January 27, 2012

Alaskan Cruise: Skagway


Our second stop on our cruise was Skagway. It's an old gold mining town with lots of history! We had the whole day in port so we spent the morning wandering around the town and the afternoon on the White Pass Train. 
When we first planned our trip we didn't plan any excursions for our day in Skagway, but after some thought we decided to book one after all. I'm very glad we did! Skagway is a very small town with the main street being about 2 blocks long. If we had stayed in town all day we would have quickly run out of things to do. I highly recommend, if you're ever in Skagway, take a trip on the White Pass Train! You won't regret it!

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The great part about booking our trip on the train from our cruise, was that the train pulled up right to our boat! It was a little bit of a walk from town but it was nice to know where we were suppose to be. If we had known ahead of time that the train pulled onto the dock, we would have booked the train in the morning so we would not have had to make the walk. Also, I highly recommend sitting on the left side of the train as the view on the way up is much better!

The White Pass Train takes you on a 3 hour trip through the hills behind Skagway, pass the routes the old miners used to take, and into Yukon Territory (aka Canada!). The views were stunning. It was also really cool to be able to see the actual paths that the miners heading into the Yukon took. 

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Two workers who worked on the railroad were killed by the rock below. Their bodies were never rescued, and when you see the size of the rock you understand why! (It pretty much took up the whole frame of the picture!)

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Up next: The highlight of the trip... Glacier Bay! 

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