What's Going On with Skagway RV Sites?

We sent a Web reservation to Pullen Creek yesterday - it'll be interesting to see how long it takes them to catch up. We're going down for the Victoria Day weekend (May 16-18). So many Canucks go down that they send a few RCMP down to help keep order - booze searches at the border are the norm, and road stops are common.

I just received a reply from Nick at Pullen Creek, I sent 2 emails, 1 on February 10 and another March 10.
His reply is that they are booked on the dates I requested? Great way to run a business,

Finally got a reply back from Pullen Creek today....from a reservation request I had made via their web site on February 1! Of course, it was too late...we had already given up and made alternate plans after numerous attempts to call them.

But, for those still looking, it sounds like Pullen Creek has finally come back from the missing.

Of course I know that many of these campgrounds are closed in the winter and the owner/operators are often not on site...but you would think someone would be able to answer email (even once a week) in the off season. Or at the very least put a message on the answering machine and web site saying that they won't be responding until May 1 or whenever...at least we'd know that they are still in business..

As of today, Garden City is open, and Pullen Creek is being readied to open.

Stay in Carcross and do daytrips even from Whitehorse, very doable. While staying in Whitehorse we did a day trip, easy drive.

The last time we had our RV in Skagway we stayed at Garden City campground. At that time most of the people staying there were out of state, summer workers in the local businesses. Somehow there is going to have to be a campground for these workers. Just a wild guess but I would think that close to 90% of the tourism businesses are out of state owned and the out of state workers would be that high or more.

That trip I was talking to a clerk at one of the high end jewelry stores with a cute Alaska sounding name. I asked her who owned the shop and was told she didn't know. Then I asked her what name was on her paycheck and was told it was Tiffany's of New York. She was a NY college student up working for the summer.
So I suspect the RV business is just a small parts of the town's revenues. If you have ever walked the streets of Skagway after the cruise ships leave, it is like a ghost town, hard to find a place to eat, etc..

I have been to Skagway two or three times in the winter time by air or ferry and don't remember ever seeing snow on the ground. Just a fluke as I know they can get wet heavy snows but don't think they last too long on the ground. Much like much of SE Alaska. Now as you head up the pass toward Carcross, YT, the snow gets measured by the feet or meter as the elevation increases.

explorenorth wrote:
Many millions of $$ have been spent on the Dyea Road the past 3 years. While still narrow and winding, and there are some short one-lane sections, it's okay for a MH now, with care. I posted a video of the entire road on a rainy day in January from the HD dashcam in my car (16 minutes long), at Youtube. At 2:08 you pass the worst section that is now bypassed by the new road.

Interesting there is no snow in January. It looks the same as when I was there in May. Is there snow sometimes during winter?

Skagway is sooooooo pleasant when there's no cruise ship in town!

From several conversations I've had with folks in Skagway (some tourists, some local), I think the long and short of it is that campgrounds, RVs and motel rooms are just not high on the priority list there. The cruise ship passengers are the moneymakers and all of them go back to the ship to sleep.

It's obvious there is a need for more (and better quality too!) campgrounds in/around Skagway, but I suspect that its just not worth the cost of creating them,...too little return on investment there compared to what you can make off the ship passengers..

We've stayed in Carcross at a city park, I believe it was. It was some form of a public park - dry camping. We did easy day trips to Skagway.