Alaska - By The Numbers

Our trip started and finished in Mesa, AZ. We were on the road 135 days, at least one of us stayed in the Scamp each night with the exception of the two nights we spent in a yurt.

We drove 15,331 miles: 5,355 northbound to Eagle River, Alaska via the California gold country, the Pacific coast, Oregon & Washington, the Okanogan, Lake Louise, Jasper, and the Alaska Highway. We drove 5837 miles in Alaska after arrival in Eagle River. The southbound trip from Eagle River to Mesa was a bit shorter at 4139 miles via the Cassiar Highway. Of the 15,331 miles, 3,891 were driven without the trailer including trips to Deadhorse and to McCarthy. Of the bobtail miles, 733 miles were specifically related to care for Turk.

We used 1055 gallons (I converted Canadian purchases to gallons) of gas, averaging 14.56 miles per gallon. I figure the canoe and associated racks cost us about 1 mpg. Gasoline cost averaged $4.43 per gallon. The most expensive was $7.19 at Muncho Lake Lodge and the least expensive was the gas we bought yesterday at our neighborhood station at $3.28.

We spent 11 nights in boondocking situations, typically roadside pullouts, 10 nights compliments of our favorite Bentonville, Arkansas retailer, and 6 nights at other stores. We spent 49 nights in public (town, county, state, national) parks that varied in cost from $0 (7 nights) to $35; 4 nights in commercial RV parks, and 53 nights (quite a bit more than originally anticipated) in private driveways. Average cost for the public sites was $16.22 while the commercial parks averaged $29.85. We did leverage Golden Age discounts when available and selected 30 amp rather than 50 amp sites when available in commercial parks.

We planned to travel no more than 200 miles on a normal travel day which worked very well for us. We did end up with some 300 mile days, especially southbound when the navigator started showing signs of gethomeitis and I did over 500 miles one day on the solo bobtail trip to Deadhorse &  return.