Skagway

7/31/17




Today is my Kim’s birthday.  I hope she has a great day.  We were up early again at 6:30 and on the road by 8:00 with a dirty rig.  It was another long driving day from Destruction Bay to Skagway, through a mountain range.  The sun came out and we had blue skies – Finally!  The scenery through the mountains was exceptional.  Lots of snow-draped mountains, glaciers, crystal lakes, and wild flowers.  Here are some of my pictures.



We also stopped at Emerald Lake (also called Rainbow Lake by the Yukoners).  This was definitely a WOW!  The colors in this lake were really beautiful. 

Left Side of Emerald Lake

Right side of Emerald Lake

From this point to Skagway we passed all the ‘Southern Lakes’, which is what the signs said.  Then, at the point we probably hit the top of the mountains, we saw a sign denoting downgrade ahead.  No kidding—the next 12 miles were straight down at an 8% downgrade.  Since this is the only road into Skagway, we will have to drive up it when we leave, and I’m not looking forward to that!  Just before Skagway, we passed through another border crossing from Canada into the US.  The border guard asked us what state we were licensed in, as there was so much dirt on the license plate, he couldn’t read it.

Dirty again

We pulled into Pullen RV Park at the harbor and washed the RV, the car, and the bra that covered the front of the car.  They couldn’t be driven anymore, as the dirt completely covered all the windows on the car.  It took all my poop, and Tom finished the car.  It felt good again to have clean vehicles.  

"Wash Me"

At 7:00 p.m., we all met in town for ‘Soapy Smith’s’ show and fake gambling.  The gambling was fun, but I really didn’t like the show – it was a little too corny for me.  Another long day, and we both crashed.

8/01/17

We are here in Skagway for 3 more nights.  Today, we are going on a long boat cruise from Skagway to Juneau and back through the inland passage, which is a big fjord.  A fjord is a big canyon, where a glacier had carved out the canyon.  We met at 7:40 a.m. at the tailgunners’ rig to walk to the harbor (which is right next door).  There were 4 huge cruise ships in the harbor.  We boarded the ‘Fjorlands’, a 65’ catamaran.  The captain (who was also the owner of the boat) was great on the microphone, and pointed out the wildlife and talked about the local stories.  His daughter, just home from college, was his helper. 

The skies were clear and blue.  The mountains were beautiful. 

Scenery around the 'Fjorlands'

We saw 2 eagles, a female (on the left) and a male (on the right) posing for their picture.  They were right next to the boat and never moved.  I did not know that the female eagle is larger than the male.

Female bald eagle on left; Male on right

We also saw big waterfalls.  Here is Long Falls.

Long Falls



The fjord that we were cruising down was 1300 feet deep – that is why the cruise ships can come up here.  We passed the harbor of Haines, Alaska and there was a Princess Cruises hip in dock.

Haines, Alaska

Here is a glacier from a bit of a distance.  There are over 100 glaciers in this fjord.

One of many glaciers

Here is Ribbon Falls.

Ribbon Falls

We boarded a bus in a small harbor on the west side, and rode for about 45 miles into Juneau.  The bus driver told us how Juneau got its name.  Turns out back in 1880, a wealthy man in Sitka heard that there was gold in Alaska. He grubstaked two men, Richard Harris and Joe Juneau, to go and see if the gold was enough to mine.  They got here and found only a little bit of gold, and reported back that it wasn’t enough to mine.  The local natives, the Tlingak (pronounced ‘clink-it’),  found out about it and traveled to meet with the wealthy man (I don’t remember his name).  They told him where the gold was.  He sent Harris and Juneau out again with the help of the natives, and they found big deposits of gold.  A town was born along the Gold Creek.  They called it Harrisburg.  Thousands of miners came, but after about a year, the townspeople didn’t take to Richard Harris and wanted to rename the town.  It was put to a vote, and it is said that Joe Juneau was offering free drinks to the voters the night before.  That is how Juneau got its name.

The weather in Juneau is pretty wet – about 230 days/year of rain.  They get 62 inches of rain annually, which is 2 inches less than Miami; of course, they also get 85 inches of snow, which is 85 inches more than Miami.

We were deposited downtown Juneau, which is the capital of Alaska, even though it cannot be reached by land (there are no roads, just ice fields)—it must be reached by air or water.  There were 6 cruise ships in harbor, and lots of people shopping.  Tom and I wandered through the main street, and stopped at the Red Dog Saloon for lunch, fish and chips.  It was pretty good, and I remember being here before with my dad when we cruised to Alaska in 1997.  Here are pictures of Juneau.

The Red Dog Saloon

 

People in Juneau

We wandered through the jewelry and fur stores – beautiful stuff, and I bought a new necklace to match the earrings I bought in Anchorage.  Now I have my ‘Alaska set’.  Also saw a gorgeous sheared beaver coat, but passed on that.  Where in the world would I wear a heavy fur coat in the desert?

Back in the bus, and were driven about 15 minutes to the Mendenhall Glacier.  I was shocked to see it again.  When Tom and I were here at the Glacier in 2006 with his parents, it was much larger.  It has receeded back into the canyon, where we could walk right up to it just 11 years ago—very sad.  Here is a current picture. 

Mendenhall Glacier in 2017

The bus took us back to the harbor where we boarded the ‘Fjordlands’ again for the ride home. The captain told us that we were going to do some whale watching on the way back.  We did see one Orca (which we were told were rare to see).  This is all I got on my camera.

Orca
 

We also saw sea lions on a buoy, a humpback whale, and lots of sea lions on a empty beach (they hide on land to avoid predators).

Sea Lions on a buoy

 

Humpback Whale

Sea Lions on a beach

We passed an old lighthouse on Eldred Rock.  It is the oldest Alaskan building that is still standing, built in 1905.  Here is a picture.

Lighthouse on Eldred Rock

We arrived back in Skagway around 8:30 p.m. – gone 13 hours.  We had a dog sitter take care of the dogs while we were gone.  The daughter of the park manager offered this service on a regular basis, as many tourists go on these long boat cruises.  She did a great job, and our dogs loved her.  Home again and very tired.  The tour group was going on a train ride tomorrow for 3-4 hours, but we begged off.  Tom and I had already been on that train and were too tired to do it again—we would rather sleep in.

8/2/17

 

Today is Liz’s birthday.  I talked to Dad and Liz and they received my card today – Hooray!  They are doing fine and going out to dinner at their favorite restaurant tonight to celebrate.  It was so good to hear all is well on the home-front.  I finished typing up the blog for Tok and Destruction Bay and downloaded the pictures, but could not put on the blog as our internet connection in the campground didn’t work.  So, Tom and I got in the Jeep and drove to town to the public library where they had a free Wi-Fi.  When we got there, I saw that the connection was indeed there, but so slow I figured I would be 2-3 hours just to put it on the blog and get it published.  I sent Tom home and told him I would call to get picked up.  I stayed there to get the blog posted and published, then called Tom.  I always feel better after I can get it published.

When we got home, the rest of the group was arriving back from the train ride.  Trish said the scenery was great but no animals spotted (that is what I expected).  At 4:30 we all walked together to the harbor area to the Fish Company where the tour company was buying dinner for all.  We had halibut stuffed with crab, and it was pretty good.  However, the best was the homemade cherry pie! 

Trish came over that night and we played cribbage again.  She beat me.

8/3/17

We had a free day today.  Tom stayed back at the rig and worked on a few things.  Bev, Trish, and I went shopping in Skagway.   The main street was Broadway, and we walked the full length both ways.  It was loaded with jewelry stores, fur stores, tour companies, and curio stores, along with small food shops (ice cream, popcorn, fried bread, etc.).  We stopped and had some of the fried bread (they also call it elephant ears) and it was so good.  I found two t-shirts for Tom, a moose bone for the dogs, and muk luks (socks with leather bottoms) for myself.  I also found a few small jewelry pieces.  Trish and Bev bought more jewelry and a few small other items.  We all had fun, as our likes and dislikes are similar.

Trish drove the three of us up to the Gold Rush Cemetery, where we found the grave of  Jefferson Randolph Smith aka ‘Soapy Smith’, who was the main character in the show we saw the first night in Skagway.  He was a con artist of his day and died in 1898 at the ripe old age of 38.  Arrived home fully exhausted.  I fixed dinner and went to bed early.  Tom stayed up a little while longer, but he didn’t last very long either.