White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad

Laura Domela — Mon, 18 Jul 2016 22:32:48 +0000

We left Airship in the marina this morning and headed for the train station.

I called yesterday to make a reservation for the 8:15am ride up to the White Pass summit, but the ticket seller talked me into the steam train excursion that went a bit further out to Fraser Meadows, BC, and…well, steam train!! (This particular steam train excursion leaves at 8am on just 7 Mondays over the summer…and today was one of those Mondays.) We’re so glad we stayed and did this. The chances of getting to Skagway again with weather this perfect, well, I don’t know what they are but it seems like it could be kinda rare.

Here comes our train!

We rode in Car No. 216, one of the earliest cars built. The White Pass and Yukon Route railroad was constructed between September and December 1898. [See the “History” page on their website for more details.]

The original Klondike Trail of 1898:

They don’t allow anyone to hike this trail anymore because this area is all a protected park now, but there are spots where you can still see the narrow remains.

The old trestle bridge that we did not take:

White Pass Summit:

The United States/Canada border:

Up in subalpine land:

Remains of an old snow drift fence:

The views are just spectacular.

You can see all the way back to Skagway in this shot:

A map of the railroad route:

I really wanted (and expected to find) this t-shirt in the gift shop, but apparently they don’t make a shirt like this, which is really a shame, don’t you think?

The logo looks so great on the black train car…how could they NOT have designed a shirt to match?

Skagway, AK

Laura Domela — Mon, 18 Jul 2016 01:56:42 +0000

Another gorgeous day in Lynn Canal and up the Taiya Inlet to Skagway! Here’s our new view, at the Small Boat Harbor:

Skagway, Alaska is pretty much the furthest north in the Inside Passage that we can travel by boat. I’m so glad the weather was great and we got to come all the way up here. It’s beautiful! Blue dot on map is us:

There’s only one cruise ship here today, so the town is pretty quiet.

There are roads that lead from both Haines and Skagway to other places in Alaska (unlike all other SE Alaska towns we visit by boat), so we’ve met several sets of folks from Whitehorse and other towns in Alaska, Canada, and the Yukon Territory. Whitehorse is only about 90 minutes by car, so maybe next time we’re here, we can rent a car and do some land exploring.

Skagway is actually pretty charming. Yes, it’s a cruise ship town (of only about 900 people), but they’ve done a good job with the vibe of the place…it doesn’t feel all cruiseshipppy. I’m not sure if it’s that the buildings all mostly match and have that slightly Old West look and there aren’t A TON of tanzanite and cruise ship jewelry stores (there are still a few), or that there was only one ship here today, but it was quite nice walking around town. We had lunch at the Skagway Fish Company (a salad with king crab, and halibut fish & chips, to share). The food was solid. Not amazing, but solid.

But OMG the weather!! Today was probably up near 80 degrees…tomorrow is supposed to be 87 (the harbormaster says that’s the hottest he’s ever seen it). We were originally thinking we’d just explore for a couple hours today, have lunch, and then head back out to fish and maybe back to Haines this afternoon, but we decided to stay the night and head down to Haines tomorrow afternoon instead. Guess what we’re doing in the morning?

Skagway – Riveted

White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad

Skagway, AK