The AlCan highway is infamous to those traveling the roadways between the lower 48 and Alaska. It’s known for its seasonally rough conditions and driving it feels like something that should earn you a special sticker that says “I survived the AlCan”. We decided our time in Alaska was over in July, and we planned our drive back around when the Canadian border once again opened to vaccinated travelers. Canada made the official announcement that restrictions were loosened for August, and we planned to be one of the first cars back over the border!

The AlCan is mentioned enough by the websites and guidebooks we’d consulted before our initial move to Alaska that we knew it warranted some research before we set out on it. Covid added its own set of complications, the Canadian government set strict testing requirements for travelers and limited the time we could spend and the places we could stop on our drive through Canada. However the new loosened restrictions did allow travelers to stop at some previously closed tourist destinations, and we knew that there were a few we definitely wanted to visit along our route.

The are many route options for driving the AlCan; and the one you will take depends on where you leave Alaska and want to enter the US and vice versa. Some of the routes are known to be less maintained with longer stretches between cities and resources. Our local Costco actually sold a guide that is published yearly called the Milepost which is a great Alaska travel planner offering detailed mile by mile Alcan routes. It was a $30 investment we were happy to make, and we found it to be very well worth the cost.

We spent 12 days on our drive between Anchorage and Twin Falls, Idaho. The border opening date necessitated that we spend at least four days in Alaska and stop for Covid testing in Fairbanks before we could cross over. The day after our tests we slept in a small campground in our rooftop tent and awoke early to the sounds of what we thought was a bear or some large animal crashing through the forest nearby. The truck began shaking as well and that froze us in fear. Even through the rooftop tent put us at least 7 feet off the ground, the thought of a bear nearby and our anxiety about being turned away at the border motivated us to get up earlier than originally planned, and start driving towards the Watson Lake checkpoint before the sun rose.

We carried a binder with us for the border agents. It contained passports for both of us along with our birth and marriage certificates. It also held a recent certificate of health for Ares and a comprehensive list of everything in our vehicle, as well as a specific form for our firearms. NOTE – if you plan to drive through Canada certain firearms are restricted such as high capacity pistols and any high powered long guns. We had these items shipped ahead of us to a licensed firearms dealer where we later picked them up. This is a big deal and will get you turned away at the border if you do not review the specifications carefully. We had also submitted our information through the Arrive Can app. I think we were both a little sweaty palmed when we pulled up at the gate and handed over our info. Stephan was asked to pull to the side and enter the building and I was left in the car (anxiously hoping we hadn’t somehow become Canadian criminals) for what felt like forever, but was actually a few minutes. He finally walked out smiling after having cleared up a question about a pistol magazine we were carrying separate from the pistol we had shipping ahead of us, and we were on our way.

Horror stories about Canadians slashing tires of American license plated cars at hotels and grocery stores had peppered the AlCan forums and fb pages we followed. Tensions around Covid were still high and people seemed afraid of what visitors might bring into the country. We did notice that gas stations had tight restrictions, and some of them had installed plexiglass order windows where you would place an order and they would bring you whatever you needed instead of allowing you to shop in the gas station convenience stores like normal. Some of the Indian reservations we passed remained completely closed to visitors and had do not enter signs along the roadway. Overall we had a great experience on our drive and met a lot of kind and friendly Canadians on our way through. We did however avoid large cities, and made it a point to be very careful to follow local regulations when stopping places.

In Canada we had our first experience with hot springs, and we’ve been hooked ever since. Liard Hot Springs remains my favorite hot springs we’ve seen so far. A long boardwalk through the marsh leads you to a natural but well kept area where a seating bench and a wooden deck with changing rooms have been installed over the spring. The spring runs into a river and you can chose your warmth level venturing down the stream to where colder water pours in, or braving the spot where the hot water bubbles from, so hot that people dared each other to touch it and then let back after only a few seconds. I could have stayed there forever, the water was so soothing, and floating there was the perfect break after a long day of driving!

Banff and Jasper were stopping points that came highly recommended by my best Canadian friend Sarah and they were our next stop. The parks are connected by one long road that runs between them and at the gate you purchase a pass for a certain amount of days and specify which parks you will be visiting, We chose to drive through both parks in a span of two days. The parks are vast with lost of beautiful landscapes. We especially loved a lake we came to soon after coming into Banff that looks deep but actually remains at a knee depth for most of the way across making for a great spot to dip you toes in and wade out as far as you like. We camped in the parking lot of the visitor center for a massive nearby glacier and we fell asleep watching the moon reflect off its ice walls.

We purchased our Bigfoot rooftop tent specifically for this trip with the goal of saving money but not staying in a hotel every night. Every day around 3 or 4 as the usually designated passenger I would pull up my trusty Google maps and search for nearby campgrounds. We experimented with staying in roadside pullouts as well but found that this was not ideal. The tents canvas walls blocked the passings car headlights, but not the noise blast of the 18 wheelers that flew by sounded like periodic hurricanes. This method of lodging did allow us to stay in some unique places, and we enjoyed the adventure that finding a new camp spot each night brought.

On day ten we crossed over the border at the Whitefish crossing having conquered the AlCan! The roads were not any rougher than anything we had found in Alaska, and main takeaway we had was that, in Canada, gas stations were farther between and we had to plan our mileage carefully. Our last stop on our trip was Yellowstone and it ended things with a bang! We spent two days driving through the vastness that makes up this national park. Bison and deer were frequent sights out the car window. We watched the Old Faithful geyser and marveled at the multicolored sulfur pools along the boardwalks through the park. We camped at Lewis Lake Campground before heading to our finally destination on day twelve of our trip!

We pulled into Twin Falls late in the day on day twelve. Our plan was to meet the realtor for the house we were renting who would give us the key, but the house owner had forgot to mention to the rental agency that we were coming in on the weekend and no one answered the phone in the office. This meant that we got a final surprise night of camping! By this point were were ready for a mattress that was thicker than two inches, and ready to settle into our new home. Regardless we found a beautiful spot and bedded down for the night. Even if we weren’t in our house for our first night in Idaho, we knew we were home, at least for a little while.