There's a mouse in the house. . .

Looks like a Disney cruise is in town. At least there are mouse ears on the smokestacks!

There is quite a bit to look at here in Skagway. This morning we left in MinnieMee and drove north of town to the cemetery. This is an old cemetery with graves dating from 1898 when the Gold Rush started. The notorious "Soapy Smith" is buried here along with the hero who killed him, Frank Reid. It is typical of very old cemeteries, with wooden headstones and graves marked out by rocks. It is very rough and I read later where many graves were flooded and washed away at one time. It continues to be maintained, however, even though no new burials have occurred for quite some time.

From the cemetery we hiked a short distance to the Reid falls, named for the man who "freed" Skagway from Soapy Smith. The falls are beautiful and hidden away in really dense woods.

Afterwards we drove along the Dyea road to the town's overlook. It allows a broad view of the town. We had wanted to go on to look at the start of the Chilcoot trail, but the road is dirt and not recommended for RV's. We weren't sure what it is like, so decided not to attempt it.

When we left there, we parked near the museum and walked the block or two. The city museum was small, but very informative and had a movie we watched about the various modes of transportation that Skagway has had. They currently continue to maintain traffic via roads, airplanes, trains, and boats.

We walked back to the motorhome and had lunch right there on the street, then checked out the public library, just a half block away. We can bring our personal computers in here and surf and conduct our business as needed. It's pretty convenient since otherwise we have to pay big bucks for an hour of internet.

We are about done for the day as we have a few errands to run. . . fuel, groceries, etc. Tomorrow we will ride the ferry to Haines for two nights before heading down the inside passage.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Fun in Skagway!

Today we woke up to rain. . . not sure how much it rains in Skagway, but I get the feeling it is a lot. But it wasn't a heavy rain. There was also a lot of wind though which makes walking through it a bit more tedious.

We are in an RV park in a city park and are just around the corner from the White Pass Railroad. We are the same distance from the downtown area. I guess I would say it's about a block and a half. So we plan to walk everywhere. On Thursday, we will probably move to dump our tanks and will continue out of the park and go see the few things that are too far for us to walk to.

We walked downtown for a couple hours and perused the local shops. Didn't buy too much, and the number of visitors from the four cruise ships in town made negotiating through the shops difficult at best. So after a couple hours we walked back to the motorhome. We were tired and it was getting cold with the rain and all, so we took naps. LOL

We set the alarm clock because we were scheduled for the 4:30 trip on the White Pass/Yukon Route Railroad. The railroad was building in 1898 during the Klondike Gold Rush to take the miners up over the mountains to access the goldfields. It passes through two tunnels and crosses a few bridges. The landscape is breathtaking and very similar to what we saw coming down the South Klondike Highway the other day, but I was busy watching the road then! LOL

We walked to the rail depot and it was still misting, but by the time we got on and settled in for our 3-hour tour, the rain had stopped. We had a pleasant trip and although it was not sunny, it was scenic and a great ride through some beautiful country.


 

We got home before 8 p.m. So we ate a quick supper. I finally got to see a couple cruise boats leaving so I stood and watched. I didn't have my camera with me but it would have looked like still shots. The boats were moving oh, so slowly and they would not have looked like they were moving at all.

The nights are getting to be more normal. . . for us that means at night, it gets dark! LOL When we were further north, in the land of the midnight sun, it just did not get dark at night. Even if you awoke at 1-2 a.m. It would be light enough outside to read a newspaper. It's kind of eerie because if you look out, no one is stirring. But on the other hand, people do tend to stay up later and socialize when it is still light out. But as we traveled further south, that gradually began to change.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Haines Junction to Skagway!

Today we drove from Haines Junction to Skagway. Originally we had planned to drive down to Haines from Haines Junction, but we ended up with several days extra and at a friend's suggestion, we decided Haines was not the place to spend them. We had planned to spend some time in Skagway and it would mean taking the ferry up from Haines. We also wanted to do the White Pass/Yukon Railroad trip and that leaves from Skagway. So we changed our plans and drove to Skagway and then booked a ferry for MinnieMee and us on Friday to Haines. It is at Haines on Sunday that we start our ferry hopping down through the inside passage.

We had a nice trip. It started out sunny and clear and we were able to make good time on the road in Whitehorse. We passed by the road leading to our friends Sue and Steve's house and wished we had altered our plans a bit to spend the night there visiting again. But we went on to Whitehorse and stopped for some groceries. Then it was on to Skagway. Outside of Whitehorse a road turns south and is called the South Klondike Road. That is where we turned. The road is decent, but there is a lot of   growth on the sides of the road and because of our close encounter the other day with momma moose and twin calves, we ran a bit slower than the speed limit. There are lots of lakes along the road and we stopped at a couple to take some pictures. One lake is called Emerald Lake and the waters are so beautiful. According to the information, it is the light reflecting off the minerals on the bottom of the lake that makes the colors that you see. I particularly liked this lake and the one cabin that sits on the one end. I could be happy there. . . in the summer anyway. LOL

There also is the world's smallest desert here. It is called the Carcross Desert and is actually an ancient lake bed. The wind blows so much here nothing can grow in the soil and the dunes continue to shift and move with the wind. It was interesting.

We also stopped at Carcross. The White Pass railroad has an office here and it actually stops here on some runs, so we were able to buy our tickets here for tomorrow. We were glad to be able to get the ride we wanted when we wanted it. We explored Carcross and visited the shops. They is a lot of rebuilding going on in this little community. I think they are trying to bring people in and give them something to do when they ride the train up here. They also have a display for the SS Tutshi. This was a sternwheeler that they were in the process of restoring. The restoration was almost complete when it tragically caught fire. Only the front hull was salvaged. Now they have built a skeleton to show the actual size and place some parts back in their original position, like the wheel, boilers, etc.

We continued on and passed by Canadian customs, where we did not have to stop. Then we drove further to the U.S. Border and got grilled by a taskmaster at arms. He kind of had me rattled. I was prepared with a list of food items we had, etc., but he asked what we bought in Canada. Thinking back now, we have bought very little in Canada other than food and fuel because I wanted to buy souvenirs in Alaska. Terry piped in with the purchases and he accepted that and let us on through. Unlike our friends, Tab and Deanna, who got set aside and their cupboards and refrigerator gone through today when they crossed the border into Washington State.

We drove on down to Skagway and we could see cruise ships in the harbor from higher up in the mountains. It was a neat site to see. We drove on through the town and found our way to our campground which is right next to the harbor. We can see the cruise ships from the front of our coach. But already they are coming and going. They must just stay one day, then leave that night. We don't hear them coming/going. They are like in stealth mode.

We didn't do much looking around town this evening, but from what we saw coming in, there are a lot of shops to visit and things to investigate, so we will be busy this week.

Till next time. . .

Dale