Trains in Skagway

August 13, 2024 – Tuesday – Day 51

We spent the night in the church parking lot again.  It was quiet and there are so many trees, it is like camping in the forest.  

We were done with our time in Haines, so we took the 12:45 ferry to Skagway.  It is only an hour-long ferry trip, but they ask you to arrive 2 hours early, so it takes 3 hours.  The ferry trip was nice, and we stayed on the open deck for most of the trip.

When we arrived in Skagway there were 4 huge cruise ships there.  The town was pretty packed with people.  We found a camping spot at the north end of town and after eating lunch we walked into the main part of town.  It started raining just before we left the van and it was a hard rain.  We were wearing rain jackets, but we still got wet.

We needed to be at the train depot at 3:30 pm for our 4 pm trip on the White Pass and Yukon Route (WP&YR) Railroad.  The WP&YR was finished in July of 1900 after 26 months of construction by 35,000 men.  The train ran from Skagway to Whitehorse and was initially used to access the Yukon goldfields, but was mostly used to ship freight and passengers to the interior of the Yukon Territory. 

It was raining with clouds in the mountains, so we were worried about the trip and how much we would be able to see in the rain.  But it was not a problem as the views were pretty as we rode into the clouds.

We spent some time on the outdoor platform at each end of the train cars.  The train didn’t go very fast, but it was still cold and wet.  We rode outside for some of the ride up, but we stayed inside for the trip back down the mountain.

It was a fun ride, and we enjoyed the stories they told and the nice views.

We arrived back in town just before 7 pm and everyone was back on the cruise ships.  The town was empty, and all the stores and shops were closed.  It was a nice quiet walk back to the campground.

August 14, 2024 – Wednesday – Day 52

Today we did laundry in the morning and then spent the day in Skagway visiting the museums and shops and walking the streets.  We had lunch at a pizza shop and later watched a live show about the history of Skagway and the gold rush.  Later in the evening we at dinner at the Bonanza Grill.  It is funny how after about 6 pm most everyone goes back to the cruise ships and the town closes up.

August 15, 2024 – Thursday – Day 53

We left Skagway around 9 am but stopped at the old town graveyard on the way out of town.  We drove the highway up the mountain and over the White Pass, crossing into Canada one more time.  It was mostly a day of driving, and we continued east until we reached the Stewart Cassiar Highway (BC 37) and turn south.  We will spend a few days on this highway as we head south.  We camped near Pinetree Lake just off the highway.