The Road to Skagway, AK

We left the Continental Divide RV park at 8:30 this morning to head on up the Alaska Highway. Our destination today is Skagway, Alaska but we made a few stops along the way.

The first stop was at the Tlingit Heritage Centre at Teslin. We saw totems, a dugout canoe, colourful fiberglass canoes and displays of 200 years of Tlingit culture. In this picture, Fran is standing in front of the totem which represents the Raven clan.

Next stop was for lunch at Jake’s corner. We ordered burgers and they were huge and delicious. Mine came with a salad and Fran’s with home fries. I notice that the fries are always handcut up here (not frozen). We ordered one of their massive cinnamon buns ‘to go’ because we were much too full to eat it then. Jake’s corner is where we left the Alaska highway to take the Tagish road over to Carcross, then down the South Klondike highway to Skagway, Alaska.

The South Klondike highway is famous for its long steep grade – 11% for 11.5 miles as it travels down the famous White Pass, dropping 3,300 feet in 100 miles. The scenery is fabulous! Rivers, lakes, mountains, glaciers…. I’ll show some pictures, although they won’t do it justice.

The U.S. border guy was really nice, but he did take our tomatoes and green pepper. Must remember to use them up before we cross the next time. Although, by then, it will be something else they don’t like!

Skagway is a neat little city and we have a very nice site in the Pullen Creek RV Park. The sidewalk connecting town to the cruise ship dock and small boat marina runs right behind our site so there has been a steady stream of people passing by and admiring the cairns.

The White Pass and Yukon Railroad also runs behind our site so we’ll get to see these excursion trains go by a few times every day. I took this picture from the open door of our motorhome.

There are two cruise ships in town so there is lots of activity. We can see the cruise ships from our RV park. It's fun to watch their comings and goings. This shot of a Disney cruise ship is taken from the overflow area:

The buildings in town are beautifully restored and there are lots of neat little shops. I guess that’s what happens when there are up to four cruise ships/day visiting a town. Here are a few of the buildings.

We’ll unload our bikes tomorrow and check out the town some more. We also will go on the train excursion. There will be lots to do here over the next three days and it’s nice to know we don’t have to drive anywhere until next Tuesday.