Skagway, Alaska and the Klondike Highway

Skagway, Alaska was the northern most point for many of our fellow passengers on the Alaska Marine Highway. You can go further, all the way to Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands, but after Skagway the ferries become less frequent and the connections trickier.

David is not a fan of places where he is likely to meet hordes of fellow tourists; even less so when those tourists arrive by their thousands. Skagway has a permanent population of about 1,000 people but during the cruise ship season it can host 10,000 or more visitors in a single day.


Skagway was not on our Alaska Marine Highway itinerary. We needed to get to Whitehorse to connect with the Alaska Highway but we could do that just as easily from Haines. Haines is a quiet little town of a few thousand people unspoiled by the massive Alaskan cruise industry. That may change in the next few years but for now Haines is much more our kind of destination. You can read about our stay in Haines by clicking - here.

However, with time to spare in Whitehorse (read about our stay in Whitehorse - here) curiosity got the better of us and we took a day trip down to Skagway. From Carcross, an hour south of Whitehorse, the Klondkike Highway travels much the same route as the White Pass & Yukon Railway Route, through spectacular mountain passes and beside beautiful alpine lakes. Even without Skagway as our goal this was a drive well worth doing.

I wish I could remember the name of this lake but I can't. I do know it was on the drive between Whitehorse and Skagway

Bridging a gorge on the south Klondike Highway.

We thought this was probably the remains of an old gold mine but we couldn't be sure. There was no sign and no pullout.

Skagway - 

We got lucky in Skagway. We were there on a Sunday and found out later that weekends tend to be Skagway's least 'cruise-ship-busy' days. I have no idea why. There were two ships berthed and both were relatively small. With only a few thousand fellow tourists around, and no doubt many of them out of town on excursions, we almost had the town to ourselves. We still got the full 'faux wild-west' experience. To be honest. this is the main reason to go there. It was best summed up by the spruiker outside the entertainment hall who called out to us -

"Come inside for a full hour of non-shopping fun".

I am not much of a shopper, the product of a poor childhood where every dollar counted, so his exhortation was wasted on me but he did make us laugh.

The town might have been wall-to-wall jewellery and souvenir shops but the street facades were beautifully restored period architecture, perhaps a little too new and colourful looking to be completely authentic but lovely to wander past nevertheless. The biggest disappointment was the lack of cafes. We had a long, leisurely lunch planned but Skagway's cafes were sadly, few and far between and none of them looked especially inviting. We put it down to the fact that most of the tourists arriving in Skagway probably ate lunch on board their ships or while they were out on excursions.

Period  streetscape in Skagway

The bar is fake, the customers are fake and the bar tender is fake - but it was still pretty interesting.

Skagway hides the 21st Century around a corner - but we found it.

Dyea and The Chilkoot Trailhead -

Not far out of town we took the road toward the now abandoned town of  Dyea and found the Chilkoot Trailhead. The Chilkoot Trail is a 33 mile (53km) trail leading to the Yukon goldfields. If you have ever seen a movie depicting the harsh conditions which the early gold miners suffered in their quest to get to the Yukon fields then you have probably seen them struggling along this trail in waist deep snow and blizzard conditions. Today you can take a multi-day guided hike along the trail and, unlike many of the early prospectors, expect to come back alive.

Today the Chilkoot Trail is a National Historic Site

This false front is all that remains of Dyea. False store fronts gave an illusion of permanence to hastily constructed buildings in a town which lived and died with the gold rush.

The Klondike Highway: Skagway to Whitehorse

The Canada-US Border

Don't forget your passport. The Canada-US Border is less than half an hour from Skagway. You might only be headed to Skagway or Whitehorse for a day trip but it is still worth paying attention to the rules about what you can and can't bring into the US or Canada. Your car will be stopped, your passport checked and you'll be asked about prohibited and restricted items. The border station operates between 7 am and 11 pm so don't stay out too late!

Lining up to enter the US

Emerald Lake

Make sure you stop at Emerald Lake. It is just gorgeous.

 Emerald Lake 

Carcross Desert

The tourist guides will tell you this is the 'world's smallest desert' but, despite being a bit of an oddity amongst all these high mountains, alpine lakes and pine trees, the Carcross Desert is not a real desert. The sand, which makes it look like everyone's idea of a desert, was deposited as silt when large glacial lakes dried up during the last Ice Age.

Carcross

We couldn't see what all the fuss was about with Carcross. To us it seemed like yet another town with a lot of souvenir shops and not much else. At least it appeared the businesses were owned by locals. It was worth a quick stop to see the colourful Tlingit designs on the buildings.

The souvenir businesses are heavily Tlinglit influenced.

For the next post in this series click - here

Related posts: - 

• Do Australians pay more than Americans for Alaskan Cruises?

• 7 things you need to know about Alaska

• The Alaska Marine Highway- Alaska by car ferry.

• The Alaska Marine Highway - a close call with catastrophe.

• The Alaska Marine Highway - Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg and the Wrangell Narrows.

• The Mt Roberts Goldbelt Tramway in Juneau, Alaska

• Juneau, Alaska - The Mendenhall Glacier, Glacier Bay National Park and the Shrine of St Therese

• The Alaska Marine Highway - Juneau to Sitka by car ferry.

• Sitka, Alaska - Totem Poles, Eagles and Russians

• Haines, Alaska - Moose, bears, bald eagles and Gold Rush

• The Alaska Highway - Whitehorse, the Frantic Follies and the Yukon Wildlife Preserve

• Driving the Alaska Highway - Dawson Creek to Whitehorse

• The Truth about the Icefields Parkway

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22 Aug 2015