Denver Caboose Cabin

If you like trains you’ll love it. Be aware that during tourist season there will be lots of trains full of people going right past all day. The caboose has plenty of room but it’s long and narrow, so a big party will find it cramped, I suspect. It has doors at both ends to help with that. The trail is beautifully maintained and gets little use, so it’s a pleasure to walk and explore.

Great little cabin! Narrow bunks to sleep on but good enough for a regular thermarest. I slept on the double with my baby in his slumberpod to keep it dark for him as there’s lots of windows. It’s very clean. Bring fire starter as the wood around is often wet!
Also the hike to the glacier felt much longer than we expected and we wished we brought a satellite phone since we were with a baby. But it was beautiful to see the glacier!
The train ride is only 15 minutes, wish it was longer.

Remote and amazing stay right next to the tourist train tracks. The trail to Denver Glacier is right next to the caboose. You are alone until 8 am the next morning when the train comes by. Bring water purification. The caboose is next to a flowing river but there’s a lot of silt in the water. Bring your own bedding. We chose to take the train to the caboose, hike to Denver Glacier that day and then sleep in the caboose that night. The following day we took the 8:10 train northbound for 6 miles and got dropped off at Laughton Glacier to hike. We hiked to Laughton and then took the 4pm train back to Skagway. Amazing trip! Both hikes were 5-6 miles total, remote and moderate. The highlight was the caboose! You can see our short video of what it’s like here.
https://youtu.be/3G-76ZOFs3g

Our stay at the caboose was great. The stove made it really cozy inside and there was lots of space for five of us to sleep there. Our two-year-old son loved watching the trains go by and waving at the passengers.

Incredible stay at the Caboose. Pleasantly surprised at the condition, as people have generally respected the property and not carved their names into every surface. Only thought would be to add a simple occupied/unoccupied sign as we were woken up by a maintenance worker for the train who had no idea we were there. Otherwise fully amenitized including a nice fire pit and outhouse.

This stands out as one of the best Alaskan experiences we had. After the last train left we were all alone in Alaska and it was so peaceful. Prior to that everywhere we went was jammed with cruise tourists and noisy and didn't feel too much like wilderness. While there we hiked as far as we could to the Denver glacier. The description in the brochure was correct--the trail is almost impassible at the end. Never the less, the Tongass was beautiful to hike in and the trail was in great shape.

When it was time to retire for the night we had a problem, however. We had brought a double quilt and needed to have a double bed/bunk. Instructions inside the cabin gave detailed info on how to convert the benches to a double bed but something was wrong. No matter how we tried the pieces would not line up. Someone should look into that.

Another thing to mention is that trains start coming around 8 am and they stop at the caboose with loads of cruise tourists. This was a shock as we were still in bed. There were no curtains on doors or windows. The wonderful peace of being alone had been shattered.