When we set out on our first Alaska trip in 2017, we decided that we wanted to plan as little as possible. We did have some deadlines we had to meet (we had to be in Alaska by a certain date, and we had to do the major push across western Canada over the July 4^th holiday since we didn’t think we’d have coverage for Nic to work through that area), but we didn’t plan out how many miles we’d drive each day or where we’d stay each night. Instead, each day we would see how we were feeling and how many miles we wanted to drive and then just figure out where to sleep each night based on that.

We had researched some free campsites along the way, and we had also purchased The Milepost, which is a guidebook that lists everything from paid campgrounds to bathrooms to roadside pullouts, along all of the routes to Alaska. Even though it warned that staying in roadside pullouts is technically illegal and could be dangerous, we camped at them all throughout British Columbia without any issues. (Most pullouts in the Yukon have signs saying overnight camping is prohibited, so we stayed at a paid campground and a trailhead with no signage in that province.)

Our worst experience staying at a pullout was our first, outside of Grand Cache. We’d had a long day – Nic had worked in the morning, then we’d spent the day in Jasper doing laundry and filling up on fuel, propane, and groceries. We then drove 175 miles to a free campsite, but when we arrived, it was pretty muddy and we didn’t want to get stuck, so we ventured further up the road. We found a pullout that was basically right on the highway, but it was getting dark and the next pullout was 50 miles away, so we decided to stop. Even though we were exhausted, neither of us got much sleep that night. It was our first time staying at a pullout, so we were feeling a little uneasy, and since we were on a trucking route, we were buzzed by semis all night.

(At about 10:30 that night, a rainbow popped up right outside the van. It was absolutely beautiful and gave us at least one positive thing to remember about that spot. :))

One of our better experiences staying at a pullout was in Stone Mountain Provincial Park in British Columbia. We were across the highway from Summit Lake and had a hiking trail right outside our door. There was even a pit toilet nearby, which is a bit of a luxury as far as pullouts go. The pullout was up and off the road a bit, which made for a nice, restful night. We walked Max around the lake that evening, and the next morning we hiked up the trail to an amazing viewpoint before hitting the road again.

Another wonderful spot (on the return drive) was at Mehan Lake, right off the Cassiar Highway. This spot had pit toilets on the pullout right by the highway, but then you could drive down a small dirt road, which was a little further off the highway and right by the lake. (We did end up picking up a mouse or two at this site that we had to deal with a few nights later, but it was an absolutely beautiful spot.)

That was the fun of not planning the details of our trip and staying at roadside pullouts; we never knew what we were going to get, and even though that sometimes led to long days, little sleep, and crappy campsites, it often led to beautiful places we would have never discovered otherwise.