I did the trip in 2015, and it was fantastic. We’re tentatively planning another trip to Tuk this summer.
Places to see -- pretty much once you get out of the lower mainland of BC, I would say “pick a direction and look” :D It’s beautiful up there. Before I write anymore, pick yourself up a copy of the Milepost; it has basically all the info you need to plan a trip up that way:
The MILEPOST
There’s no shortage of places to pull over and get off the road a bit all the way through Central and Northern BC as well us up through Alaska. I personally wouldn’t worry about having specific spots for each night but if you do want to do that, iOverlander is a great resource for sites that other travellers have stopped at. We have really good luck with those sites, but some of them LOOK nice but are actually not that pleasant — our style is to typically stay in gravel pits or similar open spaces — leave no trace of course, even if it is just gravel! Our reasoning was the bugs — we had basically a bug-free trip because most of our sites were in places with a breeze. Others do not have a “bug free” Alaska experience!
Your route (if I’m understanding it correctly) will bring you up the Stewart-Cassiar highway and when you exit in the Yukon you will be about 30 minutes from Watson Lake, home of the famous Sign Post Forest. For a 6 year Old, this might be pretty neat, and so I wanted to mention it specifically as if you leave the Cassiar and head straight to Alaska you’ll miss it, and 30 minutes is not much of a detour.
We really liked Haines, AK, and the road into it was phenomenal, but this is perhaps another diversion from your route.
If your plan is to hit up Fairbanks before Anchorage, you might actually want to consider going up through Dawson City, Yukon. It’s a very interesting place and you can drink a shot of alcohol with a human toe in it. There’s more to it than that I promise. It also puts you within striking distance of the Dempster up to Tuk if you want to do that, but others have already suggested it; instead though it gives you a shot to take the Top of the World Highway into Alaska.
We did not do the run to Tuk on our trip; we went to Prudhoe. The entire trip was fantastic and there are plenty of places to see all the way up. Not much in Prudhoe Bay itself and if your goal is to see the Arctic Ocean there, you need to book a tour well in advance.
If you have specific questions the above doesn’t cover, I’m happy to chime in. There’s just
so much to see that honestly I could do the trip 10 times on the same roads, and probably see new stuff each time. Have a great trip!
