Day 6

Alaskan Mountain

Train On the White Pass Railroad

Entering the White Pass Tunnel

Alaskan Glacier

Same Glaier

More Cabin Boy Art

Day 6, Skagway. Before I get into Skagway I should mention the weather. The weather broke in Juneau yesterday and all day yesterday and all day today we have had clear skies and warm sunshine. The temperatures have been in the mid 70's both days. As usual we dressed for Alaska and wound up with South Carolina weather. Oh well, at least we weren't cold. Today we took the train to the top of White Pass. The White Pass railroad is a narrow gauge railroad constructed around 1900 to haul gold miners to the top of White Pass which is the dividing line between The Yukon Territory of Canada and Alaska. All my life I have heard of the Alaskan Gold Rush. There was no Alaskan Gold Rush. It was a Canadian gold rush in the Yukon Territory and the closest way to get to the Yukon Territory was from the coast of Alaska. Very little gold was ever found in Alaska itself but all the Yukon miners had to pass through Alaska to get there. Hence the White Pass railroad which ran from Skagway to the Yukon border. The scenery is starting to get magnificent. The mountains are higher and have much more snow. Some even have glaciers at the tops. Other than that I don't see a whole lot in Alaska to cause me to want to live here. All three cities we have visited so far ar 100 yards wide along the coast and a couple of hundred yards long, also along the coast. The interior road system is non existant and travel between cities is by seaplane or boat. We took some interesting pictures today and I will post some on the blog. Tomorrow the good stuff starts with a stop in glacier bay where we can see the glaciers calving and dropping into the ocean. Should be a pretty good show.