Glacier Lake Kayak/White Pass RR out of Skagway

[scrstu]

We're looking to book the above excursion and I did a search and found a few old posts including one person who had a nightmare of a trip in windy conditions. So--I'm wondering if anyone has done this excursion lately and, if so, what their opinion was of the trip.

 

I understand that wildlife viewing is not expected on this trip, but we love to kayak and aren't able to go in Juneau or Ketchikan (we're going with a group and have other things planned at those ports) so this would be our one chance to kayak in AK on this trip.

 

Our other choice would be the Glacier Point Wilderness Safari that has had a number of great reviews on the boards, but then we'd have to sacrifice the kayaking--but I'm sure we'd love that, too!

 

Thanks to anyone who can give me their opinions!

 

Cindi

[Suzanne123]

We've done both excursions. The kayaing part of the combo trip is limited, maybe an hour at most. You are with a group and paddle from one side of the lake to the other. It's beautiful and we had no weather problems at all. It's nice if you want to have a little bit of the train trip as well. We didn't see any wildlife the entire day and the snack was a bottle of water, a candy bar and supermarket cookies. The bulk of this excursion is spent on the bus and the train which I thought were less than exciting.

We much preferred the GPWS trip. You get a fast catamaran ride including a very nice boxed lunch, short walk through the woods, a great guide, and lots of fun paddling to within a hundred yards (just estimating here) of a beautiful glacier. No wildlife on the canoe portion, but we did stop to see some stellar sea lions on our way back. This is a much more active excursion.

Either excursion is nice, but I give the thumbs up to GPWS.

[scrstu]

Thanks, Suzanne.

 

I'm so glad to hear from somone who did both excursions that we're thinking of. I'm surprised to hear the GPWS was more active as that was rated a "2" and the kayaking was rated a "3" so that's good to know--we want to be active and one of the good things about kayaking was the activity level, but now it seems to be better to do the other.

 

Cindi

[Suzanne123]

Cindi - I think the lake kayaking is nice for beginners, but it didn't compare to some other kayaking we have done in Canada and Alaska. We're 50 something and had no trouble staying with the guide.

 

If you ever get the opportunity to go to Homer, Alaska, take the day trip with St. Augustine's http://homerkayaking.com/ -- paddle through sea otters, seals, eagles along the shore...the whole nine yards :). (Turn on your speakers. Every time I go to their web site and see the pictures of Kachemak Bay, I get teary-eyed. Probably one of the most memorable days in my life.)

 

A lot of people do the glacier view sea kayaking in Juneau, but we've had no luck with weather and our kayak tour there was canceled twice. I have heard that the kayaking in Ketchikan is good, but I always seem to have something else going on. (This time it's the Crab Fisherman tour.)

 

At any rate, you won't be out of breath on the canoe trip either, as they stop frequently for picture taking, but it's a longer out-of-doors experience and floating near that glacier is really a treat.

 

Have fun!