White Pass RR v. Car Rental & Klondike Hwy Drive

For our stop in Skagway we’re currently booked on a “best of Skagway” tour that takes the White Pass train to Fraser, BC, then a motor coach back with some stops along the way for lunch, gold panning and some other tourist spots.

Sounds pretty good, but I’ve recently noticed some comments here recommending renting a car and doing the Klondike Highway to Carcross on your own - a ride I understand covers similar ground. I’m wondering what the pluses and minuses of that option would be – aside from the cost difference.

Is the drive difficult.? While I like driving it seems on some mountain drives I’m so busy concentrating on the road I don’t have time to enjoy the scenery.

Well, let me know your thoughts.

OK, thoughts, huh??? I have not done the White Pass RR trip, but have done the drive to Carcross and Emerald Lake. The drive is very easy, 150 miles r/t and there are lots of places to pull off for photos, or just enjoying views. Murray, aka, Yukon, has a great mile by mile guide to this drive and you should download it.

If you haven't ridden trains much , or had much experience with gold miners and unique railroad engineering feats, you should consider the White Pass trip. The scenery is quite different, supposedly, but I don't see how. I would not recommend doing both as a few on here decided to do. There are photos of this drive on this site.

http://community.webshots.com/user/jq4653

For our stop in Skagway we’re currently booked on a “best of Skagway” tour that takes the White Pass train to Fraser, BC, then a motor coach back with some stops along the way for lunch, gold panning and some other tourist spots.

 

 

Sounds pretty good, but I’ve recently noticed some comments here recommending renting a car and doing the Klondike Highway to Carcross on your own - a ride I understand covers similar ground. I’m wondering what the pluses and minuses of that option would be – aside from the cost difference.

 

 

Is the drive difficult.? While I like driving it seems on some mountain drives I’m so busy concentrating on the road I don’t have time to enjoy the scenery.

 

 

Well, let me know your thoughts.

We did the White Pass train when we went to Skagway in September 2003 and enjoyed it tremendously. This year we did the Yukon Territory Scenic Drive excursion which was on a van holding about 24 people with lots of picture taking stops along with lunch at Spirit Lake Lodge. We also enjoyed it and the fantastic scenery we saw along the way taking over 100 pictures! I even got a picture of Yukon's (Murray Lundberg) cabin on Bennett Lake. Next time we want to rent a car and do it on our own now that we know what to expect. Everyone needs to do the train at least once mainly for all the history involved. Whatever you choose should be great!

I too have done both. The train is fantastic, loaded with history and superior scenery. :) The train is about 23 miles round trip and goes to British Columbia NOT the Yukon. The Klondike Highway allows you to drive to Emerald lake 75 miles. There should also be a combo bus/train trip as well? The salmon bake at Liarsville is very good and the gold camp is enjoyed by most. So determine what your priorities are and go with that. Way too many choices- huh??? :) :)

We did the "Ultimate White Pass RR and Yukon" tour ($169 pp) this past Wednesday and had a wonderful trip. We took a comfortable bus up the Klondike Highway enjoying great scenery and making many stops. Had a lunch along the way which was better than I expected (about an hour stop). I don't normally like bus excursions, but my parents are older and my dad can't walk very far so this seemed a good trip. Our bus driver was so knowledgeable and had a great sense of humor. We went as far as Emerald Lake then stopped again at Carcross for a few minutes. We caught the WPRR at Frasier (I believe?). It was a gorgeous day and the view from the train was simply stunning. We loved the fact we got to see both sets of scenery...they really were different in our opinion. Seeing the terrain from the train was much more up close and personal...things we just couldn't really grasp from the bus tour or a car view. I loved taking the train down and seeing the ships below in Skagway, and the view on some of the turns was just breathtaking. If you are only going to have one chance to do this trip I would say definitely do the combination. Perhaps, if I went back I would drive a car myself (although that train view was amazing) to have more time at stops, but I would have missed so much of the commentary/history from our wonderful tour guides and that really added so much to our enjoyment. At 8 hrs it was a long trip, but the time flew by.

awwusa and others: Well it sounds like the train / road combo is the way to go. I think the trip we're on takes the train to Frasier and bus back stopping at a few tourist spots along the way for gold panning and lunch. Is there a lot of "not to miss" things we'd see if we took the same trip as AWWUSA and went all the way to Emerald Lake and Carcross? I hate to throw another twist into the discussion with our traveling mates (group decisions are always hard enough) but I will if the recommendation is to ditch to tourist spots in favor of the longer ride. Otherwise it seems like we've picked a decent trip with the train/bus combination.

I too have done both. The train is fantastic, loaded with history and superior scenery. :) The train is about 23 miles round trip and goes to British Columbia NOT the Yukon. The Klondike Highway allows you to drive to Emerald lake 75 miles. There should also be a combo bus/train trip as well? The salmon bake at Liarsville is very good and the gold camp is enjoyed by most. So determine what your priorities are and go with that. Way too many choices- huh??? :) :)

I guess I'm missing something here. :confused: The train is 23 miles round trip, but takes 3 + hours. If it travels at 23 mph (which sounds pretty slow for a train - even a vintage train) that's still only 1 hour of travel time. OK - add in a half hour to trun the engine around - that still leaves 2 hours open? Since you can't get off - what am I missing? :confused:

Thanks,

Terry

SORRY- it is one way, not round trip. I made a mistake.

Is there a lot of "not to miss" things we'd see if we took the same trip as AWWUSA and went all the way to Emerald Lake and Carcross? I hate to throw another twist into the discussion with our traveling mates (group decisions are always hard enough) but I will if the recommendation is to ditch to tourist spots in favor of the longer ride. Otherwise it seems like we've picked a decent trip with the train/bus combination.

Although I wasn't too impressed with Carcross, I'm glad I got to see it. However, Emerald Lake was worth the extra distance. Simply stunning! And there is great scenery in between, but if you decide to stick with the shorter trip, you'll still have your fill of great views! I think you'll be happy with either choice.