The Plan

Starting Point: Denver - Old Home
Ending Point: Fairbanks - New Home
Total Driving Time: 64 Hours, 15 minutes
Total Driving Distance: 3313 Miles


I've checked gas prices from Denver to Glacier National Park, and all were just under $2 per gallon. $2 per gallon, at 25 miles per gallon, for 1037 miles works out to be about $85 dollars.

Gas prices in Canada range from $2.63 per gallon to $3.36 per gallon. I converted everything from CAD to USD and from litres to gallons. We'll travel just under 2,000 miles from Montana to Alaska and if I round to $3 per gallon, our gas in Canada should be about $240.

Gas from the Canadian border to Fairbanks will work out to be about $30.

Gas total: $355

Camping should be somewhere between $10 and $20 per night, depending on which parks are open for the summer season and which are still on their winter rates.
We'll need 3 hotel rooms, all of which are around $80 per night.

So, rounding to give us some wiggle room:
Hotels: $300
Camping: $80
Gas: $355
Total: $735

Food isn't included yet, but food can be as cheap or expensive as you make it. We will be trying to make as many meals ourselves as we can, and eat out as little as possible.

Itinerary:

• Day 1: Denver to Grand Tetons/Yellowstone
• Day 2: Grand Tetons/Yellowstone to Glacier
• Day 3: Glacier to Banff
• Day 4: Banff to Jasper
• Day 5: Jasper to Grande Prairie
• Day 6: Grande Prairie to Fort Nelson
• Day 7: Fort Nelson to Whitehorse
• Day 8: Whitehorse to Fairbanks
  

Staying in Grande Prairie instead of moving on will give us a little more time in the parks, plus give me the opportunity to work while we're driving. We're going to try to time this so that I don't have to take more than a day or two off.

We need to find out which parks are going to have roads open, and which parks are going to have camping available. I also need to find out if I'm going to have trouble at the border since the names on my Social Security Card and Driver's License don't match.