July 15 - Skagway (or some spell it Skaguay)

We had hoped to ride the motorcycle the 100+ miles from Whitehorse to Skagway, but it was raining and about 54 degrees, so wimped out on that idea.  Lots of clouds and rain on our second trip into Alaska.  Roxane snapped this pic as we drove by (no we don't know these folks).

Skagway was the town where all those traveling to the Klondike gold rush in the early 1900s got off the boats and started their trek north.  The old pictures showing the lines of people going over the mountains towards the gold fields are unbelievable.  There are a couple pics click here.

Now, Skagway is a tourist town.  It reminded us of Mackinaw Island - without the horses.  Lots of jewelry shops, which we learned to avoid because they don't want to let you leave without buying once you set foot in the door.  If you look at the end of the street, you can see a cruise ship parked.  The town was full of folks from 2 of these ships that were docked.  That is how the town survives.  The winter population is about 700 people.

Here's an interesting place - it's a jewelry shop inside - of course!

Here's a pic from a lookout point of the cruise docs.  The closest ship is the Disney boat.

And a shot of the mountain in the background.  Looks like a volcano eh?  And notice the airplane?

On the drive back, the weather was much nicer, so we could see the scenery.  We also made a quick stop at the town of Carcross, in the Yukon.  Not much there, but still more than most places in the Yukon!

 

The entrance to Carcross had this cool iron caribou statue.

We also made a quick stop at the Carcross Desert.  It's actually an area of sand dunes left from a glacial lake that covered the area thousands of years ago.

Tomorrow we're heading north on the Klondike Highway to Dawson City.