WHITE PASS AND YUKON RAILROAD

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July 12, 2011 SKAGWAY – WHITE PASS AND YUKON RAILROAD.
Against all odds, this iron trail was born of the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush and built through some of the North’s most ruggedly beautiful terrain. The building of the White Pass and Yukon Route was the engineering marvel of its time. Completed in 1900 with British financing, Canadian contracting and American engineering, it hauled miners and supplies over the 3,000 foot pass between Skagway and the Yukon. Today’s train was pulled by 3 diesel engines and was 15 cars long taking us over the most scenic portion of the line, viewing spectacular panoramas of the Sawtooth Mountains and the Lynn Canal, passing cascading waterfalls, craggy mountainsides and steep cliffs. Interesting sights included several trestle bridges, two tunnels carved out of solid rock, remnants of the original foot path the gold miners hiked up the White Pass and several markers indicating the challenges of building the route. Today the trains carry mostly tourists off the cruise ships, which dock every day in Skagway. Our campground is just a few hundred feet from the cruise ship docks and right outside our window we see tour buses, trains and pedestrians traveling from and returning to the ships. The five-month tourist season keeps Skagway running, but most of the residents leave for the other 7 months when winter begins to arrive.

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