We arrived in Skagway on Sunday, 28 August. It was only partly cloudy at first, but of course it started to rain. I seemed to have picked up a miserable sinus infection again, so we basically didn’t do much on Monday. And yes, I did take a COVID test, but it was negative. Guess my March infection antibodies are still in good form since so many caravaners have gotten it this trip! We did wonder around town some, and I got the mandatory picture of one of the cruise ships.
The town itself is (obviously) full of cruise ship passengers. Three of the big ones can come into port at once. It was four at once until earlier this summer when a landslide took out one of the berths. That means “only” 12,000 passengers of so!
The town is part of the Klondike Gold Rush Historical Park, and we visited some of the sites of course. The Moores were a leading family. You can see how they moved from a log building to a lovely framed house.
Kevin took in a vaudeville show in the evening called “Soapy Smith,” about a local legendary bad guy. I wasn’t feeling well, so I stayed in the rig. He said I didn’t miss anything!
The next day we were up early for a long day trip to Juneau by water taxi. It was a charter through Fjordlands, and the captain looked for wildlife and good scenery in addition to just getting us to Juneau. Be prepared for lots of pictures!
We also saw at least three groups of humpback whales migrating south, a real rarity. However my little camera couldn’t catch anything you could tell was a whale, so you will have to take my word for it! Kevin got a video of the humpback, so at least I can show a snip of the tail. We saw the standard puffins and sea otters too.
The tour included a bus ride into Juneau from the water taxi port. It gave us a couple of hours, long enough to have lunch and a quick tour of the nearby shopping area. Juneau was a so-so city in a gorgeous area. There were five massive cruise lines in port and way too many people. Along the tourist streets it seemed that every other shop was for jewelry.
I did end up with some cute earrings, but it wasn’t a place I ever want to come back to. Oh, and I like this picture of the co-captain steering for a few minutes.
The ride back was even more rain, and everyone was tired. The entire trip was over 12 hours. Highly recommend, but hopefully on a day with better weather.
On Wednesday we visited the historic Dyea townsite. This was the alternate way to the Klondike gold fields. After a tragic avalanche, this route lost it glory and was quickly superseded by the railroad. There is an old cemetery with graves of avalanche victims plus other residents. As gold fever died down, the town went back to its roots as a small native community.
The area was obviously heavy temperate rainforest, and it was filled with all types of mushrooms frantically fruiting before the winter comes.
We also took a trip on the White Pass and Yukon Railroad. A fun two hour scenic trip with mostly empty cars for some reason.
Long day, but I really liked Skagway! We left on Thursday morning for Watson Lake, same campground as before. Friday we boondocked at the abandoned Burrage air strip along the Cassiar Highway. It was our anniversary, and while the rest of the caravan got hot dogs, we made steaks, potatoes and onions, watermelon, and cheesecake for desert! I will talk about our next destinations in the next post.