Welcome back to our blog! Today I want to write all the details of how we drove 4,255 miles in eight days from Syracuse, NY to our new home in Anchorage, AK!

We began our journey on a Friday and arrived on a Friday. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Canada is still closed for tourism and border crossing is heavily restricted only to those deemed “essential travelers” or residents. Not only were we subject to a strict time limit in crossing Canada, but we were not permitted to sight see or visit local facilities unless it was a hotel or gas station. I am going to explain everything we did regarding the border crossing, as it would have helped me a lot to have had access to a post like this ahead of time. Hopefully this can help someone else driving the Alcan! If you’re reading this post largely for the itinerary post-COVID restrictions, I suggest allotting at least nine to ten full days of driving with two drivers, or much more if you’d like to sight see in Canada!

Drive times listed are approximate based on google maps without any gas/food stops and could vary greatly – there was certainly a lot of traffic due to heavy roadwork in the entirety of Canada. Have you ever heard of a pilot car? It’s where you have to wait for a construction truck to literally lead you down the road – with an initial wait time of up to thirty minutes. Yeah, it sucked. Most days we were on the road by roughly 0900 AM and in bed between 2200-2300 PM.

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Day One: Syracuse, NY to Chicago Illinois.
680 miles | 10 hours, 32 minutes
Equipped with mom-made popcorn and arepas, we hit the road in the trusty 2005 Toyota 4Runner. We were loaded tightly with luggage, tools, our fridge, the rooftop tent and cargo carrier on top, and a small hitch carrier on the back with our recovery boards and 2 5-gallon gas cans. I had a folder with our important documents for the border crossing right in front with me. I go into detail about these documents at the end of this post! We purposely chose this hotel because it was close to the CVS where we needed to get COVID tests within 72-hours of crossing the border. Please note that we did NOT get the correct COVID tests – the type of tests are rapidly changing by the day, so when you schedule your test, please triple check that the test is the correct type with exact wording based on this page from the Canadian government!
Accommodation: Travelodge by Wyndham Downtown Chicago at 65 East Harrison Street, Chicago, IL 60605 – No issues with this big-city hotel, though like most big cities, it was noisy, rooms were small for a high price, and parking was paid separately at a hefty $65 per night.

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Day Two: Chicago, IL to Fergus Falls, MN
583 miles | 8 hours, 44 minutes
While waiting to get our scheduled COVID tests at CVS, we had breakfast at the farmers market that coincidentally was right next to the parking lot! Then we drove until evening and reached the only campground we were able to stay at this trip, because Canada prefers people not to camp right now (depending on the border agent you get – ours, for example, had no problem if we wanted to camp, but others have been told not to camp when they crossed).
Accommodation: Delagoon Park Campground in Fergus Falls, MN 56537 – Nice, busy campground with standard pit toilets.

Day Three: Fergus Falls, MN to Minot, ND
330 miles | 5 hours, 6 minutes
This was our “short” driving day, as we wanted to be in a position to cross the Canada border at Portal bright and early in the morning. There is once single motel in Portal itself, but I can’t speak for the quality of it other than the fact that driving by it, it looked quintessentially roadway motel-ish.
Accommodation: Baymont by Wyndham Minot at 1609 35th Ave SW, Minot, ND 58701 – A great hotel for an extremely affordable price.

Day Four: Minot, ND to North Battleford, SK
487 miles | 7 hours, 59 minutes
Border crossing day! Despite being turned away during our first attempt at crossing due to our invalid COVID tests (and then scrambling back and forth to Minot to get correct ones), our border crossing went extremely well at Portal, ND into the Canadian province of Saskatoon. Every border agent we had the pleasure of interacting with was not just polite, but friendly and efficient! Read more about the documents/questions at the border at the end of this post. On our successful crossing, we were in and out in less than an hour and a half. We were sent on our way with intructions not to interact with the communities we went through at all, to pay at the pump for gas whenever possible (which, turns out, is not possible for most of this route, and our day one COVID tests that the Canadian government requires you do yourself within 24 hours of crossing. We were given two permits to cross, one a full size paper and one smaller to display on your dash, which we would need to hand in to the Canadian government when crossing back into the US at Beaver Creek. When planning I had given ourselves four days including today to get out of the Canada. They granted this plus an extra fifth day just in case anything went wrong. Thankfully we made it within our initial plan, however I have heard of many people who have crossed and due to issues beyond their control, were not able to make it out of Canada within their time frame. With appropriate documentation of the issue and showing were doing all they could to get out in time, I haven’t heard of anyone being fined because of that. After the border crossing, the rest of the drive was smooth and fairly bleak as far as scenery goes.
Accommodation: Comfort Inn & Suites at 610 Carlton Trail, North Battleford, SK S9A 4A9 – No problems with this hotel, and they actually provided both a to-go breakfast and lunch! Pretty cool.

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Day Five: North Battleford, SK to Dawson Creek, BC
601 miles | 9 hours, 38 minutes
The day didn’t start so well – we did our day one COVID tests without issue via Switch Health without issues. The hard part was handing in the damn test. According to Switch Health, there was a drop off box for Purolator in North Battleford. After driving and driving around where this box was supposed to be, it became apparent that there was no box. We chatted with their live online chat and the lady was essentially useless, telling me the box was there. In total we drove for almost two hours in the same parking lot with no luck finding the box, so I can say pretty confidently it wasn’t there. Apparently another option was to leave the tests with the hotel desk and have them handle the pick up – but for some reason neither our hotel, nor any of the immediately surrounding hotels, would work as a pick up location! Then there was the option to call the help desk and schedule a pickup manually – but the only phone number they could provide for me gave me the busy tone for the entire two hours that I was trying it. I asked the lady on the help chat if she could make the pickup appointment for me, and she said no, the help desk had to hear by voice over the phone. By this point we were three hours behind just because of the test, and I was done. We ended up dropping the test off instead at the Purolator dropbox in Edmonton – which, I must note, was immediately easy to find. We also got five new tires in Edmonton at Canadian Tires, thanks to us popping one on the highway, luckily Gabe found the specific ones he wanted. Tip, don’t believe your husband when he says the tires should get us to Canada, and then we can change them, lol! Anyways, in order not to fall behind, we ended up driving until 3 AM. The entire drive was highway and uneventful, just like the day before – we were feeling fairly disenchanted by this drive that people said was the most beautiful in the world at this point.
Accommodation: Days Inn by Wyndham Dawson Creek at 640 122nd Ave, Dawson Creek, BC V1G 0A4 – Ok Canada, what’s with the complicated area codes here? And the obsession with ketchup flavored chips? Thankfully our hotel was great, and included another yummy hot breakfast.

Day Six: Dawson Creek, BC to Watson Lake, YT
600 miles | 11 hours, 12 minutes
Waking up surprisingly early after our late-night/early-morning arrival the day before, we were ready for another boring day driving through Canada. But we were wrong. From here, the drive got amazing. Maybe because the drive is actually called the Alaska Highway from here! Excited from seeing the Alaska Highway sign, we began on what quickly became a hilly, forested road. Remember that time we drove six hours, three times, in the hope of seeing just one bear? Well, this drive made us feel pretty crazy! We saw hordes of bison, black bears, mountain goats, elk… the mountains came into view and we saw the impressively blue Muncho lake… need I say more?! Yup, the drive today was our dream come true. And it sure made the long drive worth it. Currently, the Yukon province specifically has a 24 hour limit for crossing through. You check in at a small booth while being attacked by atrocious amounts of mosquitos at Dawson Creek.
Accommodation: Air Force Lodge at 136 Adela Trail, Watson Lake, YT T0A 1C0 – Great, homey, old-timey place owned by a Watson Lake local who immigrated from Germany almost thirty years ago. It’s a renovated WWII barrack. Bathrooms are shared, but it’s impeccably clean and we were actually the only guests that night, so it was basically private. We loved waking up to the classic radio playing in the common room.

Day Seven: Watson Lake, YT to Tok, AK
662 miles | 12 hours, 5 minutes
Back to the USA! We were so excited. We stopped seeing animals this day, but the mountains really came into view. Beautiful views of Kluane Lake. The roads got pretty bad at this point though with some very serious potholes and multiple pilot cars. Border crossing back into the USA took mere minutes and we had no problems, only had to show our passports. After seven days of driving, we were so happy to see the “Welcome to the Unites States of America” and “Welcome to Alaska” signs! We had to hand in our travel permit and windshield paper at a small building that is impossible to miss in Beaver Creek. This took mere minutes.
Accommodation: A Hyde Away Inn B&B at 3 Mae’s Way #965, Tok, AK 99780 – Lovely women-owned, classic B&B in a house with several rooms. During non-COVID times they even make you hot homemade breakfast. One potential issue is the fact that it is just different bedrooms in a home (with private bathrooms!), people who are noisy in any way, including snorers, will be able to be heard by all.
Note on another place to stay in Beaver Creek, YT: We purposely crossed into the Yukon at the end of day six so that we could get out of the Yukon within the 24-hour limit the next day without worrying about having to push into the night. This plan worked really well for us, and if you’re going southbound on the highway instead, there is a gas station/motel where you could do the same thing called 1202 Motor Inn. We spoke with the lovely owner when we reached Beaver Creek the next day and she told us her humble motel may be closing next year due to the heavy hit COVID has done to her business.

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Day Eight: Tok, AK to Anchorage, AK
329 miles | 5 hours, 51 minutes
The road continued to be a bit rough, but not nearly as rough as in Canada. Alaska mountains finally came into full view and before we knew it, the entire skyline was filled with them it seemed. We arrived in our beautiful furnished apartment where we will stay for the next four or so months – and we can’t wait for all our adventures here!

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CROSSING THE CANADIAN BORDER DURING COVID-19
There are currently only five borders where US citizens can enter Canada right now. Several documents are needed to cross. I kept these all in a folder in the front of the car and this really expediated our border crossing. Make sure to wear a mask throughout the entire border crossing including when in the car.

• Passports. Make sure you sign your passport.
• Proof of essential travel. For me, this was my travel nursing contract. You can also use an I-9; some people have used simple letters of employment, but others have been denied with this, so I would not recommend it as your sole proof of employment. Others ways to enter include proof of residence in Alaska or proof that you have cut ties with the lower 48 states (say if you were moving but hadn’t yet found a place to live, or were living in an RV). Since I am the only one who had an essential job to show, this also included our marriage certificate. Many people have questioned whether a family member, friend, or even caretaker can come with an essential traveler to help with the drive, and the answer in all situations is unfortunately a hard no.
• Proof of negative COVID tests within 72 hours of border crossing. I have heard that they are strict down to the minute with these tests, so please plan accordingly. At this time, vaccination record made no difference when crossing, however I am sure that is coming eventually.
• Itinerary detailing how many days/nights you will stay in Canada, and where you intend on staying each night. Parameters have been extremely mixed and highly depends on the border crossing agent you deal with. Ours just asked how many nights we planned on staying and did not take our actual itinerary. Some report having to hand in the itinerary, and needing it to specifically be typed. Some have reported needing receipts for hotels in advance, while others were either not asked about specific hotels (like us) or were able to meet approval by listing intended hotels without reservations in order to maintain flexibility.
• Car registration and title. We only provided registration as we had actually forgotten our title at home, and we were not questioned farther about having it.

• We were NOT asked about having the SwitchHealth or ArriveCAN apps, and when we did our day one COVID tests, it was much easier to do it on our phone’s web browser instead of trying to figure out the app. Others have been scolded, but not denied entry for not having these apps.
• We were sent with our day one COVID self-tests to do within 24 hours of the border crossing. They did not give us the second round of tests for day 8 tests, as the border crossing agent said we won’t be here for them and not to worry about it. It seems this is not the norm and most people do get handed their day 8 test boxes to simply throw out when they arrive in Alaska.
• The day one COVID test includes instructions on the box that are straightforward and easy to understand. I recommend setting up test pickup with your hotel and leaving them with the front desk so you can keep driving. If not, only specific Purolator sites will take the COVID test boxes – you can not drop that at just any Purolator site. The only way to learn which sites accept the COVID tests are by contacting the customer support chat line (or phone line, if it ever works).

• Things we were asked about to claim: Firearms, weapons, ammo, cannabis, tobacco, alcohol, gifts, cash over $10k.
• Things we were not asked about, but according to the border patrol website, could have been: All food, especially non-packaged food, prescription medications.
• Remember not to bring any large blades or switchblades into Canada. Small multitools such as our Leatherman were fine. Also, no mace or pepper spray.
• Our car was not searched. However, this does not mean your car won’t be, so be prepared and don’t lie!

• Remember when crossing the border: manners and appearances count! Tidy your car a little, brush your hair, and be polite. If you have all your documents in order and follow the rules, crossing the Canadian border isn’t as scary as it seems and in fact, for us, can be quite quick.
• The best resource for crossing at this time was this Facebook group.

I hope that this itinerary and details about crossing the border may help anyone planning on driving through Canada to Alaska during this difficult time!