I seriously considered taking the Alaska Marine Highway instead of driving, but the picture above of Helmcken Falls in Wells Gray Park is just one reason I’m happy I drove. Most of the drive is through beautiful British Columbia, and I saw more wildlife—including grizzly bears below—in British Columbia than in Alaska, per day. The Sea to Sky Highway in BC is one of my favorite drives in North America, on par with the best in Utah or the Going to the Sun Road in Montana, and northern BC is wild. Yukon has exceptional visitor centers with wifi and very helpful staff. So driving through Canada should be viewed as a highlight to the trip, not a chore.
And driving is a good way to get accustomed to life in the high northern latitudes, towns without cell service and longer daylight hours for half the year. Locals will tell you about which types of wildlife are on the move at different elevations, and whether the seasons are coming a few weeks early or late this year. Towns and restaurants up here often name themselves only after their mileage markers, like 140 Mile or Mile 1016 Pub, which gives you an idea of how much time is spent driving up here. And you have to pay close attention when driving, in case animals suddenly pop out of the trees to cross the road.
There’s a ridiculous amount of manly hype about Alaska, declaring that you’re guaranteed to get a flat tire on certain roads or that you definitely need huge adventure vehicles with tons of specialized gear in order to survive. This silliness tends to frighten tourists away from driving in Alaska at all, so they crowd onto cruise ships or stay home. The truth is that I drove a low clearance fully electric passenger sedan from Skagway to Homer visiting various parks, and I found the roads well paved, with just a few more frost heaves and potholes than the contiguous US. If you’re only driving in the summer and sticking to main roads, you don’t need a $75,000 AWD winter specialized vehicle. I calmly drove past the ‘travel beyond this point not recommended’ sign at the McCarthy Road, because I had checked with a ranger who had driven it a couple days earlier. And it was fine. There’s a big difference between a remote but maintained road on a nice summer day and the same road in a blizzard.
I love boats, making progress while asleep, and I consider public ‘road’ ferries to be fair use even on my zero carbon road trips. But the AMH ferry sails infrequently, takes a lot of stops without staying long enough to get off and see much, and it currently doesn’t cross the Gulf of Alaska between Skagway and Seward. It’s also rather expensive, especially with a car and/or cabin, and worst of all, it only allows 2 electric vehicles on board at a time, even for short trips. This is a stupid rule that’s not followed by other ferries, especially as the AMH ferries allow many large vehicles with propane, lithium battery banks and other fuel tanks aboard.
Canada has built an admirable EV charging network from the US to Beaver Creek Yukon on the Alcan highway at the border with Alaska. Although if I had known how limited cell service would be in the north, I would have ordered a Flo RFID card for Canada in advance, since it works without signal. Alaska, in contrast, has given little thought to EVs, leaving some tourist destinations just out of reach for tourists in these increasingly popular vehicles. But even for an idiot like me, I managed to charge and drive the whole way from Seattle Washington to Homer Alaska. And it was fun!
