August 12th - Day 15 - Skagway

Another 'rest day', this time in the Gold Rush town of Skagway.

Skagway became famous when the Gold Rush started in the late 1890's. It was the port from which the prospectors set out into the interior. It was a horrendous journey climbing over the mountains to Whitehorse and then on into the Yukon. Apparently over 3,000 horses and mules died on the journey.

I've just bought a book about the Gold Rush and will post some more when I have 'speed read' the most important facts.

Skagway is very small with just one main street. It now caters for the cruise line passengers and when we walked down to the dock there were four of the cruise ships berthed. Two we had seen in Juneau yesterday. The cruise season goes from April to late September, then Skagway more or less closes down for the winter. All the main shops shut and only a few people remain to brave the harsh Alaskan winter.

The main street could easily be something out of a wild west film set, but I am pleased to say the majority of buildings are original and have been restored. We walked down to the docks where we took some photos of the cruise liners. Each one holds several thousand passengers and it seemed to us that the vast majority were shopping in Skagway. This one is the Norwegian Pearl.

The main street in Skagway.

Looking down the main street with one of the cruise liners in the background.

A couple of photos of the typical Skagway turn-of-the-century buildings.

We walked to a small museum and passed over a stream that was packed with pink salmon swimming upstream to spawn. They come here once a year to spawn and then die. The dead fish then help to provide the nutrients for the next generation of fish. You could see those fish that had been in the stream for some time as once they enter fresh water they start to deteriorate, whilst those that had just arrived looked healthy vigorous fish.


I could see how easy it would be for the bears to feed on the salmon as I could have put my hand in the water and pulled out a fish with no difficulty at all.

We took the opportunity of getting our washing done in a launderette as well as taking Bob's spare wheel out of our car and replacing it on his roof rack.

This afternoon we are taking the White Pass and Yukon Route railway for a three hour ride up into the mountains. The railway was built in 1899 and opened when the gold rush had ended! Skagway's importance declined dramatically after the railway opened and the boom times never returned.

We have just returned from another wonderful meal. This time at the Stowaway Cafe alongside Skagway port. We have had continually good food all the way from Malibu, two weeks ago. Long may it last!

This afternoon we had booked on the White Pass railway for a three hour round trip to the top of White Pass at the Canadian/US border. If anyone gets the chance to come to Skagway they have to do this railway trip. It is one of the great railway journeys of the world. The summit of the pass is about 20 miles from Skagway and the line rises up through the most beautiful and stunning scenery imaginable. The route is an incredible feat of engineering with the line hewn out of solid rock as it clings to the side of the mountains. 35,000 workers built it in two years.

There are long trestle bridges and two tunnels.

As you climb up you go through the tree line to see snow capped peaks with glaciers. Near the top you can actually see the old pathway the gold rush miners trod on their unbelievably tough route to the Klondike in 1898.

Below are some of the photos from the trip.

Tomorrow we get another ferry, this time from Skagway to Haines, which takes about one hour. We then have a short drive which will bring us to the Canadian border, and the Yukon.

To end on a frivolous note, here is a photo of Bob sitting on an outside loo. We were walking to the restaurant when we went past this gazebo with a toilet. Why it was there we have no idea. It wasn't in working order, perhaps it was just a bit of fun.