We arrived in Skagway, Alaska early in the morning. We had the opportunity to spend the entire day in Skagway! Skagway is a small town of 800 people year round; however, during the summer months the town population explodes to a few thousand.
Our ship docked close to town. It was just a 10 minute walk to get into the heart of Skagway.
The water is this amazing green blue color. The color is from the glacier melts. 
Our ship docked close to town. It was just a 10 minute walk to get into the heart of Skagway. The water is this amazing green blue color. The color is from the glacier melts. Skagway looks like a western town from the movies. The building in this picture with the "AB" on it is made entirely of driftwood. It is one of the original buildings in the town from its gold rush days in the late 1890's. 
The town of Skagway has a strict building code. All buildings must be built to this old town time period. The sidewalks are made out of wooden planks. It was fun to go into several of the shops in this cute town. 
One of the shops we visited was the Sarah Palin Store. This store was opened in honor of Governor Palin because she lived in Skagway when she was a kid. 
This granite building was built by the Methodist church in the late 1890's early 1900's. They Methodist Church intended for it to be a school for girls. However, during a gold rush era, there aren't many girls in the area looking for a finishing school education. The building is currently a museum and city offices. 
Near the museum, hidden in the woods, we found this abandoned steam train. It is one of the original trains that hauled gear up the mountain toward the gold fields. 
Brent loved exploring this train. He climbed all over it. 
This train is used for tours up the mountain. Grandma and her friends took this train on their tour up White Pass. 
Brent and I took a bus tour up to White Pass. The tour stopped at several locations so we could get out and admire the amazing scenery. Skagway is at the bottom of the mountain in a valley. The reason Skagway was important to the gold rush was that it was a sea entrance to this valley. If you could climb up the mountains and make it to the lake system at the top, you could then navigate through the lakes another 300 - 500 miles to the famous Klondike Gold Mines. To make it up the treacherous and steep mountains, a railroad was built. I wasn't aware that railroads couldn't be built up steep inclines. So this railroad had to be creatively built. It was designed to travel up switchbacks through the canyon to make it up the steep pass. 
There wasn't much space along side of the mountain to build the railroad.
At the top of this mountain is Goat Lake. In the center of this picture is Pitchfork Waterfall. It originates at Goat Lake and then races down this huge mountain side. Before it dumps into the river below, it splits itself into several waterfalls like a pitchfork. On the right side of the waterfall you will notice a long pipe. This is not an oil pipeline. This pipe also starts up at Goat Lake and takes in water to run the hydro-electric power plant that supplies Skagway with its electricity.
Behind Brent and I on the right is a suspension bridge. We went over this bridge on the bus. The bridge is only suspended on one side. The other side of the bridge sits on a rubber ledge. This area is right on a major earthquake line so the bridge had to be able to move during the earthquakes. Also because this area gets a good 50 feet of snow each winter, the bridge needed to be able to expand and contract without being damaged.
At the top of White Pass, you can see the effects of the altitude we are at and the harsh environment we are in. The small trees you see in this picture could be 100 to 300 years old. The trees can't grow very tall in this area because of the lack of soil, sunlight, harsh wind and the extreme weather conditions. Very few plants survive in this area.
Our trip up White Pass took us into Canada. When we returned back to the United States, we had to pass through customs. Thank goodness we had our passports with us! 
We had to stop at the Alaska sign for a photo moment. The sign is made of wood and is in great condition. We asked our tour guide if it was new. He said it wasn't; however, each winter they take the sign down and store it. If it was to remain out all winter under several feet of snow, it would get ruined.
This is the joining of two separate water systems. On the left you can see the blue green water that is from the melting of a glacier. On the right you can see blue black water that is just normal snow melt. In the middle you can see the sandy ridge that joins the two water sources together. I wish my camera could have captured the stark difference between the two.
On our way back to Skagway we stopped at a bridal fall. The water was raging down the side of the mountain. It is always impressive to witness the power of water!
On our way back into town, our tour guide took us to a look out point to where we could see the entire town as well as our cruise ship. Our cruise ship is the one on the left.
Lastly, we went to the Gold Rush Cemetery. Outside of the cemetery was this huge nugget of gold. Thankfully, it was chained to the tree so no one could run off with it. I'm sure it weighs more than a ton. Mitchell and Grant think we should have chipped some of the gold off and took it with us. ;)
At the top of this mountain is Goat Lake. In the center of this picture is Pitchfork Waterfall. It originates at Goat Lake and then races down this huge mountain side. Before it dumps into the river below, it splits itself into several waterfalls like a pitchfork. On the right side of the waterfall you will notice a long pipe. This is not an oil pipeline. This pipe also starts up at Goat Lake and takes in water to run the hydro-electric power plant that supplies Skagway with its electricity. Behind Brent and I on the right is a suspension bridge. We went over this bridge on the bus. The bridge is only suspended on one side. The other side of the bridge sits on a rubber ledge. This area is right on a major earthquake line so the bridge had to be able to move during the earthquakes. Also because this area gets a good 50 feet of snow each winter, the bridge needed to be able to expand and contract without being damaged. At the top of White Pass, you can see the effects of the altitude we are at and the harsh environment we are in. The small trees you see in this picture could be 100 to 300 years old. The trees can't grow very tall in this area because of the lack of soil, sunlight, harsh wind and the extreme weather conditions. Very few plants survive in this area.Our trip up White Pass took us into Canada. When we returned back to the United States, we had to pass through customs. Thank goodness we had our passports with us! We had to stop at the Alaska sign for a photo moment. The sign is made of wood and is in great condition. We asked our tour guide if it was new. He said it wasn't; however, each winter they take the sign down and store it. If it was to remain out all winter under several feet of snow, it would get ruined.This is the joining of two separate water systems. On the left you can see the blue green water that is from the melting of a glacier. On the right you can see blue black water that is just normal snow melt. In the middle you can see the sandy ridge that joins the two water sources together. I wish my camera could have captured the stark difference between the two. 
On our way back to Skagway we stopped at a bridal fall. The water was raging down the side of the mountain. It is always impressive to witness the power of water!
On our way back into town, our tour guide took us to a look out point to where we could see the entire town as well as our cruise ship. Our cruise ship is the one on the left.
Lastly, we went to the Gold Rush Cemetery. Outside of the cemetery was this huge nugget of gold. Thankfully, it was chained to the tree so no one could run off with it. I'm sure it weighs more than a ton. Mitchell and Grant think we should have chipped some of the gold off and took it with us. ;)After our tour and exploring the town some more, we headed back to the ship. The next day we would be going to a glacier that was located at the end of the Tracy Arm Fjord.
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