Since we weren't driving this trip we were afraid we wouldn't find a welcome sign, but much to everyone's excitement we did!!
I pray that at some point our kids realize how blessed they are to have been able to travel like this. Teaching school I've known many, many kids who have never been out of the county they are born in and these three have been to every state in our entire country. This is all Scott too. I didn't grow up traveling all that much. I had been to more places in first 2 years Scott and I were married than I had in the previous 24! He plans all these trips, makes all the arrangements and accommodations. I just pack the bags and google what to see! We are all blessed by his wanderlust!!
The town of Skagway is known for it's place in the gold rush. People who flooded in to Alaska in search of gold ended up here in the beginning. Unfortunately, the gold was 500 miles north in Yukon territory. The town is very historic with all the original buildings and wooden sidewalks.
This is the original steam engine snowplow for the White Pass Railway…
The entire town isn't really more than about 3 blocks.
That afternoon we took the White Pass railroad up from Skagway into Canada. The White Pass railway connected the coastal town of Skagway to the Yukon Territory and was built in the late 1800's. The ride is beautiful and when you think of the conditions under which the railroad was built it's really incredible.
There were a couple of times we were so high up and on the side of a cliff that I couldn't look!
We only took the train one way. A tour bus met us in Canada and then drove us back down on the Klondike Highway. The highway was built in the late 1980's and put the White Pass Railroad out of business as the way to move goods. However, in the winter months the minimum snowfall in the area is 33 feet. There are times when the road is closed for two or three weeks at a time. Also, the U.S. border patrol checkpoint is 7 miles from the actual border. So the 7 miles between the U.S. checkpoint and the Canadian checkpoint is called No Man's Land. The check points close at 11 p.m. every night. So people traveling late have to really watch the time. You have to pass the Canadian checkpoint with enough time to make the U.S. one by 11 p.m. or you are stuck in between for the entire night. As in SLEEPING IN YOUR CAR!! Crazy. The trees along the side of the Klondike highway are only about 4 feet high. They are kinda funny looking. The guide explained that they only have a 6 week growing period in this part of Alaska. Pretty sure July may be the only decent month out of 12 to visit here. We then stopped at Liarsville. This is where the miners camped. It was a 2 mile long tent city. They have recreated a small portion and we explored, saw a funny show about the history and then they taught us to pan for gold.
The history of the press was funny. When the press arrived to cover the gold rush, they made it as far as Liarsville (Skagway) and realized that the trip over the mountain to where the actual gold was was way to far and much to harsh a journey for them. So, they set up tents in the tent city and just wrote the stories that the miners told them about what it was like over the mountain. The never actually saw it for themselves and were know for believing just about any tall tale. Comical to me. Not much seems to have changed in journalism.
Mandy was a super serious gold miner. The rest of us found a couple of flakes and wimped out, but not her!!
The geography is crazy here. Lower down the mountain where we were is actually a rainforest. It seems nuts to think about a rainforest in Alaska, but when you are down in it, it totally feels like it.
Skagway was a neat little town. It's winter population is about 900 and it's summer population is around 3000. There is a small school. There were 5 seniors in this year's graduating class. 3 girls, 2 boys. Cruise ship season starts the second week of May and the Senior prom is held every year the third weekend in may…on a cruise ship!! There is no doctor in town. They have a medical clinic with 2 nurse practitioners. If you have a serious heath emergency they have to call Careflight which will run you about $12,000 a flight. Most people have some type of life flight insurance here. Also, there is a town ordinance that says when a woman hits her 9th month of pregnancy she literally has to get out of town until after the baby is born. There hasn't been a baby born in Skagway in almost 30 years.
The culture here is so incredibly unique due to the geography. It's like a living geography lesson!!
Once we were back to the ship, we went to check out some before dinner entertainment. It was a "game show" called "so you think you know your family" and Mandy and Scott got picked to be contestants!! It was like the newlywed game. They did pretty well, I think they only missed one!
Alaskan Blessings,
Leslie
