The next stop on our vacation was Skagway, Alaska. Skagway is a fairly small town, with a
year-round population of about 3,000 people.
Of course, that number grows during summer, when tourism abounds in the
town. When we got off the boat in
Skagway, we were pleased to have a beautiful sunny day awaiting us. The weather was perfect!
A lot of the locals kept telling us how lucky
we were with the weather that day.
Skagway, like Juneau, gets a LOT of rainfall each year – so we were
pleased that we arrived on 1 of the 50 days of sunshine they get per year!
We
also got a glimpse of some wildlife: a seal enjoying a fish for breakfast right
beside our ship. We watched him for a
few minutes, and then walked into downtown.
We started our visit by walking around the main street of downtown Skagway. A lot of the shops have been renovated to resemble the way they looked when Skagway was established in the late 19th century as a gold rush town. We enjoyed a one hour walking tour offered by the United States Forestry Service, where we learned a lot about the history of Skagway and its founders.
After our tour, we headed back to the boat to grab lunch before it was
time for our ride on the White Pass Yukon Route Railroad. This railroad was built in 1898 as a way for
gold rushers to reach the Klondike region.
It is also considered a civil engineering wonder because of the terrain
of the area. Now, visitors can buy
tickets to ride the railroad for a 3 ½ hour trip up into the mountains.
The scenery was indescribably beautiful. Lee and I stood outside on the balcony for
nearly the entire trip just trying to take pictures that would capture at least
half of the beauty around us. We got extra
lucky on our train ride as we were able to enjoy an extra 14 miles of railroad
for free! One of the other trains had an
engine problem, so they had to turn around, making our train the first up the
mountain. Because of the way the
railroad is designed, the first train has to travel an extra distance up the
mountain before turning around to go back down, so we got to travel farther up,
crossing into Canadian territory. It
also added an extra hour to our ride, as we had to stop and reverse down the
mountain at one point to let the damaged train pass us. They whole reversing down a mountain
situation made me a little nervous, but the extra time on the train made it
entirely worth it! If you ever get the
opportunity to go to Skagway, I highly recommend this train ride. It was one of my favorite parts of our
vacation!
There really are no words to go along with the scenery, so
enjoy the pictures!
Enjoy the rest of your day! Thanks for reading! Coming up next: Glacier Bay, Ketchikan, and Victoria!
- Gina
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