Carcross - Your Reputation Exceeds You

Carcross, from the bridge as you enter the town.

June 11, 2011 - Day 3 of our cruise found us in Skagway. We rented a car from the Avis office there and drove the Yukon Highway to Carcross and Emerald Lake.  Due to the length of this post, I gave the Yukon Highway and Skagway their own post.  Carcross gets this one solo.

Carcross is under construction.  That building is the brand
new Visitor's Center.  Nice people, and really nice restrooms.

We came to Carcross, which is a very tiny town. The Visitor’s Center is brand new, in fact, it appears that the entire town is getting a paving face lift. They had poured the curbing, but the paving wasn’t in yet.  It should look very nice in a few weeks. We checked out the General Store which is jam-packed with souvenirs, etc. They also sell ice cream, fudge, popcorn and muffins. 

Downtown Carcross

Near the General Store is Eddy’s Checkpoint, which sells hamburgers and hotdogs.  It’s no larger than a tool shed, and the grill is out back. We were getting hungry, but decided to wait until we got to Caribou Crossing which has a bakery and restaurant.  We arrived there a few minutes later to find a complete tourist trap.  They have a wildlife zoo of sorts, but if we wanted to see that we could have stayed home and gone to the zoo there. There was nothing special in the gift store. The bakery sold packaged sandwiches or soup. We got out of there as quickly as we could, thinking we would try the restaurant at the Spirit Lake Wilderness Resort another couple of miles down the road.  We pulled up and walked in.  The restaurant was filled with tables, but not a single soul was there.  We thought we’d wandered into the Canadian version of The Shining. It was almost creepy.  A man came in and just dashed by us without saying a word.  We were almost to the door, ready to leave, when a woman suddenly appeared. I asked her if this was a restaurant and she replied, “yes.” Hmmm…very helpful. I asked if she had a menu and she replied that she had some sandwiches, soup and pie left over.  We looked at each other and decided that Eddy’s Checkpoint was looking pretty good right about now.  We politely declined and got the heck out of Dodge.

Emerald Lake is unexpectedly small.

We went on to Emerald Lake, took some photos and headed back toward Carcross.  We stopped in the world’s smallest desert and took some more shots, then drove back into Carcross.  Eddy's Checkpoint was sounding better and better.

The Carcross Desert.  I almost got run over by a
dune buggy.  Don't laugh, it's true.

We ordered our meal (hamburger - $6.50, hot dog - $4.50, we opted not to get fries which would have cost us $3.50), and ate it in our car since it was a little windy and chilly on the picnic table he had out front. After that we did a little shopping in the General Store and walked across the street to the train depot.  Nice restrooms in both the visitor’s center and the train depot.

The famous Eddy's Checkpoint.  The best (only) place for
burgers in town.

I’m so glad we rented a car rather than going with a large group; we could stop wherever we wanted and stay as long as we wanted. When we first arrived in Carcross there were maybe 6 tourists in town. When we came back the second time, four huge buses had pulled up with approximately 40 tourists in each.  All 160 people were trying to fit in the General Store and the Train Depot gift shop; not exactly our scene.
Carcross provided the most laughs of our entire trip.  Sometimes we wondered if we were on Candid Camera. This is a town that tries really hard.
Up next - Juneau!