Skagway – 18th May
Today we arrived in Skagway, which was used as a base for the Klondike Gold Rush in 1898.
Our tour today was entitled Yukon Expedition and White Pass Railway. We boarded a coach and drove through and out of town, past all the nice souvenir ships (and jewelers) – never to be seen again.
We drove inland up the mountain to the White Pass Summit and passed through the Canadian Border into British Columbia. Whilst driving up to the summit on one side of the valley we could see on the other side of the valley the tortuous route taken by the train that we would be using later in the day to return to Skagway. As we dropped down into British Columbia we had our passports checked at the Customs Post in Fraser, before continuing down the Klondike Highway to the Yukon Territory and the small town called Carcross.
En route we had magnificent views of the partly frozen lakes and an exciting encounter with a big black bear that was eating alongside the road and the coach driver slowly drove past so that we all could get a good view. (Note photo without use of telescopic lens). Fortunately or unfortunately the driver would not let us get off the coach to take a clearer picture. Just before arriving into Carcross we encountered an area called Carcross Desert – it looked like a desert but it was actually the remains of an ancient lake. A very strange sight surrounded by mountains covered in snow.
We then had a brief stop in Carcross, where we stopped for a BBQ lunch followed by doughnuts. Here they had a museum of local wildlife in the form of well presented stuffed animals, but also had some real huskies (sledge dogs) with their puppies, which Doreen got very attached to. We then left via the Emerald Lakes back to Fraser where we joined our train for a spectacular journey back to Skagway.
Unfortunately when we arrived in Skagway there was no time to visit the shops Doreen had seen earlier.
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