Skagway White Pass tour - what is a better time?

[ilya12000]

I'd like to take combo-tour from Skagway through cruise line. They have 2 options: 7.30 am and 11.45 am. I'm personally prefer earlier one, but what is better from sightseeing point of view? I'd like to take pictures, so light is substantial factor for me. Any advice?

Thank you in advance,

Ilya

[TJ O'Pootertoot]

I haven't gone on the train (going this week, though!) but I booked the later train because I heard that the area can be foggy in the morning but it almost always burns off later.

 

I saw no point in rolling the dice since the time in Skagway is the same...

 

TJ

[robbinsca]

I would tend to agree that the fog may be an issue in the early morning. We had really good weather, but the clouds were hanging low. I personally like the contrast of the clouds to the mountains to the green forest to the blue water, etc., and my pictures from the RR trip turned out great.

 

Evidently when it is overcast the glaciers show better than when it is bright. I got one picture from the train that shows a glacier peeking through the cloud cover. It is about my favorite picture of the whole trip.

[Kathysum]

We took the 8:15 AM White Pass Rail Excursion on our July 10th Alaskan cruise. It as beautiful. There was no fog - but there was haze from the wildfires drifting in from Canada - so the haze was there no matter what time of day it was. The locals said this haze was very unusual and that usually all the peaks are crystal clear this time of year. Hopefully, they will have gotten the wildfires in Canada under control by the time you sail.

 

This also left us plenty of time to shop in port before leaving port. Taking the early train was best becuse most of the shops in Skagway didn't open until later in the day.

 

I have some pictures posted on Webshots from the train ride if you are interested.

 

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

[Coral]

The day I did the morning train - it would have been much better to do the afternoon train. We could barely see much of anything. It was really foggy.

 

This last time, I did the afternoon train and it would have been fine to do the morning train on that specific day.

 

The stores in Skagway open pretty early - they were open at 8:30 when I ventured out.

[Budget Queen]

Fog can be anytime. :) I would consider the pm train so to take advantage and get to the Park Service Visitor center and do some of their free activities. All this info will greatly enhance your later trip. http://www.nps.gov/klgo/schedule.htm

[cruise pup]

Late last August Skagway was beautiful in the a.m. Mostly sunny with blue skies. Then clouds began to roll in from the west late in the a.m. and filled in the White Pass. Just my luck that my tour was in the afternoon. It didn't rain, just dense cloud cover.

[ilya12000]

Thanks to all of you for replies and advices.

 

Best,

Ilya