Best time of day to visit Caribou Crossing?

[VA_Traveler]

My family of four is planning to rent a car in Skagway and do the drive to Emerald Lake and back. On the round trip, we would like to stop at Caribou Crossing in Yukon Territory to experience the taxidermy museum, sled dogs, petting zoo and gold panning, all of which our two boys (ages 7 and 4) will probably love (especially the taxidermy and gold panning!). We have picky eaters so are not interested in the barbeque chicken lunch.

 

I have read that this place can get really crowded at times, with multiple tour buses stopping at once as part of the tours that include the White Pass railroad, etc. But when it is not crowded, people seem to enjoy it a great deal. Is there a best time that we should aim for when we would have a good chance of avoiding the crowds? Our schedule is flexible and I want to do anything we can to make our visit as un-crowded as possible. Should we shoot for late morning? Mid-afternoon? There are four large ships in Skagway on the day we are visiting, so I am trying to be proactive with our planning. Any advice would be appreciated!

 

ETA: Our ship departs at 6:00, so unfortunately we can't wait too late in the day for this visit. I'm not sure exactly how long it would take to drive back to Skagway, but we do NOT want to be stressed for time.

Edited March 21, 2014 by VA_Traveler

[Kamloops50]

My family of four is planning to rent a car in Skagway and do the drive to Emerald Lake and back. On the round trip, we would like to stop at Caribou Crossing in Yukon Territory to experience the taxidermy museum, sled dogs, petting zoo and gold panning, all of which our two boys (ages 7 and 4) will probably love (especially the taxidermy and gold panning!). We have picky eaters so are not interested in the barbeque chicken lunch.

 

I have read that this place can get really crowded at times, with multiple tour buses stopping at once as part of the tours that include the White Pass railroad, etc. But when it is not crowded, people seem to enjoy it a great deal. Is there a best time that we should aim for when we would have a good chance of avoiding the crowds? Our schedule is flexible and I want to do anything we can to make our visit as un-crowded as possible. Should we shoot for late morning? Mid-afternoon? There are four large ships in Skagway on the day we are visiting, so I am trying to be proactive with our planning. Any advice would be appreciated!

 

ETA: Our ship departs at 6:00, so unfortunately we can't wait too late in the day for this visit. I'm not sure exactly how long it would take to drive back to Skagway, but we do NOT want to be stressed for time.

 

I would head to Carcross as soon as you have the car . The drive is about 90 minutes . Don't forget to bring your passports to cross the Canadian Border . You'll also need them to return to the US. You can do sightsighting on the way back.

[huskyguy]

The busy period for the tour bus crowd is 11:30 - 1:30.

[WatchHill]

Try to be one of the first to get off the ship and walk, quickly, to the car rental place. Be sure to reserve the car months before the trip. When we did this, DH and I were in line a half hour before the place opened and were glad we did. The line was long, and only one person was at the Avis counter.

 

Once we had the car, we called our travel friends and coordinated meeting at the car so we could head out before the tour bus groups.

 

It was a fantastic drive to the Yukon - be sure to stop for a pix at the Welcome to the Yukon sign. We had a long day in port, so we opted to drive to White Horse, thus returning in early evening.

 

Darcy