Rugged scenery, freedom camping everyday and stunning wildlife at every turn… this is what we expected our Alaska highway road trip to be! Trust us, it did not disappoint! Our final wildlife count was, 4 moose, 2 black bears, many many elk, lots of bison, 2 eagles, a few deer and lots of squirrels! Even though October turned out to be a lot more difficult to find waste dump sites and fresh water, we loved the quiet roads, and lack of tourists up north and we would both do it again in a heart beat! So here’s our itinerary for our 2 week road trip from Whitehorse to Calgary driving the Alaska highway!

Whitehorse

Our travel day was marred by delays, instead of arriving at 11am we ended up arriving at 9.30pm. Luckily for us our Canadream team waited for us to arrive and gave us our camper van tour at 10pm! Big shout out to the amazing team there, they really helped us get back on track with our trip!

Our first campsite was the glamorous Walmart car park. It was close and convenient since we still had to grocery shop in the morning!

Things to do in Whitehorse

S.S. Klondike

Walk Along the River

Stroll through the streets of Whitehorse and check out the old Wild West looking buildings

Other things to do in Whitehorse: Takhini hot springs, Yukon Wildlife Preserve, MacBride Museum of Yukon History.

Visiting the SS Klondike in WhitehorseYukon

RV Necessities

Gas station: We filled up right by Walmart!

Sani Dump: Luckily this was our starting point so our Sani dump was empty.

Fresh Water: Again, we left with a full tank of fresh water but we were assured that the gas station could supply us if needed.

Campsite: Walmart (classy)

Whitehorse to Carcross

After walking through Whitehorse and exploring around the S.S. Klondike, we had lunch and hit the road headed south to Carcross. It was a long and fairly quiet road, we came across some beautiful lakes called Emerald Lakes and it was definitely worth stopping for some pictures!

Things to do

Carcross Desert
This crazy place is the smallest and coldest desert in the world. It actually isn’t even a real desert! Basically winds have blown sand over from the adjacent lake, and over time it has grown in size!

RV Necessities

Gas Station: There was one located at the Montana RV Park.

Sani dump: Located at the Montana RV Park as well

Fresh Water: Montana RV Park

Campsite: Teslin Lake Government Campground

Our goal was to freedom camp this night so we continued along the Yukon highway, headed south. We ended up driving to Teslin Lake Government Campground, which ended up being closed for the season. We were so exhausted that we “hid” our RV in a corner and stayed the night. We were joined by truckers periodically through the night, and luckily no cops! There was a spot just outside of Carcross that we were going to stay but it was still too early to set up camp, you can check that out here.

Carcross Desert in the Yukon

Teslin Lake to Watson Lake

Make sure that you fill up with gas at the Teslin Lake station! In October a lot of the gas pumps are closed along this road! Also, the weather can be unpredictable. We decided to take this road when it was snowing. The drive to Watson Lake ended up taking us about 5 hours due to heavy snow. We didn’t see much along this road as it was pretty much a white out.

Watson Lake Things to do

Sign Post Forest: See if you can find our Barbados sign!

Northern Lights Center

RV Necessities

Gas station: This is where we filled up.

Fresh water & Sani Dump: Due to the terrible weather, we made it into Watson Lake and ended up staying at a campsite with fresh water and Sani dump facilities, even wifi! Visit the Downtown RV Park!

Campsite: Downtown RV Park.

Our Sign at Sign Post Forest Watson Lake Yukon

Watson Lake to Stone Mountain Provincial Park

We woke up to blue sky and no more snow! We took off along the Alaska Highway and made our way to the Liard River Hot Springs, a super cute spot for a nice relaxing swim. We didn’t bother to stay but it was a super cute spot. We continued onwards, heading south towards Fort Nelson. The scenery got more and more stunning. The beautiful snow covered mountains and blue sky was stunning, it felt like we were the only tourists around for miles. This was by far our favourite roads of the trip. We ended up just pulling over in Stone Mountain National Park and staying the night in a rest stop, obviously if you are travelling through here in the summer, stay at a campsite. The following morning, we left around 7am and we were greeted by a herd of reindeer.

Things to do

Muncho Lake: This lake was absolutely gorgeous, it was a bit overcast when we got here so we could not see the emerald green colour of it.

RV Necessities

There was no where that was open along this route for sani dumps or freshwater, since we dumped at Watson Lake, we were fine to stay overnight without worrying about facilities.Summit Lake Campground would be the only option if you plan to stay overnight in this area, unfortunately for us they were closed as it was snowing already. This was our spot that we stayed (I think).

Campsite: Free camping

Muncho Lake, Stone Mountain Provincial Park

Stone Mountain Provincial Park to Dawson Creek

Our drive to Fort Nelson was pretty uneventful, we could tell we were reaching a bigger town as the roads got better and wider. Fort Nelson was a cute town, basically one Main Street with everything you needed. We stopped for some information and road maps, grabbed some essentials such as wine and we continued driving towards Dawson Creek.

Things to do

Kiskatinaw Bridge

Mile 0 on the Alaska Highway!

RV Necessities

Gas Station: There were loads at Dawson Creek, just pop in one close by the Mile ‘0’ marker.

Sani Dump: There was one located on the left as you drive into Fort Nelson. There was one also available at our campsite in Dawson Creek, Mile 0.

Fresh Water: None available at campsite in October at Mile 0.

Campsite: Mile 0 Campsite in Dawson Creek.

We made it to Mile 0 on the Alaska Highway!

Dawson Creek to Prince George

The drive was pretty uneventful along the main roads, we passed through a few towns and continued onto Prince George, hoping to find a campsite around the area. We couldn’t find anything and the visitors centre had just closed, so we continued driving.
We found a spot off the highway that was kind of hidden away in the trees and we made that our camp for the night.

RV Necessites

Gas station: Prince George

Sani Dump: There were many RV Parks as you drive into Prince George

Fresh Water: Gas stations or RV parks

Campsite: Free camping

Prince George to Mount Robson NP

Our hidden camp site was pretty awesome, but we left early so that no one could see us! We rolled into a small town of McBride just after lunch. This adorable little town was just so cute! Shout out to the Husky on the highway who let us fill up with fresh water and sani dump! They were definitely the MVPs

RV Necessities

Gas Station: Husky MacBride

Sani Dump: Husky MacBride

Fresh Water: Husky MacBride

Campsite: We parked at Moose Lake in Mount Robson to sleep. Also, this was a terrible place to park! The train passed by about every 30minutes. We ended up leaving in the middle of the night and ended up parking further up the road at Moose River, a trail head located in the middle of the bush. Needless to say, we hopped out with headlamps on and as noisy as possible so nothing came close while we ran to the back of the camper!

Mount Robson to Jasper National Park

We finally rolled into Jasper, one week later. We were not surprised at how busy it was! We then found out that we were there for the Dark Sky Festival so there was lots of activities in the evenings. We drove up to Pyramid Lake where we did our first hike. After Pyramid Lake we headed out to Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge where we saw Elk and unfortunately did not get to see any grizzly bears. We also splurged and had a couple glasses of wine here and pretended we were staying there!

RV Necessities

Gas Station: So many in Jasper!

Sani Dump: 52.872334, -118.079699

Fresh Water: Wapiti Campground

Campsite: Wapiti was the only campground open in October

En Route to Maligne Lake, Jasper National Park

Icefields Parkway

We ended up doing this over two days, we drove onto the Icefields parkway around 4pm and visited Athabasca falls and Sunwapta falls, then we found a little spot to hideaway for the night. The next morning we continued all the way down to Bow Falls and camped there. Make sure that you sani dump completely and fill up with fresh water so you don’t have any issues along the road. In October, all campsites were closed except for Wapiti in Jasper.

RV Necessites

Gas Station: Saskatchewan Crossing

Sani Dump:  Saskatchewan Crossing

Fresh Water: Saskatchewan Crossing

Campsite: Bow Lake Parking lot

Icefield’s Parkway, Alberta, Canada

Banff

After our epic road trip from way up north, we arrived in Banff feeling a little lost and having to search for an actual campsite again in a city. Banff was really beautiful though, and we did the Tunnel Mountain hike and then drove to Lake Minnewanka for the 2 days we were there. There are so many other things to do in Banff National Park, but we were feeling pretty exhausted by the end of our trip and preferred to relax!
We visited Lake Louise but didn’t do any hikes in the area because it was so busy, but you can check out this post for more information.

RV Necessities

Gas Station: There were loads in Banff

Sani Dump: Tunnel Mountain Campsite

Fresh Water: Tunnel Mountain Campsite

Campsite: Tunnel Mountain Campsite

Waterfalls in Banff!

I hope our itinerary has motivated you to do this drive! If you have any questions, drop us an email or leave a comment. This was by far one of our favourite road trips we have done to date! Even though it was harder finding facilities in October, it was amazing because there were no crowds around. Our top tip for driving an RV along the Alaska highway in October is to just use your resources wisely. We didn’t shower every night and we were aware of how much we used at every stage. You can see some of our tips for RV rentals here.