Options for Transportation to Dyea?

[tcv cruiser]

DH and I are cruising to Alaska in two week! One of our ports of call is Skagway and we'd like to go to Dyea (we've already booked the train). I understand that the Parks Service does tours of Dyea but one has to get themselves there. Is it within walking distance of Skagway if we don't mind a long walk? If not, other than book a tour through Dyea Dave, is there any other way to get there? Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

[Ron AKA]

DH and I are cruising to Alaska in two week! One of our ports of call is Skagway and we'd like to go to Dyea (we've already booked the train). I understand that the Parks Service does tours of Dyea but one has to get themselves there. Is it within walking distance of Skagway if we don't mind a long walk? If not, other than book a tour through Dyea Dave, is there any other way to get there? Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

 

Too far to walk in a reasonable time. I recall 8-9 miles one way. Other than an organized tour, you need to rent a car, which is in my opinion a great thing to do in Skagway. It gives you lots of freedom. If you are not Canadian you can get into Canada and see the Yukon. Can you unbook the train? I would do a car rental over a train for the Summit Pass.

 

The only other minor issue is that the car rental company may not allow you to go on gravel roads, and it is gravel almost all the way to Dyea. I think you just have to accept the liability of doing so. I'll leave it to you on how to solve that problem. All I can tell you is that there is no operating car wash in town to get the dust off (Well there is one, but the owner died a few years ago...), but there is a water hose in the marina parking lot just up from the cruise ship dock.

 

Kitty corner from the Red Onion Saloon there is a park information office. Suggest you stop there to get a tour schedule. At the link below you can find a self guided tour handout.

 

http://www.nps.gov/klgo/planyourvisit/upload/Dyea%20walking%20tour%20brochure-2.pdf

 

Not much to see there, but the historical aspect is amazing. The land on the town site has risen nearly 8' due to the loss of glacier ice, and the coast line has moved out a few miles.

 

Edit. I see you are Canadian, so you can't get past Canadian customs with a US rental car. However the customs office is well into Canada (where the train stops) and still well worth going to. If you can find a non Canadian to rent the car then you can get through customs.

[orchid123]

We were just there on the Golden Princess. The previous poster's recommendation about renting a car is the way to go. You will see much more and will stop whenever you want. We rented through Sourdough rental car, since they allow you to go into Dyea. My only concern, now that we did it, is that their cars are old (lots of miles) and the road is pretty much empty all the way up to Carcross (we did go up to Emerald Lake a couple of miles past Caribou Crossing). Also, there is nothing to see at Dyea, other than the vegetation (sorry if I am offending any history loving people, but we did it on our own at 6:00pm. They recommended us to see Dyea on our way back to allow the vegetation and the soil to dry up). We did not go to the false front in Dyea since I thought we had a better chance of seeing something if we took the warehouse trail.:cool: After that disappointment, it was getting late to return to the ship and return the rental, so we left. I suggest that you rent the car through Avis, with your Murray's guide on hand, and drive to Emerald Lake, after you have taken an early tour of Dyea with a tour company, if you really want to see it. Our van from Sourdough was fine, and we only had an issue with it while we were still in Sakgway that did not want to start, but other than that and the fact that we had no idea how much gas we had since the gas indicator was not working (it was always on full), it was fine. Again, looking back I will have rented from Avis, even though Sourdough gaves a much better price and a van for all 6 of us. Hope this helps. Ok I just remembered that you are from Canada, but if you can have someone else rent the car, then this the best way to do it.

[timetravler]

There are two other ways to get to there. Do a rain forest bike excursion or a horse back ride excursion. Both go there, plus you get some excercise at the same time. The bike ride is only 5 miles over a flat gravel path or road and is real easy to do. I did it this year(I'm 60 years old) with no problems. The horse back riding goes to a very simular route, but is pretty expensive.

[mr green]

DH and I are cruising to Alaska in two week! One of our ports of call is Skagway and we'd like to go to Dyea (we've already booked the train). I understand that the Parks Service does tours of Dyea but one has to get themselves there. Is it within walking distance of Skagway if we don't mind a long walk? If not, other than book a tour through Dyea Dave, is there any other way to get there? Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

 

There is very little to see in Dyea, other than to look at the cruise ships, or take a walk. We were with Dyea Dave, last week to Emerald Lake, great trip and well worth it.

 

john

[tcv cruiser]

There is very little to see in Dyea, other than to look at the cruise ships, or take a walk. We were with Dyea Dave, last week to Emerald Lake, great trip and well worth it.

 

john

 

Thank you for all the great suggestions. We really like the rental car idea but being Canadian limits where we can go in the car. We are also pretty set on doing the train journey as we are train buffs (family history with ties to the railroad, etc.) so we plan to stick with that excursion. We've thought of doing another Alaska cruise next year with some friends from Seattle so if we do that, we'll definitely rent a car on our next trip.

 

I like the bike tour idea. I'll look into them. If we wanted to be self-directed are there are bike rental places in Skagway? I'd love to try the horseback riding but I don't think DH would be keen. :)

 

How far is Emerald lake. I've read pretty mixed reviews about Dyea Dave and his tours being unreliable (not showing up, etc.) How was yours?

[Yukon]

I like the bike tour idea. I'll look into them. If we wanted to be self-directed are there are bike rental places in Skagway? I'd love to try the horseback riding but I don't think DH would be keen. :)

 

How far is Emerald lake. I've read pretty mixed reviews about Dyea Dave and his tours being unreliable (not showing up, etc.) How was yours?

 

You can rent bikes in Skagway to do your own touring. Emerald Lake is 75 miles from Skagway.

[axio99]

Thank you for all the great suggestions. We really like the rental car idea but being Canadian limits where we can go in the car. We are also pretty set on doing the train journey as we are train buffs (family history with ties to the railroad, etc.) so we plan to stick with that excursion. We've thought of doing another Alaska cruise next year with some friends from Seattle so if we do that, we'll definitely rent a car on our next trip.

 

I like the bike tour idea. I'll look into them. If we wanted to be self-directed are there are bike rental places in Skagway? I'd love to try the horseback riding but I don't think DH would be keen. :)

 

How far is Emerald lake. I've read pretty mixed reviews about Dyea Dave and his tours being unreliable (not showing up, etc.) How was yours?

 

I went with Dyea Dave 2 weeks ago and had a blast. I read about some mixed reviews about Dave but still decided to try him out. There is no other tours with anyone else that is that cheap and goes that far.

 

There were 3 cruise ships docked in Skagway the same day as us and Dave even got his friend to pick us up at our dock before gathering up the group together at the tourist centre, perhaps those who said Dave was not reliable did not notice his van or wandered off..none of us were lost on the tour.

 

Those on our cruise ship who booked with the cruise company only goes as far as Fraser but the real beauty of the Yukon lies beyond that...it was really a fabulous trip.

[tee_harbor]

There is very little to see in Dyea, other than to look at the cruise ships, or take a walk.

 

Not really sure how you were seeing the cruise ships, since Skagway is in another branch of the fjord. The outlook on the way?

 

I love going out Dyea Road, seeing the very moving slide cemetery, and watching wildlife at Smuggler's Cove and Dyea.

 

As for little to see, personally, I'd love to see the park service create a living museum at Dyea so visitors could have a true vision of life during the gold rush. These sorts of museums are common in Europe but not so much here on the West Coast of the US.

 

But I doubt the residents on Dyea Road would okay having many more tourists traveling the road, and it's much easier to 'process' the cruise ship passengers in town, funneling them money-making enterprises for the cruise companies. ;)

[mbarker]

We toured with Dyea Dave both last year (his "summit and beyond tour") and this year to Emerald Lake. I have no idea why someone would call him unreliable as he met us exactly when and where he said he would both years. I agree with an earlier posted who said the folks may have just been in the wrong place or missed him -- but he's hard to miss in his top hat.

 

Last year was great but this year on May 21st was fantastic. We had 7 different bear sightings (one RIGHT next to the van) and a porcupine. Not everyone saw all the bears but all eyes were searching the roadside and whenever someone spotted wildlife, he would (safely) stop. Sometimes it took a short distance to do that, but we turned around several times to go back when that happened.

 

He is a big advocate of doing what his customers want rather than a set itinerary. Two ladies wanted to stop by the huskies and we let them off there to be picked up at a pre-appointed time by Dave's second bus driver, Becky; One lady rode out in the van and we dropped her at the train station so she could train back; and we picked up four folks at the train station who had trained up in the morning and joined us for the ride back.

 

Our "six or so hour" tour ended up being nearly nine hours but no one feared missing their ship as Dave knew exactly when each vessel sailed and made sure we were back in plenty of time.

 

His stories are interesting and his puns may make you groan, but it was definitely a highlight of our trip.

 

Next time we are in Skagway (and we WILL be back) we will definitely go with Dave again.

[Ron AKA]

I suspect Dyea Dave never goes to Dyea. Not sure how he got into the thread.

 

From what I read in the thread, you are not likely to get there. So, let me tell you what I know from doing a quick visit.

 

1. There is a graveyard that has about 60 grave markers. Going from memory but almost all are dated April 3, 1898. There was a major avalanche that killed many residents of Dyea. It is believed the 60 markers greatly underestimates the number that died.

 

2. There is not much to see physically at the site. The trees where buildings used to exist are very big. It is a testament to how nature recovers from man's "footprint". You would never guess a town of 5-8 thousand ever existed there.

 

3. And as I said in my first post, the single big learning of my Alaska cruise was at Dyea. The land in the area is rising due to the glacier ice no longer being there. We often hear of how the land is going to be flooded due to global warming. But in Dyea the land has risen almost 8" since the time of the gold rush. As a result the ocean has receded, not flooded the land.

 

Dyea will always be a special place for me, because I saw it, and learned something there that I had no idea about before.

[pizzalady1]

I suspect Dyea Dave never goes to Dyea. Not sure how he got into the thread.

 

Dyea Dave does have both a two and a three hour tour to Dyea, check our his website at

www dot dyeadavetours dot com/tours.htm