as long as you get to it “that day”, then you did it!
  8. Look at Lodging, Campsites, RV Sites that are close to your desired “end time” each day. Use the internet for this. If you are using Google Maps, you can zoom in to the driving course and see what is around that area each day. This step can be tie consuming because of the vacancies of the areas, time of year you are planning on goin, and/or needing to be flexible because of nearby gas or next day travel.
  9. Review and Get Excited! Share your success; this is no small feat! Share with your family and friends what you have accomplished. Now; LETS PACK!!!!!!!

What to Pack:

Must Haves

Not So Much….

  • Blankets- Tempting but they really are so cumbersome and take up so much space
  • Car Seat Tray- We did this and it did not get used a single time.
  • Duplos/ Legos- Such a good idea; not so much when they are EVERYWHERE and the kids cant find them until they are sitting on one
  • Books- If you have an avid reader, bring one, but you don’t need them. They wont get used.
  • Trash Can- A Really good idea until you are in the car with one for a week. Just used trash/ grocery bags.

Our Example

  1. When did we want to arrive? We were able to move into our new place on June 6th so this made our end date pretty clear!
  2. How Many Days did we want the trip to be? Our goal was 7 days. This seemed a reasonable amount of time to spend in a car LOL.
  3. How many hours a day did we want to travel? So, I did not want to spend more than 8 hours in the car each day. David wanted to just keep going haha! Thankfully, we erred on the side of caution and really tried to stick to the 8 hours a day. There were some day that were less though.
    • Side note: We did not add on extra time because we didn’t know we should and it ended up being really hard a couple of the days as a result.
  4. What is the start date? We left MN on May 30th! We made it into Canada that night!
  5. Are there sights that you for sure want to see along the way? I wanted to see the hot springs and the sign forest. That was it. The trip was more focused on our desitnation rather than the travel part (Which, if we could do it again, we would do more for fun.)
  6. Plan out your stops based on travel time, NOT MILES! When I put in the destination address into Google Maps, I was able to tap along the t line and find where around 8 hours of travel a day was going to be. The stops ended up as follows:
    • Steinbach, Manitoba, Canada (7 hours)
    • Wynard, Saskatchewan, Canada (7 hours)
    • Wabamun, Alberta, Canada (8 hours)
    • Sikanni Chief, British Columbia, Canada (8 hours)
    • Liard Springs, British Columbia, Canada (6 hours)
    • Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada (7 hours)
    • Tok, AK, USA (7 hours)
    • Wasilla, AK, USA (6 hours)
  7. Schedule what days you want to see sights. TRY NOT TO PLAN TIMES. Luckily for us, both of the sites that I wanted to see where close to each other. The Hot Springs were in Liard Springs and the Sign Post Forest was shortly after. This actually influenced what day was a short day in step 6!
  8. Look at Lodging, Campsites, RV Sites that are close to your desired “end time” each day. Here is where we stayed! Our options were limited because it was early in the season and post-COVID not every site was open yet. We did opt to pay and reserve sites rather than park at free sites because we wanted water and electric most days. If you are fine boondocking, there are plenty of areas that you could just park and sleep. This also gave up the security of having a spot to park which was important because of the kids.
    • Steinbach, Manitoba, Canada- Ridgewood South Golf Course (This was flooded due to the week of non-stop rain)
    • Wynard, Saskatchewan, Canada Wynard Regional Park (Quaint and beautiful)
    • Wabamun, Alberta, Canada Wabamun Lake Park (This was our favorite site- it was in a wooded area and beautiful!)
    • Sikanni Chief, British Columbia, Canada Pink Mountain Campsite (Canadian Currency only….oops!)
    • Liard Springs, British Columbia, Canada Liard Hot Springs Lodge (This is across the street from the Hot Springs)
    • Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada Pioneer RV Park (We were able to do laundry and use Wifi!!!!)
    • Tok, AK, USA Tok RV Village (This was an amazing site, very clean and spacious)
    • Wasilla, AK, USA (6 hours)
  9. Review and Get Excited! To Celebrate this being finalized, we went out an ate at our favorite restaurant. This was very stressful to plan and the excitement was insurmountable!!! It was finally real!

Special Hints and Words of Wisdom

  • Be Decisive along the way. There will be questions of “do you want”- practice giving answers. Stay away from “Whatever you want” or “Doesn’t matter”. You will miss out on really cool things by being indecisive.
  • Don’t push how long or how far you will go each day. If you overdo it, the next day, you will pay for it. it is physically and emotionally difficult if you get burnt out.
  • Eating Junk is fine! Dont feel bad that you ate fast food, candy and sugary drinks every day. You wil survive as will your kids.
  • Let naps happen. Dont try and control them. There will be days when they do not happen and others when they sleep all day; its ok. Be ok.
  • If you have a child in diapers, set reminders to stop and change them. There will be times when you have a good travel pace and the diaper gets forgotten. Bathroom breaks are part of that two additional hours each day!
  • Take Pictures; make memories!

You’ve got this!