August 29, 2007 – White Pass Railroad and Skagway

What an exciting day!

The bus picked us up at 7:30 AM at the Campground and off we went. Our first stop was Emerald Lake:






Isn’t this beautiful! The house is private property – can you imagine viewing this lake every day!!

Our second stop was Carcross. We were to board the train here but they had so much water that some of the tracks and also houses were flooded.

The train station: One of the flooded homes:

Notice how high the water is at the railroad bridge:


Carcross is a really neat town. Many of the original (100 years old or more) homes still stand and are occupied. If we come back to Alaska, I would love to spend more time here.

Our next stop was Frasier, BC to hop on the train – The White Pass and Yukon Route narrow gauge – to Skagway. This train route was originally built in the early 1900’s because of the gold rush and a way to ship the gold to the lower 48.

The views were amazing!

The top of the White Pass:

The original route of the gold seekers (very narrow):

The view of the port of Skagway:

Coming down the mountain into Skagway:

Skagway – notice the cruise ships (there were 6 of them here today):

Old town Skagway:

We spent a couple hours here walking around and viewing the sites. It is a very touristy town. We had originally planned on taking the road to Haines, then the ferry to Skagway and then the road to Whitehorse which is what we will do next time. We did have a great lunch at the Skagway Fish Company with our tour guide. I just love hearing people’s stories...

Our ride back was on the tour bus with a stop at the Carcross Desert – the smallest desert in the world!

And tomorrow we head on down the road.