The next morning, in Skagway, we get up to coolish weather. After a shower for Dan and breakfast, we button up the RV and head into town.
At the RV Park early the next morning.
Turned out this RV park is nice and big with lots of scenery. I could be happy staying here for weeks while wandering Skagway. It’s just all the cruise ship tourists that make that seem uncool. I know, I’m a tourist too. But, unlike them, if I find a place I like, I can stay there for months and get to know people if I want. If I do come back here to stay a spell, I’ll get here either early or late in the tourist season.
Here's one of the cruise ships near the RV park.
Our ferry parked at that same dock the night before. Shows you how close the RV park is to the ferry landing. Very handy when you’re tired and just want to go to bed without having to drive a big RV through a little town late at night looking for an RV park.
Another cruise ship just to the left of the first one I showed above.
We left the park around 10AM and found a nice large parking lot right on the edge of town big enough for the RV and just a mile from the park. Very handy. We wandered over to the train station, which was right across the street, and bought our tickets for the train ride later that afternoon.
Meanwhile, we walked the streets of old Skagway. This place is unique in that the US Forest Service owns many of the old buildings and restores them. It’s a giant historical town. Nearly every building has a business in it and they pay rent to the US government. We did wander into a ‘going out of business sale’ so they don’t always do well.
Dan on the boardwalk in downtown Skagway.
The original builders of the town did it right. Notice how wide the streets are.
These are all original buildings. Even the side streets are being, or have been, restored for the tourist industry.
Here's the inside of the railroad station where we bought our tickets for the gold train ride.
A couple of the old time buses that move the tourists around town.
More of old downtown, near the train station.
Another shot of old downtown.
Carriage rides are available.
These buildings up the side streets are restored or maintained to keep that old gold rush character. The red building on the right is someone's home. The others are businesses, rooms for let, and rentals.
Another street, same kind of restoration.
The gals in the window was a hollerin' about the vaudeville show in the theater below. The one on the right has a thick NY accent and really belted out her spiel. You could hear her a block away. She attracted a crowd.
We find a nice pub around 10:30 AM.
The old building with the red roof below was being worked on by a Forest Service guy who filled us in on the kind of work he did as a carpenter. He was always busy here in Skagway, but this was his biggest project. He was restoring that old building so they could rent it out. He had the entire floor ripped out and lots of bracing holding the structure up. We talked to him for a half hour and got a good look at how they worked at getting some old buildings in town up to tourist standards. This building is a block off of the town center.
One of the side streets just a block from town center.
Note that this town still exists because of the tourists that come here by the 10’s of thousands in the summer. The population of the town is only 3500 during the cold and wet winter. All the workers we saw, with some exceptions, were young kids that come here for the summer and leave after the seasons over. We ran into one gal, probably 28 or so, who lives here all year. Interesting to talk to her and get her perspective on the town during the off season.
Later in the afternoon, it was time to board the train. This train was constructed during the gold rush to take advantage of all the miners traveling up the Chilkoot trail a hundred years ago. Cost was around $120 per person for us in 2009 and there were several cars so they are doing quite well.
On the train, ready to leave the station...
We cross a little creek shortly after leaving the station.
A couple miles up the rail...
There's the engine up ahead, dual engines actually.
And then a look back behind our car.
Everyone enjoying themselves. These cars are reproductions and restorations of the original rail cars employed here.
Off behind us, one of the numerous mountains.
We enter a canyon.
There's that creek again.
And an incredible mountain top nearby.
One of the many tight corners we passed.
Some of this trip passes verdant flora.
Oh, a railroad spur. Let's the trains pass each other when necessary.
Here's a view to remember. That's downhill from where we are headed.
I liked the fluffy clouds.
Sorry if I'm boring you folks but I loved this trip and there were many opportunities to take pictures, perhaps to many.
Glad I didn't have to walk this trail.
This really cool train bridge (no longer used), is touted as having as much steel in it as the Eiffel Tower.
There is the front of the train heading into the tunnel that made bypassing the old bridge possible. Now the train just goes over this small bridge, and through the tunnel.
Here's another shot of the old bridge.
And a closeup of the tunnel as we approach at 25 MPH or so.
Finally, we arrive at the lake. This was a huge rest stop for the miners. Some of them spent weeks here recuperating after the effort expended during their climb here (all before the train of course).
Here's where we stopped for, what, 30 minutes or so?
Ahh, another lake.
That's the actual trail the gold seekers used. Brutal.
More of the trail. Over 3,000 horses died on the trip up in one season.
And a view of the bridge on our return.
And closer. Interesting the way it was built.A nice valley.
See the plaque? Under that giant rock lies two men, a horse and two donkeys. That rock let go from the hill above while they were having lunch there 100 years ago and caught them before they could escape. I can't imagine them not hearing it crashing down the hillside but apparently they didn't until it was too late. Nasty way to die because they must have heard it or seen it just before it hit them.
After we arrived back in town, we got back on the road heading east into the mountains. Just a couple miles out of town we notice a brew pub along side the road. While on the train an hour before, Dan had been grousing about not having found some of the brew pubs that should have been there or he expected in Skagway. I saw an old mill across the river and pointed it out to him telling him it was a brew pub. Sure enough, as we passed that building, we found that it WAS a brew pub. Hah!
After having a brew, we head east and onto one of the steepest grades anywhere. It was suppose to be 11% and I worried that my old RV might blow a tranni or worse up on a steep hill. But we made it safely without problems except when the terrain flattened out and we stopped for a break, and to add antifreeze, I found tranni fluid leaking from one of the tranni cooler hoses. I had some spare tranni fluid to top off the reservoir so we continued on. A couple days, and several bottles of tranni fluid later, we found a shop in Prince George that replaced the bad hose for me.
We were headed for Whitehorse, British Columbia and after that steep grade, the road was relatively flat with lots of scenery.
Dan takes my picture.
One of the numerous lakes we drove by.
Dan convinced me to drive all the way to Whitehorse that day (two hour drive from Skagway), and we did, with no daylight left when we arrived. We roamed around for a bit looking for a bar where we could watch the Ducks game the next day but darkness cut that short and we decided to settle. Dan had selected a place to spend the night previously…at a provincial park…but since he’s a novice at this camping in an RV thing, he selected a campground, not an RV park so we settled in without electric and had no heat. I could have fired up the propane furnace but didn’t want to in such moderately mild temperatures. And the thick blankets I have helped with that. The next day we were going to be looking for a place to watch the Univ. of Oregon Ducks football game so after dinner and an hour or two of reading, it was off to sleep.
Those ships are giant!
I know! And we went right by one in the dark. Lots of lights on the thing. Must have been 10 floors.