Skagway, Alaska August 5th thru 8th

We are enjoying the ferry ride on the Alaskan Marine Highway, for the first time this trip--and the last.  Tickets were almost $300 to go 14 miles for us & our two vehicles, and 45 minutes.  Yet that's still cheaper than driving 359 miles--and a lot faster too!  After all, we are now on the last legs of this great trip, so time is starting to count now.  The 'jello schedule' we have talked  about for the last three months is now starting to harden up a little.     (Meaning we are beginning to look towards getting back to Home.)

From aboard the ferry we saw more of Alaska's rugged forested mountains plunging down to the shoreline, with beautiful multi-tiered waterfalls--such as this one.














The waterfalls are roaring with ice field's summer melt, which is very plentiful in August.

Any of these waterfalls, if next to a highway, would cause a traffic jam of tourists with cameras.  But I guess they can't move them; these which drain directly into the fjords. 

We are voyaging along Lynn Canal.  As we recounted in our last post, it is the longest fjord in the world.  Soon we will join the Talia Inlet.

Some of the largest cruise ships also take this route; the waterways are plenty deep! 

And--speak of the devil--here they are:  four or five ships, each one with 2,000 to 3,000 passengers who flood into a town with a population of 920.  In summer however, the population doubles to deal with the over 900,000 visitors. It's bound to be crowded.  

The last time we visited here it was on one of cruise ships.  (Quite literally!  Our Norwegian Pearl was again in the harbor while we were here!)

This time, this is what we are heading towards the Skagway Ferry Terminal. 

Let's see now:  drive down that ramp, take a hard left and drive up that other ramp.  Piece of cake.  Now, where am I going to meet My Dear Bride?  No problems, we have our walkie-talkies. 







Guess what?  Yep, you're right, last on, first off--that's me!  I sat in a No Parking zone for half an hour (well, it seemed like that anyway) until she got to drive off.  We then caravaned in our two rigs down Broadway through the ship tourist crowds.  Most didn't seem to even notice I was driving along.  I had to check twice to see if I was invisible.  

The first RV park, where we planned on staying, was closed.  Just as well; it didn't look all that appealing.  So--got on the phone.  The second place we called had a place if we didn't mind "dry camping"; in other words, no hook-ups.  I think we will survive.  As you know, we have done that before.

Nice spot just a few blocks from town:  nice view, quiet, except for the little airport a couple of blocks away.

We got settled in and decided to take a quick look at the town.  It has been at least two years since we were here, and then it was for less than a day, with most of that on the White Pass to Yukon Railway train. 

The picturesque Artic Brotherhood Hall has been taken over by the Park Service, like over a hundred of the buildings in town.  This building is decorated with over 9,000 pieces of driftwood, just as it was over a hundred years ago.  For more information on this
http://www.arcticbrotherhood.com/

It is now used as a Visitor Center.  If you will notice, no ship tourists!  It is late, and all that's left is this beautiful model in front of the building.

Every thing was closed except the locals bar and store.  But we did find some flowers.







We got some information from posters and found there was to be a Ranger led walk so we joined it the next morning.  We learned a lot of Skagway history from the Ranger:  factoids about Soapy Smith, Frank Reid, Captain William Moore, Committee 101, along with the scams and political battles in which they were involved.  Learned about the Chilkoot Pass trail, and Dyea, nearby historic town which Skagway eventually replaced as the landing place for Gold Rush prospectors.  Dyea now has a population of just 2, because Skagway has a better, deeper port, and the railroad..

This is our Ranger, weaving another tale.  Behind him is the first house in Skagway.  It belonged to steamboat Captain William Moore.  He was a bit of a world traveler, and from what he had seen he figured there would be a gold rush in Alaska so he put in a land claim of 160 acres in Skagway, which would cover most of the town.  He built a wharf and sawmill and waited for the gold strike, which happened.
More information on Moore:  http://en.wikipedia.orgwikiWilliam_Moore_%28steamship_captain%29

This is the house he built around the cabin, later moving the cabin away from the house.

This is one of the rooms in the house,  Every room was full like this.  

After the tour we walked around town to see other things.  Some spots were too crowded during our last visit, or we hadn't enough time then.  It was nice to just take a leisurely walk this time, and not worry about being late back to a ship.

 

Here were some commercial totems going up on the side of a building.

These baskets are woven from the baleen of whales, the first we saw of these.  It almost reminds me of a natural form of plastic, smooth and flexible.

AB Mountain overlooking Skagway.  There are hikes daily to the top if you would like to go.

A view from the windows at the train station.

  This is The Trail saloon reproduction, one of the many places operated by Soapy Smith.  Soapy Smith was a beneficent scoundrel and a big influence on early Skagway history.  I will let you read about him here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soapy_Smith

Behind this bar of mannequins is a small museum.  Several stores and other places had these mini museums.

Here is a unique RV we saw.  Looks to be part plane, and four wheel truck.  Nice Paint job too.  Have since learned that it's called "Skyhorse", and the owners are quite the travelers: two lawyers who married and took a year's honeymoon. Find them on Google
 @spot Skyhorse.

A hundred years ago they painted their advertisements on the the big rocks on the cliffs over looking the town.  This one has survived.  Some of them are still in business---

Painted on the rocks, and painted on the building.

Went into a small mall off the main street and found this totem pole.  Only $3,000.  Maybe we need a pair, one on both sides of the front door to match our little "Welcome" bear in the foyer.

Then we found Olivia's Restaurant

 These were the gardens for the Skagway Inn. also known as Olivia's Restaurant .

 After walking around town for a bit we drove out to the Skagway Cemetery, and found the final resting place of some of those historic personalities we'd heard about.

 

 The largest monument was for Frank Reid, Hero of Skagway.  He was the one who shot scoundrel Soapy Smith, but he got shot in return.  He died 12 days later.                                         

This is Soapy Smiths Gravestone. 

They now have a wake for him on the 8th of July every year.  He has built up a Robin Hood type of reputation.  It is in the prior link I cited.

 There were a lot of other graves here.  We tried to find the latest one but not to many past the Gold Rush era.

You had to walk thru or near the cemetery to get to Lower Reid Falls, about 4 miles (ha!) up the trail. 

 Here My Dear Bride is zipping on her pants bottoms.  It was getting a little cool by the waterfalls.

And here we are both being cool.  You can tell it was a long walk, no ship tourists.

 My Dear Bride is showing us the moss on the rocks and the top of Lower Reid Falls.  The upper falls was about 7 miles up further.  Heard it was not as good as this one and it was 7 miles UP further.  So instead we decided to walk out to Yakutania Point, across from the Port.

To get to the trail we had to cross the Skagway river across a foot bridge.  That is the "big" airport we are camped near to.

One of the cruise ships is leaving so that will take at least a couple thousand people off the streets.

You can see how bad the scenery is around here.  

Taiya Inlet, the end of Lynn Canal and Skagway's port.

Yakutania Point Trail, very nice, but up and down, in and out.

And here we are on the trail.  Too bad the scenery is not good to look at.  But you got us.

And when we got to the point I had this lovely model pose for me.  We saw several whales spouting, but they were far off.  Not worth wasting film for.  It was into the sunshine anyway.

I took a picture of this boat way out in the harbor, beautiful boat.  When I googled Michaela Rose I was surprised.  Try it.

  As we went back over the foot bridge a airplane tried to run over us.  Not really, this was a bit of a zoom and he flew way overhead.

'Tis late in the day--and we did lots more stuff here in Skagway, so I am going to close for now. 

See you later...