Alaska 2026, anyone intersted in joining together for a small group of 3-4 rigs to travel together?

[RVwife]

Thought I should seperate this from the current Alaska 2025 thread, so here goes...

We are getting more and more seerious about a 2026 Alaska trip. I've beeing planning this in theory for sevral years, but haven't had the freedom to be gone that far away or that long until now.

At this point we are shooting for leaving northern Michigan in late April/early May '26. Figuring it will take several weeks to get out to Coeur d'Alene Idaho and head north from there through the Canadian Rockies with stops in Banff, Lake Louise, and Jasper. then up the Al-Can to Alaska.

We'd like to hit eastern Alaska (Wrangell St Elias/Kennicott copper mine NP) around mid-May as businesses start to open but hopefully a bit before the cruise ship hoards arrive in the state. Lots to explore, with the plan being to get all the way over to Homer, Denali, and many points between. Probably try to be heading south before Labor Day and any chance of snow. I have yet to really piece together the details.

If this sounds like what you may be thinking/planning, maybe we should be in touch off this forum and use email or in person phone calls to get to know each other. Interested?

 

[yukongrant]

You'll have a great trip. If I can be of any assistance, please get in touch. We've lived in Whitehorse, Yukon for 40 years and have been to most of those spots.
Just a couple of quick notes - the campgrounds in northern BC and Yukon don't usually open until May 21. That should not stop you. There are other options besides campgrounds.
Snow can arrive in our area the middle of August. It won't stay. But may delay you for a day or two. You may also get snow and frost into the middle of May. In our 40 years, we've had snow in every month - including July. It never stays. But it does happen.
Finally, you won't avoid those cruise ships. They start arriving in Skagway the end of April and by mid May they're in full force. Again, they won't disrupt your trip. They usually just take over for a few hours and then head back to their ships and you can enjoy the other 20 hours of daylight.

 

[PS89]

I'm interested! I'll send you a "conversation" shortly (as soon as I type it...).

 

[16ACE27]

This looks like the beginning of a great plan. We may be interested in joining but my wife just had knee replacement surgery in March and she is not recovering as well as we had hoped. We'll just have to see where she's at, at the one year point.

 

[PS89]

We may be interested in joining but my wife just had knee replacement surgery in March

I wish her well! Had both of mine done (at the same time) about 12 years ago. It really takes a while to recover from that surgery. I was still taking pain meds at night at six months so I could sleep otherwise I'd be awakened by pain every time I rolled over or changed position. Just had a hip replaced 5 weeks ago this Wednesday. Still limping a bit and easily tire. Hasn't kept me from climbing up on the roof of the RV several times over the last two weeks. At 18 months, I started running. I've put probably 5 or 6K miles on the knees including a full marathon in '22.

 

[RVwife]

This looks like the beginning of a great plan. We may be interested in joining but my wife just had knee replacement surgery in March and she is not recovering as well as we had hoped. We'll just have to see where she's at, at the one year point.

Ouch. I hear knee replacement is a tough one. Hope your wife starts improving soon.

Keep us posted. If you'd like to tentatively be in on any disscusion/planning with fingers crossed that you can make it, that would be fine. You can email me at sotto2@gmail.com or call 231-228-7513 (EST). We are hoping to put a small group together mainly for cameraderie and "moral support", if needed. (We plan to make the trip with our without others, however it ends up working out, so no pressure to sign on at this point.)

Our idea is to be flexible, assuming not everybody has identical intereset anyhow. We are no spring chickens and I have some minor mobility issues, so NO sternuous hiking for me any more; moderately easy trails and ADA pathways work just fine.

 

[16ACE27]

I'll pass the well wishes to Melinda and thanks for those.
RVWife - we may be in your neck of the woods later this summer. Our youngest son & family are in Dorr (south of Grand Rapids). Can't plan for when right now but I'll email you of we'll be near and maybe get together for coffee if it works out.

 

[RVwife]

It would be great to meet up. Our son lives south of Grand Rapids at the moment,) but will soon be moving to their new home in Lowell that is in the final building completion stages.) We are familiar with where Door is and could certainly find a way to meet up.

We do have a few extended trips to the east coast later this summer and in the fall for family weddings, but hopefully our "busy" lives can intersect. We always enjoy meeting new RV friends in real life.

 

[16ACE27]

Small world! Lowell is our go to pre-Christmas trip (no RV) with the grandkids when they have Santa on the riverboat.

 

[RVwife]

LOL. I wonder if our son knows about that riverboat. I'm sure our 3 1/2 year old grandson would get a kick out of that too. I'll have to tell them when they arive later tonight to spend Father's Day weekend with dad/grandpa.

 

[16ACE27]

LOL. I wonder if our son knows about that riverboat. I'm sure our 3 1/2 year old grandson would get a kick out of that too. I'll have to tell them when they arive later tonight to spend Father's Day weekend with dad/grandpa.

Perfect for that age. They have a whole setup there, reindeer, free cookies and hot chocolate, other activities. We've had snow on the ground the las 3 years.