Choosing Between Sled Dog Excursions

[commila]

Looking for tips about choosing between two sled dog excursions available to us in Skagway. We're planning to do an early morning excursion before taking the scenic railroad. Was a bit disappointed that the sleds would not be on snow (short of paying $600 to helicopter to a glacier first), as there is a place here in our home state where we can dogsled on snow for the same price. But we figured doing it in Alaska with the actual Iditarod dogs would have some novelty/memorableness to it compared to doing it at home. Seems like this excursion generally has good reviews, though I'm a little afraid it might be underwhelming. The two choices available to us are:

 

1) 1 mile dog cart ride followed by "musher's camp" (meeting the dogs, hearing about how they are trained, etc)

 

2) Musher's camp only (no actual dogsled ride) followed by gold panning and a "40 degrees below zero" experience (briefly getting blasted with -40 air to feel what dogsledders feel).

 

I'm almost tempted to go with option 2 since they are all things we can't do at home, but I could also see it being really cheesy/gimicky. We don't have kids, so we aren't looking for a kid-friendly excursion, in case that is a factor. Open to any input from people who have tried these excursions! Option 1, Option 2, or neither?

[merdie63]

We are cheesy and are doing option #2 in 2 weeks! Lol and that is me and my 19 yr old!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Sacto Rick]

We did the Musher's Camp. One thing they mention is that they don't have snow on the ground 12 months per year so much of their training is normally on wheeled carts.

 

At any rate, it's a nice ride to Dyea where the musher's camp is and it was nice to see where the Chilcoot Trail begins. They take you up the hill in heavy duty 4 wheel drive trucks and that's where you'll meet the musher and get into your cart.

 

I enjoyed the brief ride and the talks by the mushers. They let you hold puppies afterwards and there is also a viewing stop that overlooked Dyea. There are still a few remnants of the mile long pier over the shallow mud flats but most everything of the old town is gone.

 

It was a nice excursion and I'm glad we did it.

[jasbo49]

We did the sled ride and mushers' camp a couple of years ago. We really enjoyed it, but my wife and I are real dog lovers.

 

If you are a dog lover, you'll probably enjoy the whole thing (Option 1). If not, I wouldn't bother. I would point out that the train trip is pretty long, so if you try to do them both, it's going to be a long day ashore.

 

Jim

[Storm Monkey]

We did a similar excursion to #1 on our first Alaska cruise. My husband still accuses me of trying to steal one of the sled dog puppies! I wasn't of course but they sure were cute. They had six day old puppies and six week old puppies. We were allowed to hold the six week old ones.

The cart ride was fun. They go really fast. So I would pick this one of your two options.

 

Our second trip we did do the helicopter to the glacier and sled dog ride there. It was great! I felt the sled ride was over way to quick though. The scenic views from the helicopter were amazing. We booked this excursion direct with the company and saved about $50 per person.

[geoherb]

I wouldn't do either with the train excursion booked later for the day. One excursion per port is enough for me.

[partybarbie]

I would pick option one. Our group of four had an excellent time on this tour. The sled goes about thirty miles an hour. The dogs are so excited to pull it. It's hilarious! I didn't miss the snow at all.

[jym626]

We did the musher camp with dogsled ride and, the best part, playing with the puppies :) Would not have time to take the train also, so choose carefully. A few in our party did arrange to hire a van driver to drive along the train route up to Canada, but they didn't also do the dogsledding. FYI, they do also bring some puppies onto the ship to play with, so you can get your puppy fix there.

[commila]

Thanks to everyone for your input. After reading more reviews online, I think we'll go with option 1. Most people seemed to like it, whereas people seemed to have very mixed feelings about option $2 and some who liked it implied that it was mostly good for their kids.

[WarEagle76]

While I know the helicopter to glacier and dog sledding excursion is expensive (even back 15 years ago when we took it on a Royal Caribbean cruise), to this day, it still remains one of our all-time favorite cruise experiences.

[AF-1]

We took our grandkids on Helicopter tour of Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau in July. The memories and experience far outweighed the cost.

 

 

[commila]

Glad to hear that everyone had such a fun time on the helicopter excursion - looks neat! I'm not comfortable in helicopters, but it definitely looks like a memorable opportunity.

[sherryf]

If you are planning to do the train anyway, why not do one of the longer train/bus combos that makes a stop at Caribou Crossing? Here you have the option to add a dog cart ride (for a fee) or just play with the puppies. (no fee)

 

We did this one through Chilkoot Charters and enjoyed it very much: https://chilkootcharters.com/package/yukon-rail-bus/

[A&Jfamily]

If you are planning to do the train anyway, why not do one of the longer train/bus combos that makes a stop at Caribou Crossing? Here you have the option to add a dog cart ride (for a fee) or just play with the puppies. (no fee)

 

 

 

We did this one through Chilkoot Charters and enjoyed it very much: https://chilkootcharters.com/package/yukon-rail-bus/

 

 

 

Be aware that the cart is just that - its summer in Carcross where Caribou is located. There will be no snow. When we were there it was 80 degrees. The kids loved playing with the sled dog puppies but passed on the sled because it is a wheeled cart that runs back on forth on the dirt. Nothing like being on the ice as pictured above.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[sherryf]

Be aware that the cart is just that - its summer in Carcross where Caribou is located. There will be no snow. When we were there it was 80 degrees. The kids loved playing with the sled dog puppies but passed on the sled because it is a wheeled cart that runs back on forth on the dirt. Nothing like being on the ice as pictured above.

 

The excursions that the OP is considering are both cart rides on dirt. They are aware of that. I was only offering them another possibility to combine the dog cart with the train trip.

[Keishaw]

We too are wanting to book the dog-sledding and Musher's camp excursion ... but we definitely want to book it privately. There will be 7 of us. For those who have done this, can anyone recommend a private company? I'm open to this excursion in either Skagway or Juneau ... if anyone has done both and can offer a comparison, that would be appreciated! The helicopter version is not an option for us ... we just want the cart-pull, explanation of the race & training, and time with the pups.

Karen

ps Apologies for tagging on to your thread with my questions!