Thursday morning found us in Skagway, the farthest north we would travel. We were excited about this day. Paul had booked us on the WhitePass/Yukon railroad trip up into the mountains and over into Canada. We were thrilled when we realized what a spectacular day we would have.
The train left bright and early at 8am. Thankfully the train was right outside of the cruise ship, so as soon as we disembarked, we boarded the train and we were off.
The train was full of excited passengers. Paul and I had just listened to the ship's naturalist's talk on the Klondike gold rush, which had happened right in this area, so it was exciting to see the area we had learned about.
Looking back toward the harbor at Skagway. You can see the cruise ship from here.
There were many large waterfalls along the train's route.
And there were many of these "cathedral" peaks. They were just amazing.
We were able to stand on the little platform on both ends of the train car and we probably stood out there 75 percent of the time on the train. It was cold, but not too bad. It was worth the cold for the view!
Skagway harbor from further up the mountain. The tour guide said this view is not normally able to be seen, but because we had such a clear spectacular day, we were able to see it.
We could even see the cruis ship from this far up the mountain.
This railroad trestle is actually from the gold rush days, back in the early 1900's.
I was a bit nervous when I saw it until I realized we weren't using it.
It looks pretty rough!
A beautiful view.
This Japanese lady stood with us out on the platform a lot of the time. She was so funny and had me laughing a lot of the time.
This is the old gold rush trail. It was so hard to believe so many people traversed these mountains on foot, hauling over 2000 pounds of supplies, each. Many people did not make it.
Crossing over into Canada.
A frozen lake at the summit. It has the blue ice that the glaciers have.
Beautiful.
A twin waterfall.
Heading back down into Skagway.
The Skagway river.
We arrived in "downtown" Skagway about Noon. We walked around and shopped for a while, then stopped and had lunch. It was a delicious bowl of chili and an amazing platter of onion rings.
We also found a cupcake bakery and treated ourselves.
We decided to take the shuttle out to where the gold rush cemetery was located. The shuttle dropped us off nearby and walked the last 1/2 mile. It was a beautiful walk.
We then walked through the woods a bit to Reid Falls. This was a huge waterfall and the water just fell down the side of the mountain with such power.
I had to use the restroom and I did not realize what kind of restroom it was until I opened the door. It was a bit smelly.
Paul loved this dog! He ran a bit with us when we walked back to where the shuttle would pick us up.
But I should have known better than to think we would take the shuttle back. We waited at the stop for 10 minutes and then my impatient husband said let's just walk the mile or two back to town. Ok. Whatever. We walked for 3 minutes and the shuttle passed us. We then walked for about 40 minutes back into Skagway.
Paul wanted to shop some more but I was finished. So he stayed in town and I took the shuttle back to the ship. I was tired! He got back on the ship with only minutes to spare before we sailed.
It was a long day- but it wasn't over yet. We had a spectacular sailaway coming up!
No comments:
Post a Comment