YOLO Out of Alaska heading home, Sept 2022

Our last day in Skagway promised to be a partly sunny day, so we finally took the White Pass & Yukon Route train ride to the top of White Pass and back on the old railroad, built back at the turn of the century, just after the gold rush.  We're crossing a trestle bridge before entering a tunnel.  The railroad was built along the Trail of '98 that the stampeders followed over these mountains in 1897-98.  Many said it was impossible to build, but here it is, over 100 years later and we're still riding it!

Tunnels carved out of solid rock.

We could see across the valley to the US Customs building on the Klondike Hwy.  It was in total fog when we arrived a few days earlier.

The old trestle bridge was finally replaced.

We were lucky enough to see the Sawtooth Mountains on our ride up the pass.  Most times they are cloaked in clouds and rain.

The train movement gives this view a double exposure.  Kind of cool.

Speaking of cool, here's Jason on the platform outside the train car.

The National Park rents out old train cars like this one along the pass as cabins for campers.

A distant view of the Sawtooth Mountains on a clear day.

Heading back down across the bridges.

Jason in the White Pass & Yukon Route train.

The train just blocks the road at times in Skagway.  The only thing beyond the train is the cruise ship terminal.

The train depot in downtown Skagway.

The welcome sign for Skagway.

Recent landslides have closed one of the cruise ship docks permanently.  They tried to line the walkway with  hollowed out cargo trailers, but the falling rocks punched a hole in the side of one of the metal containers so they closed it for good.

Once back in town, we were lucky enough to get a tour of the Soapy Smith Parlour museum.  He was a notorious con man during the gold rush and got shot to death for his misdeeds here, but his parlour is full of oddities and whimsical things collected by him and others after him to represent the times--1897-1903.  Soapy Smith was into animatronics ahead of his time and this character at the bar would raise his glass and turn his head as you walked into the bar,

A Dall Sheep with blue lights for eyes.

Some of the gaming devices he used, along with a 'herring rake' hanging above the wheel.  It was used to scoop herrings out of the water into a canoe, now outlawed.

An eyeball made of wood and ??? hung on the wall of one room.  Nobody really knows what it was meant for.

The bar back in the parlour.  This large bent tree was an interesting background. 

A bone disease deformed this moose's antlers and skull.

We caught the Alaska Maritime Highway ferry, the MV Matanuska, from Skagway to Bellingham, Washington,  It was the last run of the year for the car ferry so we were glad to have gotten space on it.  We learned you need to make reservations for space on these ferries waaaaaayyyyy in advance as there is a limited amount of space for vehicles and people. 

We finally loaded onto the ferry to leave Skagway about midnight.  We were the first vehicle to load and they put us right at the back of the ship to be ready to be the first to offload at the end of the journey.

Jason in front of YOLO on the ferry, Matanuska.

The ferry stopped in Haines at 1 AM so we didn't get off.  We stopped in Juneau, but it was 12 miles into town, so we didn't go.  This was our foggy weather for the Juneau stop.

There are so many places in Alaska that you cannot drive to/from as there are no roads to them.  You either take a plane or a boat to get to them.  The capital city, Juneau, is one of those places.  Seems very strange to have a capital that you can't drive to!  Nome, another well-known city, is another isolated place.  The finish of the Iditarod sled dog race is at Nome, but you have to fly or boat there unless you have a dog sled and it's winter.

A sunset along our cruise down the Inside Passage.

Jason enjoying quiet time on the ferry

Another sunset from the ferry.  It was a 3 1/2 day journey from Skagway to Bellingham, Washington.

A view of a glacier from the ferry as we motored south.  This was the last one we saw.

Looking out the back of the Matanuska as they shut the watertight doors just in front of YOLO.  They opened the doors while in ports to allow circulation on the car deck.

A lasting memory of Skagway will be this photo of loaded gold rush stampeders trudging up the 'Golden Staircase' of ice steps over the Chilkoot Trail, gathering their one ton of goods at the top before the Mounties would let them into Canada to continue their journey.