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

Valdez back to Tok!

Yesterday we spent a little time wandering around Valdez. It continued to rain, but Valdez still had their parade and other 4th of July activities. We talked to some people who said this was very typical weather for Valdez and they just plan on it. In addition to being rainy, it was cold, probably only in the low 50's or maybe 40's, but not freezing. But Valdez still has snow on the ground! We found this pile of it in town! We also found this trailer across from us to be interesting. It was obviously home built, but very nicely done. The biggest problem, however, is that with all the rain we had, when they wanted to be in out of the rain, their options were their car, or lying down in their trailer.

We took in a shop or two and then the Valdez museum. We had been to the museum annex where we saw a movie about the 1964 earthquake. Today's main museum was about the history or how the town began as a camp and later as prospectors came, others arrived to offer services, etc. It's so hard to comprehend that people took steamships up to Valdez from Washington, then climbed up over the Valdez Glacier to the Klondike goldfields on the other side. A lot of them didn't make it, but most of those who did found there were no gold claims left. It is an interesting history. There was also a stores called Anne's Sugar and Spice which showed free movies of both the earthquake and the building of the pipeline.

The museum also covered the earthquake in 1964 and the building of the pipeline from 1973-76. I found one fact of the pipeline interesting. They buried the pipeline in some places because they found out that the caribou would not go under it, thereby depriving them of being able to relocate to their wintering grounds. So the pipe was buried so the caribou would be able to traverse the areas they needed to. Other animals were not bothered by the pipeline. We have seen more pipeline on the way down to Valdez because the Richardson Highway, the route to Valdez, is the "Pipeline Highway." All the oil taken from the Prudhoe Bay area goes down the pipeline to the terminal at Valdez.

We also learned that cruise ships, long a boon to the local merchants, can no longer come into the port at Valdez. That occurred due to 9-11. My guess is because they consider the Valdez terminal to be a possible terrorist target. Just my opinion.

Today we drove out of a still rainy Valdez. Before we left, however, we took another look at the salmon fish hatchery. The tide was out and we were treated to a very cool view. Sitting on the stumps out in the mud were EAGLES! There was one on every stump. Some were adults, with their white heads and tails, and others were juveniles which look sort of spotted or mottled. Terry got one picture of several sitting on a spit and counted 3 adults and 3 juveniles.  When we left there we drove  up through the Thompson Pass and up the highway. We passed GlennAllen, where we had come in from Anchorage the other day, and proceeded north. We came to the Tok Cutoff which is the name they call the road that goes from the Richardson to Tok.

We did stop at the Worthington Glacier again. This time we got out and walked down the path a bit. You can hike all the way to the glacier and touch it, but we didn't do that. It looked like some rugged climbing and I couldn't do that. But we got some great pictures of the waterfalls and the blue ice in the crevices. Really cool.

We did see some moose again today, none close to the road. That is good, as I sure don't want to hit one, but it really makes photography difficult. Really have to zoom in and then getting a steady shot is harder.

We had a leisurely drive today because we had some bad road. One section on the Tok Cutoff was built on permafrost and it went back and forth from undulating to potholes, to gravel. It means slowing way down in order to keep everything in the cupboards.

We arrived at Three Bears Outpost about 4:30. We were here a few weeks ago on our way down from Chicken and on the way to Fairbanks. We are the ONLY ones in the park.

Tomorrow we head to Beaver Creek after crossing the border into Canada.

Till next time. . .

Dale