Border Crossing into Yukon

[eyeeye]

What has been the experience crossing into and out of Canada. If we drive ourselves with rental car, is there usually delays at the border? Have passports etc.

[Kathscof]

I would say that the general answer would be dependent on how things go this year, as last year there were more hoops to go through.  We did a bike tour in which we "left" the US, but didn't "enter" Canada (which was super neat to learn about) and upon "return" to the US, we had to pass through the border....there may have been one car in front of us with our 12ish person bike tour.....but again, not many tours were even going past that point last year.....

[HalfWhit]

We rented a car in Skagway and drove up the the Yukon. It is incredibly beautiful and the Tortured Valley is beyond words. There is a border crossing you have to stop at about 10 miles out of Skagway. Last year we had to show our vaccination app was current as well as our passports. Not sure about the vaccine requirements for Canada this year. Check before you go. Note: there is a time change when you cross from BC into the Yukon. We drove up to Emerald Lake. It was OK. You can get better pictures online. I wish we would have spent more time exploring Carcross. 

[wolfie11]

4 hours ago, eyeeye said:

What has been the experience crossing into and out of Canada. If we drive ourselves with rental car, is there usually delays at the border? Have passports etc.

It depends on how many cruise ships in Skagway, the time of day, and I guess if anyone called in sick at the border crossing that day.  I have had waits of up to 45 minutes in the car.  Buses seem to get a bit more priority.  The hold up is generally on the US side coming back.  Canada will often wave you through.  Usually it takes about 10-15 minutes at the US crossing.  Again, it will depend on what paperwork you may be required to show this year.  

[GTJ]

6 hours ago, Kathscof said:

We did a bike tour in which we "left" the US, but didn't "enter" Canada (which was super neat to learn about) and upon "return" to the US, we had to pass through the border.

Providing additional context: The inspection station for Canadian immigration and customs is about 8 miles north of the international border, and the inspection station for American immigration and customs is about 8 miles south of the international border, leaving a 16-mile gap, a sort of "no man's land," between the two inspection stations. Nonetheless, for purposes of entering and leaving a country, the actual border, not the location of inspection stations, controls.

 

Thus, if on a bike tour the group passed the American inspection station going northbound, but then turned-around before getting to the actual border, then the group would never have actually left the United States, nor have entered Canada . . . and thus the quotation marks around "left." Encountering an American inspection station is not, itself, passing through the border, but simply passing through an inspection station. Look at the border itself, not the location of the inspection stations. (If the group had crossed the actual border, then it would have been obligated to report for Canadian inspection before turning-around and back into the United States.)

 

Whether persons never having actually left the United States are obligated to report for inspection upon encountering an inspection station is an interesting question. In Canada, for example, there is a Canadian inspection station at Cornwall, Ontario, that is physically located north of Cornwall Island, with is part of Canada. Separate procedures have been developed at the Cornwall inspection station, to ascertain whether persons arriving there are coming from the United States, and subject to immigration and customs inspection, or are coming from Cornwall Island (without having actually crossed the actual border) and not subject to immigration and customs inspection.

[wolfie11]

The actual border is at the top of the White Pass (the Continental Divide).  The Yukon River starts below the summit on the Canadian side and travels almost 2000 miles to empty into the Bering Sea.  The Skagway River starts on the other side of the divide and flows 19 miles to the Pacific Ocean.  I believe the bike tours stage just below the summit of White Pass on the American side.

Edited April 17, 2023 by wolfie11