inside passage detour 8-12 july

detouring from the alcan from whitehourse, yukon to skagway, ak was a great decision.  the drive took us east ~15 miles to the intersection of the klondike highway (they call highways up in these parts by names, not by number) then south ~100 miles to skagway.

what a glorious ride…wow…there is an option to take the yukon/white pass tourist train ½ way from whitehorse to skagway and return by bus (or vice versa), but we chose to drive and camp in skagway.

we passed gorgeous lakes--spirit, emerald, rat, bear, kookatsoon, tutshi and tagish and others, many of those being part of the lake system from riverboats to steam ships taking hopeful miners to the yukon and klondike during the gold rush of 1898. 

–a bit of history here…gold was discovered in 1896 in the klondike river and 100,000s of hopeful prospectors headed north.  most traveled either through skagway or nearby dyea and had to cross either white pass (elevation 4,500ft)—higher but supposedly less steep, or the chilkoot trail (elevation 3,500ft--the famous photos of men carrying their goods up the steep but shorter route).  canadian mounties told all hopeful miners that if they wanted to travel through their territory they had to take a years worth of provisions with them…if you have not seen the photos, do an internet search of the chilkoot trail and check them out…it was an incredible journey…and of those 100,000s of hopefuls who tried to make the trek only a few hundred made it to the klondike and found gold.  that famous gold rush only lasted 2 years.

we passed the desert (yes, i said desert!!) of the mountains near carcross, yt.  carcross is named by the tlingits (native people who have lived in this area for 1000s of years and still do)—pronounced ‘clink-its’.  the name carcross is a shortened version of caribou crossing as the tlingits used to hunt the many caribou who crossed here.  

heading south towards skagway

a desert out in the middle of the mountains...

the small village of carcross

one of the many lakes along the klondike highway

a moonscape view from the top of white pass

we made our way down the 14-mile steep pass into the touristy town of skagway.

skagway is at the north end of southeast alaska on the inside passage.  this sleepy little town of 900 doubles in size in the summer to accommodate for the 300+ cruise ship visits during the summer months.  the town is full of gold/jewelry stores, souvenir shops and eateries.  much of the downtown is now part of the klondike gold rush national historical park, preserved and run by the park service.  there are numerous free films and walking tours that we took part of.

yipee, we made it!!!

steep, steep

tlingit guide for a prospector memorial

the yukon/white pass railroad, 12.9 ton snowplow to plow the pass, retired after 65 years and traveled 181,000 miles in 2,580 trips

downtown skagway

a replica of one of the many bars in skagway with cigar bar, stuffed animals and all

cruise shippers invading skagway

look at the cruise ship at the end of broadway (main street)!

out our door while camping--port and marina of skagway

two cruise ships in port

touring skagway

we decided to take a ferry to haines instead of backtracking and what a lovely ferry ride after 2+ days in skagway.

waiting for the ferry

our ferry

one of the many cruise ships leaving skagway

looking back at skagway

just beautiful

haines is only an hour away from skagway by ferry, but oh so different.  it does not get the amount of cruise ship business and the town is much more of a real working town, instead of a touristy hotspot.  this little town with an annual population of 1,800 gets my vote as one of thee most charming we’ve visited in a long time.

haines has been long inhabited by tlingits, has one of the state’s 1^st army bases, fort william seward, which is now a national historic site.  the chilkat and chilkoot rivers support the town’s fishing industry.  the american bald eagle preserve is located here as the worlds largest eagle gathering happens every fall where 3-4,000 eagles can be found feeding on the salmon running, and the ever beautiful davidson glacier is a gorgeous backdrop to the town.

haines

haines marina

davidson glacier

chilkat river

the drive out of alaska and up the haines highway back to the alcan was just as lovely as the klondike was descending into alaska…

meandering along

it's downhill now...about 3,500ft

we wanted to show you 3 black bears we saw all within about an hour of each other...look how different in color and size

a gorgeous black bear (brown color) eating dandelions

the same bear

now check out this black bear--really black!  AND HUGE!

and now look at this black bear who is blonde! 

the same bear again munching on dandelions

amazing how different black bears can be, eh?

we rejoined the alcan highway at haines junction (not a very interesting town), about 153 miles west of whitehorse.  after topping up with 1.40/liter (or 5.29/canadian$/gal which is roughly the same in us$) of diesel, we continued again towards alaska, this time to the mainland via kluane lake (where we camped in a lovely lakeside campground) which is the largest lake in the yukon. 

kluane lake

camping along kluane lake--look how dirty our van is

our view

kluane lake

more views along the alcan

mama and baby moose running from the water

mama keeping her babies close

in texas we have tires on our roofs...

one of the campgrounds along the route is home to a collection of vintage equipment used in the construction of the alcan which we found interesting...

the roads have been, overall, very good with very light traffic…we have pulled over a number of times while driving to take photos and/or observe wildlife and have stayed for 15-20 minutes and have not seen another vehicle in either direction.  we normally drive 55-60 mph and are getting about 23 mpg with our rig.  we are very happy about that.  gas, diesel, food and lodging (camping or other) have been readily available the entire way.  there are long stretches of vast wilderness, but often enough there are roadhouses or towns to equip most travelers (even cyclists--of which we have seen a number of them, though not many).

we are crossing into the mainland of alaska on the 13th of july and are excited we have made it this far.  we have met some nice travelers (we feel that we are some of the youngest as this is a retiree's dream) along the route, some heading in our direction, some already heading south.  the ones returning south (and not all of the tourists we've met are american--we've met canadians, europeans, australians and kiwi's as well) are so ready, as this has been a cold, windy, rainy and grey start to summer 2012.  we just read yesterday that anchorage has experienced their coldest june on record (oh great!)...let's hope july is better...we're heading there soon.

thanks for following and fyi, i have made it easier to comment if you would like.  stay tuned for 'the last frontier'...coming soon!