Skagway

We decided to take the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad trip from Skagway to Fraser, B.C.  We boarded buses that took us the short distance from the ship to the railroad station.  You could see our ship from the station.  We were very close to where we stayed when we made the trip up in 2009 in our motorhome.

Our train car was fitted with opposing seats with a table in between them.  There was a person to show us various things and bring us eats as well as a narrator for the whole train.  At Rocky Point at mile marker 6.9 we were able to look down and see Skagway and  our ship.

Here is a closer view.

The train was very long and the track was very curvy.  Skagway is at sea level and the White Pass Summit that we will cross over is at 2,865 feet above sea level.

At 8.8 miles we came to Buchanan Rock.  Between 1923 and 1938 George E Buchanan brought approximately 50 young people (mostly boys) from Detroit to Skagway and then on the WP&YR railroad and by boat to Atlin.  One of the boys wrote “On To Alaska With Buchanan” on the side of the mountain to commemorate their trip.  The sign is maintained as a tourist attraction.

Next up was Bridal Veil Falls.  I love waterfalls and I think every State must have one named Bridal Veil.

Another view of the curvy track as we climb to the summit.

We could look down and see where we had come from.

This was a different view of the falls from farther away.

I think this is the trestle that we had just come over.

And this is a view of the steel bridge that we will go past later.  It was constructed in 1901 and used until 1969 and was the tallest cantilever bridge in the world.

Here is the train entering the first of two tunnels that we went through.

This is called Dead Horse Gulch as 3,000 pack animals met their end here in 1896.

A better view of the full trestle.

Watching the front of the train through the train windows.  We are going through another tunnel.

White Pass Summit

Crossing the US/Canada border.

Headed into Fraser, BC.

Here is a picture of our rail car.  We disembarked in Fraser and got on a bus to take the Klondike Highway back to Skagway.

On the bus ride back we saw another pretty waterfall

The pole on the right side of the picture is a guide for the snow plows so that they don’t go off the road while plowing during the winter.

When we arrived in the outskirts of Skagway we stopped at the Klondike Gold Dredge that was formerly used in the Klondike Gold Fields.  We didn’t remember this place being here when we visited before.  Here we are listening to our Guide before going into the dredge.

Here is the dredge.  Neither Wayne nor I went into the dredge as we had toured a dredge in Dawson Creek when we were on our previous trip.

Here I am waiting for them to finish the tour.

I watched the group ahead of us as they panned for gold.  The gentleman on the right was our bus driver.

We watched a demonstration on gold panning.  the guy doing the demonstration was a hoot.  He really got into his role as a 1800s gold rush character.

I really got gold fever when we were here before.  You can see how intent I am on finding as much gold as I could.  I got about $18.00 worth.

These three were our guides on the tour.

We went to the Pinnacle Grill again for dinner. Since we had gotten the lobster the first time, we went for the fillets this time and they were wonderful as well.  We played blackjack for a while and then went back to  the room to find our stingray towel.

What a busy and fun day we had.