I guess I'm a bit confused here: Do you want to drive, or do you want to take the ferries? Do you want to take your car ON the ferries and then just drive around the towns? With the exception of Haines, none of the southeast Alaska port towns are accessible by road. You can, of course, put your car on the ferry, unload it in Juneau (or wherever), and drive their very limited roads (anywhere from 5-25 miles of roads in the small coastal towns), then reload it on the ferry, etc. This would be very expensive, require reservations well in advance (at least in tourist season), and probably not be worth the aggravation and cost (IMO). It is possible to drive from Prince Rupert to Prince George, where you can connect with the Cassiar highway north through BC to Dawson Creek, where you can catch the Alaska Highway (Alcan). If you want to go to Haines, go north a bit and hang a left at Haines Junction and drive the road back through BC to Haines.

If I had ten days and wanted to do a northern road trip, and assuming you live in Seattle, I'd look into doing a one-way camper rental to Alaska from the Lower 48. You can find a lot of special rates in early-mid May when the Alaskan camper rental places want to move their new campers north. Ten days will allow you to enjoy northern BC, the Yukon and Alaska along the highway (but you'll be missing a lot outside the highway). Catch a cheap one-way flight back to Seattle and you are set (look in the Anchorage Daily News, http://www.adn.com , for consolidators in Anchorage that sell cheap one-way tickets). Or, just take the ferries north, without your car ( the ferry Web site is at http://www.dot.state.ak.us/amhs/index.html ) and fly back from Anchorage.

If you haven't done so yet, go out and buy a copy of The Milepost www.milepost.com , the standard road reference for all roads in the north. Borders or Barnes and Noble should have it. Don't even think of planning a trip without it! It has mile-by-mile road logs for literally every road in the north, even the tiny dirt ones. Also, for more info on driving to and from Alaska, both on the Alcan and the Cassiar (my wife and I have done it twice), see my Web site at http://members.aol.com/briwasson/alcaninfo.html

Happy trails, Brian Wasson Abington, Pa./USA