Fishing

Road trip with kids — can 4,000 miles pass smoothly?

GLACIER NATIONAL PARK — Whenever we pull up to a campground office and register for the night, the response is always the same.

"Alaska? My, you've come a long way!"

As of today, the "long way" has taken us from Anchorage to Forest City, Iowa, through the northwestern corner of Minnesota, across the plains of North Dakota, and north to Montana's Glacier National Park. In less than a week, we've traversed country settled by my great-grandparents in the early 1900s and have managed to expose our son and his best friend to a landscape unlike anything they've seen. Great swaths of wheat fields and ranch land, as far as one's imagination can wander, stretch out before our rented RV and made the term "ribbon of highway" real. And there's still two weeks to go.

This is a trip I've been planning for years, but waited until our son, now 11, was old enough to resist throwing a tantrum in the back seat after hours of driving, and mature enough to appreciate the route we would follow.

My family tree has deep roots in the American West, namely the Dakotas and Montana, and with the aging of relatives who hold the key to personal history, 2016 seemed a good time to fly south, pick up an RV, and drive north. Our itinerary was defined by places my mother and her five brothers and sisters lived during their transient childhood. My grandfather worked for the Milwaukee Railroad and ranched several hundred acres of grassland and trees near Missoula, Montana, but mom's story actually began at the Montana border with North Dakota.

We picnicked in Miles City's Riverside Park among cottonwood trees swaying in a warm May breeze and stood in the gazebo where I used to hang off the railings as a kid. We drove along upper reaches of the Missouri River in Great Falls at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, doubling old home week with a hands-on history lesson for the boys, who are missing a large chunk of school. In a pounding rainstorm, we stopped in Shelby, Montana, where my grandfather's family built a homestead in 1903 among rolling hills of green grass and the cool, clear Marias River.

Road trips in general mark a significant chapter of many family vacation stories, and ours is no different, especially living in Alaska, where driving for hours on end is common. But seldom have we gone this far and seen so much diversity of people and things, and the value of both has me already planning for a second edition.

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Preparation is key

Alaskans know how to drive great distances with few services between stops, and in this respect I probably over-planned my supply list. When duffel after duffel was added to our pile at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport, other people snickered. But 49th state drivers are nothing if not prepared, and several times along this journey I have been thankful for extra base layers, sunscreen, and several travel-friendly meals we could whip together after a long day of driving.

Even though the summer driving season is not yet in full swing, many RV parks and campgrounds are filling up fast thanks to a low-snow winter and discount pricing prior to Memorial Day weekend. In the U.S., we've been using Kampgrounds of America, or KOA, a longtime favorite of road-tripping families. Originally founded in Billings, Montana, in 1962 during a boom in interstate freeway travel, KOA prides itself on creating a family-friendly atmosphere at its 408 U.S. and Canadian properties. With a proven system for searching reservations and securing a campsite, and a handy app that makes finding the campgrounds simple, even exhausted parents like us can manage to hook up the power and relax for the evening while the kids play at the playground.

Making it work

With two soon-to-be sixth-grade boys, I was pretty confident in their ability to handle stretches of driving lasting at least eight hours, given, of course, that we scheduled plenty of stops to break things up. With nearly 4,000 miles of driving ahead of us, a balance between all-day slogs and time exploring local attractions needed to be struck. Right now we're settled at a KOA near the entrance to Glacier National Park's east side, with plans to spend two days sleeping in, hiking, and ogling the peaks contained in Glacier's portion of the Rocky Mountains.

Families considering a road trip of this length or longer with children in tow should keep in mind the ages and tolerance levels of each age group, and tailor driving distances to the youngest family members. Kids age 5 and younger require frequent pit stops for snacks and playtime, and I've known several parents who plan drive time around naps and bedtime, even putting kids in pajamas and driving all night.

Elementary-age kids like to stop at visitor centers and museums with hands-on opportunities for learning, especially those offering rewards for completing projects. U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service interpretive centers are winners at this strategy, and I have fond memories of my own ranger-led activities as a kid. This age also likes to be part of the route-finding action, and paper maps go a long way toward learning about compass points, calculating mileage, and finding interesting sights. Our boys are also responsible for detailing their perspectives via journaling, having packed glue sticks, scissors, and stickers to add extra flair from admission tickets, brochures, and certificates earned.

Older kids along? Give them the opportunity to determine your route if time allows. Having ownership in choosing highways or scenic routes goes a long way toward road trip buy-in. Also seek their guidance for meal planning and shopping; we've found that a list of locally-sourced ingredients makes visiting a small-town grocery store and cooking dinner far more interesting than stopping at a national chain outlet. We've had cheese curds, fresh salsa, steak, and some great bread so far.

Our adventure will end in Anchorage on June 2, and I'm hoping the residual memories and lessons learned will continue to inspire these tween boys long after this early-summer road trip ends. Whatever the road ahead looks like, it can't compare to the one we've traveled — so unique was its path.

Erin Kirkland is author of Alaska On the Go: Exploring the 49th state with children and publisher of AKontheGO.com, a family travel and outdoor recreation resource. Follow her family's Iowa to Alaska road trip at www.AKontheGO.com/blog.

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