Skagway - to heli-hike or glac pt wild. safari??? HELP!

[lovetheislands]

Hello Alaska vets and natives- Pls help a complete Alaska newbie!

 

Skagway is my port of many questions. Most of our party wants to do White Pass Scenic RR. I wanted to do a hike here (or something more active) but will be solo or with my DD 9, so self guided hike out of Skagway was out of question without guide -- which I can't seem to find.

 

Sooo...? is - would you recommend the Heli-Hike Excursion or the Glacier Point Wilderness Safari? We are doing Helicopter and Dog Sledding in Juneau and Bering Sea in Ketchikan...

 

Most reviews of GPWS are excellent...and DD 9.5 could likely do this with me. Any reviews of Heli-Hike?

 

ALL thoughts are appreciated!:) Thanks in advance!!!

[travelbuds]

Skagway is my port of many questions. Most of our party wants to do White Pass Scenic RR. I wanted to do a hike here (or something more active) but will be solo or with my DD 9, so self guided hike out of Skagway was out of question without guide -- which I can't seem to find.

 

Sooo...? is - would you recommend the Heli-Hike Excursion or the Glacier Point Wilderness Safari? We are doing Helicopter and Dog Sledding in Juneau and Bering Sea in Ketchikan...

 

Most reviews of GPWS are excellent...and DD 9.5 could likely do this with me. Any reviews of Heli-Hike?

QUOTE]

 

Just back today. We did the GPWS early morning and the WP&YR (independently-3 hours were enough for us) late afternoon. We did a helicopter glacier trek (NorthStar) (on Mendenhall) in Juneau. We liked the glacier trek better than the GPWS, but we like both.We would do the trek again. Once was enough for the canoe trip. We prefer the more active excursions.

Bruce

[lovetheislands]

Bruce - Thanks for the honest review. I am really leaning toward either the Heli-Hike or possibly the Lake Bennett stampeders trek the more I read. I like a more active excursion also.

[lovetheislands]

One more question - how did you like WP&YR? If do a hike in a.m., is this worthwhile for afternoon? Three hours on a train just seems like a long time! :D

[travelbuds]

One more question - how did you like WP&YR? If do a hike in a.m., is this worthwhile for afternoon? Three hours on a train just seems like a long time! :D

The WP&YR was OK. We had some rain while on it. My wife stayed inside and got the commentary, while I stayed on the outside platform for most of the 3 hours taking some pictures. Three hours is a long time, at least for us. We'd rather be doing active excursions. But glad we did it once. It's suppose to be the most popular excursion in Alaska. We walked up to get tickets at depot for the 4:30PM run. Only 16 people in our car. Cheaper than ship. Ship had tours for the last train ride, so we thought we'd make it back to ship on time (which we did). Saved some time by already being in town so didn't have to walk back to the ship to get on train, but had to walk back to ship from depot.

Bruce

[poss]

Bruce: On that Galcier Point/canoe excursion, can you tell me, please, if there was much walking and how "difficult" it was. We're up in years (pretty far up) and the description on Regent's site for that excursion mentions some walking "over uneven terrain." We do plenty of walking/hiking-- but couldn't manage anything really tricky. Can you give me some sense of what it's like? Thank you.

(I've got a post on the Alaska board trying to get some sense of which might be better for us-- Glacier Point or Eagle Preserve float. But no one is responding.)

[travelbuds]

Bruce: On that Galcier Point/canoe excursion, can you tell me, please, if there was much walking and how "difficult" it was. We're up in years (pretty far up) and the description on Regent's site for that excursion mentions some walking "over uneven terrain." We do plenty of walking/hiking-- but couldn't manage anything really tricky. Can you give me some sense of what it's like? Thank you.

(I've got a post on the Alaska board trying to get some sense of which might be better for us-- Glacier Point or Eagle Preserve float. But no one is responding.)

Hi,

If you can walk and hike, you won't have any problems. Nothing to climb over or scramble around.Very short walk-maybe 1/4 mile. Easy stroll. Mosquitoes on our trip-mostly in area where we got our "gear". They had repellent there. No mosquitoes on canoe portion.

Bruce