Chop Chop Billy Goat

Time to dust off the old travel blog; we are hitting the road again in May in a new rig for another summer in Alaska.Our last Alaska trip was in 2014 with Ma, Pa, Big Kid and Little Kid in our 2001 Jayco Eagle class C motorhome. This time around it’s just Ma, Pa and Little Kid (now Tween Kid, age 11) for most of the summer because Big Kid (now Adult Kid, age 18) is now in college and has a summer job on campus and won’t be joining us until August. Also, the Jayco Eagle motorhome has been donated to Arizona Public Media and replaced by a 2023 F-150 with a Cirrus 620 camper (Big Blue).

In 2014 we covered most of the places that are on the road system in Alaska, so this time we are starting off with touring Southeast Alaska via the Alaska Marine Highway (what they call the Alaska state ferry system). We will take the ferry from Bellingham WA up to Sitka Alaska, then take ferries to Ketchikan, Prince of Wales Island and Juneau.

From Juneau we will take the ferry to Skagway Alaska for the “Arctic Dash” to the village of Tuktoyatuk, Northwest Territories, Canada, on the coast of the Arctic Ocean. Tuktoyatuk, or “Tuk”, is one of the northernmost communities in the world.

After the Arctic Dash we will meet up with Adult Kid in Anchorage and she will join us for August. Space is very tight in the Cirrus 620 camper, so we will be renting a camper van for her to sleep in for that part of the trip. This part of the trip will include Valdez, the Kenai Peninsula, Kodiak Island (via ferry), and the Anchorage area.

After Adult Kid flies out of Anchorage in late August for a semester abroad in Scotland we will visit Denali National Park and then start the long drive back to Tucson.