Skagway

The Golden Circle/Skagway

Yesterday, we finished The Golden Circle highway from Haines to Skagway (360 miles by car/14 miles by ferry). If you remember back several weeks ago, we started our car trip from Haines, but we saved our trip down to Skagway on our return trip south. We drove most of the day from Dawson City following along the Yukon and the rivers and lakes that connect to this river. Many have traveled this route by water especially during the Klondike Gold Rush! After all the majestic scenery that we had seen to date, this drive was somewhat disappointing. Although after we left Whitehorse and finished our last 100 miles for the day, the drive became the Alaska we have come to love..."Colorado on Steroids!"...snow covered mountain, glaciers moraines, waterfalls, lakes, rivers, ...We slowly meandered down the winding highway up and over the White Pass and down to Skagway. Skagway was the hub during the late 1800's when the Klondike Gold Rush began. The miners would arrive by boat to Skagway and take either the White Pass route by pack horse or hike up and over the Chilkoot Trail. That was just the beginning of their journey as they then had to build a boat and travel the lakes and the Yukon to Dawson City.

Today, we biked to the Chilhoot Trailhead (9 miles) for a historical tour of Dyea and to hike several miles on the trail. Dyea was a boom town in 1898 during the Klondike Gold Rush, which lasted only three years! The miners would start their journey in Dyea and begin their ardous journey of 33 miles caring 1 ton of provisions up and over White Pass. Along the hike/bike, we saw the salmon swimming up stream to finish their life cycle (spawning), various birds, seals, sea otters...
Tomorrow, we take the White Pass and Yukon railroad to Laughton Glacier. The train trip takes 45 minutes and they drop off hikers for a half day or all day hike to the glacier.  We will hike 1/2 day and then begin our drive out of Alaska to Canada.  Tomorrow, we start our trip south to the states through British Columbia.  We are not sure how long that will take...Pictures to follow....