Looks like you have 12+ hours of sunlight until September 24. Here we loose 1-2 minutes a day, there it’s 6 minutes a day that time of year.

14 hours and 12 minutes September 1st.
17 hours 7 minutes august 1st

Would it be better in late June/ early July or late July/early August for weather and salmon?

I don’t know about the fishing but the weather is much better. June and July will give you 19 plus hours of sunlight everyday. It starts tapering off in August. That’s a lot of sunlight anyway you look at it. July lows are in the 60s, August is the upper 40s. September lower 40s with highs in the mid 50s.

and potty breaks, fuel, eating, etc. Yep, even with the higher speed limits, averaging 70 mph over a long haul is hard to do

June gives you a lot more daylight and less likely to run into horrible weather, I spent 11 days travelling by boat (40ft Carver) from Juneau to glacier bay and then out to Cross Sound and into the Pacific Ocean and back to Juneau. It never was complete darkness. Did again from Sitka to Whale Bay and back to Sitka. Beautiful and the salmon were running, halibut were awesome, ling cod, goldeneye rockfish, and lots of other species cooperated.The bears, eagles, mountain goats, and whales put on a great show as well.

Man that sounds like an awesome trip...

Thanks for the info...

Amazing

Very nice photos.

Thanks. We cruised around and found a place to sit and grill some fresh fish.

I've done the trip the last 2 summers in June to Fairbanks with my sister and dog. I also am thinking of going this or next Aug-Sept as a memorial trip for my dog. PM me and I will help answer any questions. Driving in 4 days is possible but its stressful. 5 is easy but you still aren't stopping much. Both times I went in my 99 Dodge 2500 that has 386k miles and a check engine light on. Everyone says take spares so I took 3, but never needed one. Millions of mosquitoes but they never bit me. I recommend staying in motel every other night just to be refreshed unless you can sleep good in the car. I could only sleep 3-4 hours in truck. There is so much to see you really need a full summer. Its a vacation so don't worry about fuel prices. I took an auxilery tank for diesel so I could drive 1,200 miles and not buy fuel. Make sure your credit card doesn't charge a fee for using in CA. Border crossings were easy most of the time as long as it wasn't a shift change which happened.

2018 - 16 days - 10,700 miles. My sister never drove. Drove from Dallas to Prudhoe Bay, down to Anchorage, over to Valdez, back to Fairbanks and then home taking the ALCAN both ways. Stop at the truckers cafe if you go to Prudhoe Bay. It was a weird feeling driving north at 2am and the sun is in your eyes. I liked driving at night because I saw more animals and less people. It was still daylight 24 hrs. I took the tour to walk in the Arctic Ocean. In Fairbanks you can pan for gold at Gold Daughters $20 all day. Or take a pan and stop in a creek. Wife may want to go to Northpole. Go see Denali. I would like to have spent more time in Anchorage. Not much to really see at Valdez other than a glacier. Be careful with fog, I could hardly even see the ground it was so thick up on the pass. Tok always had a good price on fuel and moose running in front of me on the highway. Took a little detour and went to Haines Ak and took the marine highway to Skagway. I was the last one on so I prayed my truck would start when we were getting off the ferry. They were the only one to question my fuel tank, but they were okay with it being diesel. In Canada Muncho lake is beautiful. Might try out the Liard hot springs. I will do that next time. Not a lot to see between Texas and Edmonton unless you get off the interstate. Drove by Glacier but didn't have enough time to go in. On the way home the last day it was 36 in Laramie and 105 in Dallas. Talking about brutal homecoming.

2019 - 16 days - 9,700 miles. Our original plan was to go to Tuk and stay in Ca but my sister was not able to take off enough time. My sister flew to Fairbanks so I drove solo for 5 days to pick her up at the airport. I could have done it in 4 but there was no rush. Took the top of the world highway back to Ca and Dawson City. Had some good food at Sourdough Joes in Dawson. Did a little gambling there and experienced my first of several ferry rides. Took the Dempster highway north to Tuk and the Arctic Ocean. 30 miles on the road and I already had a busted window and 2 chips in windshield. People drove crazy on that road. I didn't have any problem the prior year on the Haul road with all the big trucks.Tombstone mountain was beautiful but need more time to hike and see it closer. In Tuk you are at the Arctic Ocean and don't have to pay any tourist fees like in Deadhorse. Considering you are in the middle of no where the fuel was reasonable. They don't price gouge like other tourist areas. but a roll of tape did cost $18 to fix window. I went the western route on the way home. Salmon Glacier in Hyder AK was a great drive. Then took the Glacier highway back to Calgary. Then it was straight home to Texas except for a little trip through the Big Horns. My check engine light finally went out during this trip, but it eventually came back on. I let my sister drive 2 hours this trip.

A satelite phone might be helpful, but I never got one or needed it. The motorcycle that went off the road was probably glad they had one to call an ambulance that was over 100 miles away.

I want to plan a Aug/Sep trip because everywhere I went they said the animals were all migrating and wont be back until Aug/Sep. I would like to go up in March or April to experience driving over the frozen rivers. It wont be the same next time without my dog. She would always get so much attention from everyone. She even made CA TV the first year we went.

All in all its a great trip and you need to go. You will just be wishing for more time.

I would like to make that trip, but no way I could do it in 16 days. I think I would need at least 25 days, but that is still averaging over 428 miles a day. Honestly, that is still way to much for
this over 70 year old couple to make. I think 35 days, that's roughly 300 miles a day.

Thanks everyone...I’m trying to work it so I have 25-26 days off...long shot at this point but I really want to make this trip happen...

All the info and advice is greatly appreciated

That would be a dream trip for me. I lived in Seattle for a couple of years and talked to many people that took their yachts up the coast to Alaska. That is a trip I'd love to do.

July - early August is perfect. Silvers though will be ending their run by August, kings run earlier ((June?). We caught silvers at the end of July in one of the rivers feeding Prince William Sound , can't remember the name right now. All this is easily checked though on the WWW.

if you do calgary be sure to have all paperwork in order (passport, vehicle insurance, etc. etc) as the canuk border agents there do not mess around. I have been thru sweetgrass many times and you do not want to have them po'd for any reason. https://www.cbp.gov/contact/ports/area-port-sweetgrass-montana-3310

calgary stampede grounds are meh when the stampede is not there. not much to do except canadian casinos, the one I went to a lot was a converted house with a small restaurant and slots, cool place to hang for a day.

if you want to maximize your time I suggest the ferry to anchorage then drive to fairbanks and wherever, ferry back to seattle then idaho, utah, colorado, nm and Tx.

saves a lot of time and you do not miss a thing, alcan is a cool drive but not one to do if you are in a hurry.

How much does the ferry from Seattle to Alaska cost?
One-way cost: Estimated fare is $695 per adult or $1390 for both adults, 2-berth cabin $578.00 and a 19" vehicle is $1772.

https://alaskaferry.com/FerrySchedules/AlaskaFerryInformation

I could not find it on their website where they leave from Seattle? That might be a trip I would enjoy taking.

I made the trip up and back in the early 2000’s. I thought it was absolutely wonderful. Do some research on the Internet as there are some great places to view wildlife along the way. I took 10 days each direction and enjoyed my time. If you are taking a gun across the Canadian border just make sure you look up the regulations ahead of time. I made sure I followed them, to include having the serial numbers of the guns ready before they even asked, and that made the transition extremely smooth. I don’t specifically remember what the regulations are on handguns but you should be able to find it online. Definitely a trip worth doing if you have the time. I took an extra can of gas with me because I heard rumors about long stretches without gas but never ended up needing it. The gravel roads are exactly that, they are gravel roads. I had no issues on the way up, but got passed by somebody in a hurry coming back down and ended up with two or three big rock chips in my windshield, which ended up cracking it, and making it necessary to be replaced. I guess that’s what insurance is for LOL. Definitely an amazing trip if you can do it!

I think they actually board north of seattle, almost got to take the semi to fairbanks with a load but co. gave it to another driver at the last minute.
I would call the ferry folks and get details. have been told it is an awesome trip and you can get off/on at any of the stops along the way and take multiple days to sightsee.

Looking like end of June and first couple weeks of July is the target time...18-20 hours of daylight, and best for fishing...