THANKS!!!
I am trying to work out when tourist season is (the time when EVERYTHING is full, and I have to book). I was hoping to just rock up at places, or book for the next night from the previous place, so I can go at my own pace, and appreciate things. And when horrible bug season is. Do Canadian School children REALLY have a THREE MONTH summer school break? What on earth do working parents do?
Are you into backcountry travel? Canada has awesome backcountry that most people never see.
I highly recommend Kluane Park in the Yukon if you have time to go all the way up there. There's a new summer road all the way to Tuktoyaktuk as well, although I've never gone that far. I suspect you'd want a truck/suv on that one.
I went past Kluane Park when I went to Alaska. I drove from Haines Junction to Haines and back. That was the road with a rock glacier that I walked up (I think it might actually be in Kluane Park). And the road where I met a party of about 20 bicyclists at the top the next day as I was coming back. And the road where, after seeing the cyclists, I nearly ran into a grizzly bear (or it nearly ran into me - fortunately it stopped - those bears can REALLY move), not 100 metres from the car park for the rock glacier walk. One of the major highlights of the trip.
I was looking at the road to Tuktoyaktuk. Rental cars cannot be driven on the Dempster Highway (so presumably not that road either). But there is a tour (bus, boat one way, plane the other way) that looks interesting.
The weather in the fall in Canada is usually quite lovely and the fall colours are spectacular.
Driving the Trans Canada from coast to coast is a rite of passage for a lot of people.
I know people who biked the length of it and it took them three months.
On a cross Canada trip the looong stretches of largely unchanging scenery are Northern Ontario and the Prairies. On the Prairies I would tell you about the mineral hot springs at Moose Jaw that people rave about (Temple Spa). Winnipeg has numerous great restaurants. There are MANY great lakes to go camping between Winnipeg and Kenora (I recommend West Hawk Lake - really beautiful). Once you get into Northern Ontario, the scenery is beautiful but it is a looong drive until you see any major towns again. One year we swam in all five of the Great Lakes which was fun (but might be too chilly in the fall).
Have a great trip!
The lakes sound good. We don't have lakes - or rather, these is the occasional lake, but most are salt pans most of the time. Are the Prairies all farms growing wheat? We have looong straight flat roads (for instance the three hours just outside Broken Hill to Peterborough is so flat for so far that you can see the curvature of the earth, and I worked out that I could see cars coming from 5km away). But it is desert, so there is the occasional tree, and spinifex. And the occasional goat or sheep. And maybe even a building, with a shop and petrol station. I find it has a beauty all of its own.
I would look at taking a train across Canada instead of driving. The prairies and northern Ontario are really, really big. I have driven across the prairies many times and have never even remotely enjoyed it.
Good thoughts. I am thinking of breaking it up and going by train for some parts, but a car can make you very flexible and allow you to go via the path less traveled. I have been on long sections in Australia - such as the road from Broken Hill to Cameron Corner (google says it's almost 10 hours), partly paved to Tibooburra (the only town on the way), and dirt from there on. Cameron Corner is a pub which also sells petrol, and you can camp there.
How much traffic is there in these stretches? Some places I've been to in Australia, I have been the only person on the road that day, but I suspect that Canada is more populous, as we have a far lower density outside the cities.
