RV PARK & CAMPGROUND DIRECTORY FOR ALASKA, YUKON, NWT NORTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA Welcome to the KARO Enterprises directory of RV parks and public and private campgrounds in Northern British Columbia, Yukon, and Alaska. Since 1996, we have been a leader in providing information to Alaska bound travelers through our web site, our unique maps, and our handy guide book Practical Land-Yacht Navigator. Since 1996 we have covered nearly 200,000 miles by van, small plane, ferry, and bus to keep our information current and accurate. Another 50,000 miles were traveled from 1992 to 1995. Most important, we went again last year!! We hope you will find the answers you need from this web site and our maps and book. If not, please E-mail us your specific questions and we will be happy to provide an immediate response. IMPORTANT NOTICE: Effective April 2009 we will be changing to a different format for our maps. The 18x24 maps we have used since 1996 can no longer be printed at a cost-effective price because of the shift to digital. They will be replaced with 11x17 (ledger size) maps, two each for BC, YT, and AK. The BC maps are now in use. One covers the 97 corridor (John Hart and Alaska Highways) from Prince George to the Yukon. The second covers the Cassiar-Yellowhead Highways route. For release later in the summer, one YT map will cover the Southern Lakes District (including Haines and Skagway) and Dempster Highway, the other the Alaska Highway and Klondike Loop. For Alaska, one map will cover the South Central and Interior, (basically the Tok-Anchorage-Fairbanks triangle) and the other the Kenai Peninsula and roads north of Fairbanks (Dalton, Steese, Elliott, etc.). There will be no effect on retail prices. 11th Edition Yukon and Alaska maps with an errata sheet will be used to fill orders until they run out. 2008 NOTES page is now active (click button) and contains information about our most recent (May 12 - June 12) trip. There are also two new pages: The Recent Road Conditions button takes you to our observations of road surface conditions and ongoing or future construction projects. The Facilities and Services button takes you to a new page detailing openings, closures, and significant changes to RV parks, campgrounds, fuel stops and other facilities. Also, I have done some research into mileages from and to various points, hoping to find some shortcut we overlooked and maybe save a few bucks this year. My findings are on the NOTES page. PASSPORTS are required to cross the US-Canada border as of 1 June, 2009. GAS PRICES: In 2008, with the US-CD dollars about equal, when the liter price was above $1.32CN we paid $5US per US gallon. Our highest price paid in Canada was $1.52, which equaled about $5.75. In Alaska we paid about the same in Anchorage as the Wisconsin price, $4/gallon, but AK prices spiked right after we left. Alaska Highway prices, including Fort Nelson and Whitehorse, ranged from 1.40 to 1.44. Of course this was mid May to mid June, and when we were returning through Canada the radio was projecting $1.50 prices by July. GAS PRICES FOR 2009 could be lower if the present (February) prices don't rise too much and the current 1.247 exchange rate holds or improves. Example: If the liter price is the $1.32 quoted above, then at par you pay $5/US per US gallon. With the 1.247 exchange rate this drops to $4, a savings of 20%! Last year (2008) we paid $1.33 in Prince George, which is about $5. The present liter price in Prince George is 92.9, equal to $2.82, a drop of nearly half! But of course things will change by travel season. From the US traveler's point of view, hopefully a further "improvement" in the exchange rate will offset the certain price rise. Remember, due to the high taxes in Canada, it is extremely unlikely that you will find gas there cheaper than in the states. The formula for comparing prices is: Liter price times 3.785 divided by the exchange rate. In Anchorage the present (February) price is $2.38, lower than the $3.90 we paid last May and much lower than the higher prices later in the summer. I don't know why they are paying so much, because for years their price was about ten cents under our Wisconsin price. OUR 2007 TRAVEL observations can also be found on the NOTES page. NEW PAGE! To help with planning as economical and satisfying a trip as possible we have added our TRIP PLANNER page with mileages for all of our recommended itinerary routes plus selected side trips from Prince George, BC and back. Go to the LINKS page for links to Canada and US gas price sites and exchange rate sites. Refer to the NOTES to get an idea of how prices vary from place to place. For fire information, go to the National Fire Info site and use links to Alaska Fire News. KARO MAPS cover Northern British Columbia, the Yukon, and Alaska. The three unique maps include information about all of the private RV parks and public campgrounds along all of the routes you are most likely to travel. We also show rest areas with toilets, day-use areas, lodging, restaurants, gas stations, info centers, places of interest, elevations, places where access is available for fishing, and much more. The maps are sold through this site and by retailers north and west of Prince George, BC. GUIDE BOOK: The Practical Land Yacht Navigator is a handy guide to all of the routes. This is a 21st century product, published in our office and available only through this web site. We know, from years of experience, that no one book can answer every question. By publishing an interactive guide, we can help people plan every aspect of their trip by combining the guide, maps, this web site, and our immediate response to specific questions by E-mail. For ordering information click the second button, above. WE NOW ACCEPT PAYMENTS VIA PAYPAL. See PLYN/Ordering DIESEL: We get a lot of questions about the availability of diesel. Diesel is widely available and no one should have a problem. However, we have seen cases where diesel was temporarily out or no longer offered. These cases are extremely rare. We will not put diesel on our maps or in our directory simply because we have seen if offered there in the past. Individual business who choose to include diesel in their advertising bear the responsibility for having it available. We recommend that everyone drive on the top half of the tank. Ask about availability up the road or call ahead if there's a concern. Also see our NOTES. Navigating This Site This site is best viewed with Internet Explorer. All of the pages on this site, including over 50 resident home pages, use the format you see here. Links to pages within the KARO site are posted at the left. External links can be made using the blue, underlined names or through the LINKS page. If an advertiser has a KARO hosted site, you will first go there, then be able to access any other sites or E-mail. Your back and forward browser commands can also be used. We have tried to organize the material in a logical trip order for those driving all the way from the lower 48 to Alaska. First, go to the START page, read the brief introduction, skip to the Northern BC Page, then either head north on the John Hart Highway or west on the Yellowhead. If you are starting at some other point, simply jump in using the buttons at left. If you get lost, or are looking for a specific highway or campground, go to the proper LIST page. You can also find out more about us and our maps and books, get some general information, including recent gas prices, and read notes about new things we encountered on our latest trips. Since we have inserted several hundred images, older computers may take some time to load. To update your copies of our maps with the latest information, visit the FAQ/ERRATA section.   About our Advertisers We do not make reservations for any of the businsses listed on these pages. Use the contact information we have provided. We charge a modest one-time fee to RV/campgrounds that advertise on these pages. All are identified by BOLD CAPITALS in the text. BLUE UNDERLINED NAMES indicate a link to either E-mail or another web site. Names not underlined have no Internet presence other than KARO as yet. Our sponsors make this site and our annual trip possible. Please frequent their campgrounds and services. We can say, without exception, that they are all wonderful people who are eager to make your trip a memorable and enjoyable one. And be sure to mention our site to anyone you stay with, if you saw information about their facilities here. Most owners keep track of where tourists first heard about their businesses to better allocate their advertising dollars. If you have an RV/campground located outside of our area of interest we will be happy to consider a reciprocal link arrangement.   Mileage Markers Information on these pages is arranged in mile post order. Along some highways, businesses use these numbers as addresses. In Canada, physical markers are for kilometers. Our mileages are derived from these posts by multiplying by .6, except for the Alaska Highway, where we use Historical Miles. Since other popular guides use these same methods, you can easily cross-reference to their pages. Read the introductory material at the beginning of each section to see how mileages are calculated for those routes. Black mileages show junctions, communities, and geographical features. Green is used to identify public campgrounds, including federal, state, provincial, and municipal facilities. Red mileages mark private RV parks and campgrounds. Blue is used to indicate the presence of a link to a web site or E-mail. Magenta or yellow denotes special information or comments. Page Colors There are six sections to this site. Pages with general information are white with a blue band to the left. All other pages have solid backgrounds. Northern British Columbia pages are grey; Yukon blue; Alaska tan. The Alaska Highway crosses all three of these regions and page colors reflect the location of the road. However, all Alaska Highway pages have white, rather than black, text. The more than fifty hosted web sites employ a variety of background schemes without regard to location. HINTS: Two of our more senior visitors advised us that their eyesight made it difficult to read some of the text on the colored backgrounds. If adjusting the position of your screen doesn"t help, go to your Edit dropdown list and click on Select All. The text will appear in bold white on a black background. To return to normal click anywhere outside the black. If you are printing multiple pages from the site be sure to click somewhere on the page you are printing before clicking the print icon. We suggest that you use the laptop, notebook, or PC you plan to travel with when planning your trip. All of the pages you visit can be saved in your browser cache and remain available off line. Have a safe and pleasant journey. The Founds Copyright KARO Enterprises, 1996, 2008. All rights reserved. Photos by Rodger and Karen Found or provided by advertisers. Site constructed and maintained using MicroVision'sWebExpress www.mvd.com Scanning by Visioneer, enhanced with PaperPort software. Best viewed with Internet Explorer Browser. Last update, February, 2009