Skagway

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Janet was telling us that she had a friend who had been to Alaska and that Skagway was her favorite town. We wondered how close we would get to Skagway. We thought that there was no road and that you could only get to Skagway by ferry. We looked on the map and, by golly, there's a road! It's only 100 miles off our route, so we decided to go. Oh, boy! We never thought we'd get to Skagway or see the Chilkoot Pass. We were all quite excited!
We left the trailer in Whitehorse at the RV park, and headed out. Our first stop was a little town called carcross, short for Caribou Crossing. It is on the route of the White Pass route of the goldseekers which paralled the Chilkoot Pass. It gave us a little taste of the goldrush in the old buildings. When we got near the mountain pass, we were in a thick fog. We had to go very slowly. Every now and then we'd catch a glimpse of scenery - Tormented Ground ( a rocky place with small trees and little lakes). Janet particularly liked the little black spruce trees. They were called mop trees because the branches near the top were broken off short, but at the very top, there was a little mop of needles. It was kind of eerie. The Milepost told us what beautiful scenery we were missing. We had to stop at the border crossing in the fog and show our passports to get back into America. Then we dropped down into Skagway at the ocean level. It's population now is less than 900. Back in the gold rush it was 20,000. Among those in the rush were Rich's great-grandparents! Now, there are cruise ships docked every day that dwarf the town. We had fun wandering around, looking at the town, the train, and the shops. We ate lunch at the Red Onion Saloon that was a real saloon and bordello back in the day. Nancy had the Trollop sandwich and Rich had the Menage a Trois. Janet could have had the Madame Jan, but she chose the hot pastrami. Skagway reminded us a lot of Virginia City. We enjoyed our shopping and also the Klondike Goldrush National Historic visitor center. We asked about Rich's great-grandparents , but they weren't listed in their directory. We were disappointed that we couldn't actually see the Chilkoot Pass. It was a long walk to get to it. Nancy has been reading about the Klondike and was interested in the town and in the notorious Soapy Smith. The townsite is actually quite small. he hardships of those stampeders were incredible. The quest for that gold was powerful! On the way back, the fog lifted some and were able to see some of the scenery. A black bear ambled down the road for awhile. It was late when we got back, but it was a great day!

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Photos

The Cremation of Sam McGee
Is this the kind of shipwrecked boiler he used?

Comments

[Chris]

Skagway
We landed in Skagway right before the Fourth of July. We had been on the ferry from Prince Rupert. I remember buying Julie of the Wolves at the book store in town and a belt buckle with two bears on it. It was hot. We watched a parade and other small town activities. We stayed only a couple of days before we climbed out of the valley over the pass. I vaguely remember the border crossing back into Canada. There was some issue with my step father and a side arm he had to keep declaring, as we kept crossing borders. I was afraid of the Mountees were going to do something scary.

[sheila]

Alaska
I remember you telling us about teaching up there! Just reading this reminded me of my stay in Soldotna for 2 yrs. Wow, you are really traversing the state........ interesting about Rich's g-g-p. I've not read all your posts, but do I know which 'Janet' is with you?