Hello everyone! You see behind us almost the entire town of Skagway; it is 4 streets wide and about 15 streets long. And to my right you see a cruise ship docked. That is probably right where Teresa and Cecelia were yesterday on theier ship! And, we are camped right about where that tree is between me and the cruise ship; just walking distance from that ship. And yup...that's a rain suit you see on us for our fashions of the day.
Since I can't show you a blue sky, I can show you some beautiful waterfalls. This one is called the Lower Ried Falls, and it was right behind the Klondike goldrush cemetery that we visited. Quite beautiful. And we even saw some "fools gold" (Pyrite) int he water.
Walking back to the tour bus by the cemetery, I saw this directional sign....but it just struck me funny....
And as we drove along the road that follows the White Pass that the goldrush folks had to climb, we came on this beautiful falls right beside the road. It's called Bridal Veil falls....and we went past another falls on the way to Valdez called Bridal Veil Falls....two different falls, in two different places. People just may have thought of brides veils when they see water falls????We were in the clouds or fog....rain, or whatever you call it, so it looked very misty. The water came right from a glacier and was good to drink. Very nice and cold, even bit lemon-y to my taste.
This was back over in Haines. Chris was fishing for sockeye salmon in Chilkoot Lake. This picture just doesn't do it justice...it was so beautiful, if not wet and over-cast.
Bingo! success! These sockeyes run 3-5 pounds and this was about 5 pound...July 25: Skagway
I forgot to tell you that Chris caught another Sockeye Salmon, which everyone here thinks is the best eating salmon of all the different types. And, me, who doesn’t really prefer fish, can attest to how good it is!
So Chris caught it yesterday in at the Chilkoot Lake State Campground near Haines, and we ate it tonight in Skagway. Yummmy.
Yesterday evening at 9 p.m. we lined our truck & camper in the “staging area” ready to drive onto the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry. Everything is transported on these ferries, like semi-truck trailers, huge motor homes and little bitty cars. It would have taken many hours and I think 350 miles to drive from Haines to Skagway. Once everybody was loaded, it took us an hour to travel down the Lynn Canal to Skagway. I asked today why it is called a “canal” and the tour driver told us that because they couldn’t spell “fjord”, which is what it really is. We wondered why the ferry runs to Skagway so late at night, and then Chris realized that it had to do with the tides…the tide was in Haines when we left. Big boat needs big water….got it?
So, late last night we docked in Skagway; we couldn’t really see the mountains on the sides of this “scenic byway” of Alaska because the clouds and rain had it so dark. We pulled off of the ferry, went round the corner and parked in our campground. Didn’t take but a few minutes to get us tucked in from our long day.
Today, in Skagway, we took a “Klondike tour”. Very interesting. The young tour guide moved here 13 years ago, and like so many other people tell, just never left. Alaska is a captivating place. We heard so much information about the gold rush, the historical city of Skagway, the biggest shoot-out since the “OK Corral”, the building of the White Pass & Yukon Railroad, and many fascinating facts about the goldrush that brought Skagway to life in the late 1890’s. This blog isn’t big enough for me to tell you all that we heard…but one fact sticks in my mind. The White Pass & Yukon narrow guage Railroad was built during the gold rush and was done with such speed through some terribly rouged terrain, that it is listed as one of the architectural wonders of the world, right next to some more familiar landmarks like the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty.
Of course, it is still raining…but our tour guide today gave a different twist to it. He called this “coastal weather”; well, OK….that’s what it is for now for me.
Tomorrow we are up early to get on the fast ferry to Juneau. We’ll be gone all day. Tommy will be staying home and a lady will be coming and taking her for a walk in the middle of the day. She’ll just sleep all day anyway.
So, as the rains continue outside, the horn from the cruise ship docked just down the way honks as it glides out of the dock, Tommy is in her “full curl” sleeping for the evening, I will just say,
…until we “connect” again…
I forgot to tell you that Chris caught another Sockeye Salmon, which everyone here thinks is the best eating salmon of all the different types. And, me, who doesn’t really prefer fish, can attest to how good it is!
So Chris caught it yesterday in at the Chilkoot Lake State Campground near Haines, and we ate it tonight in Skagway. Yummmy.
Yesterday evening at 9 p.m. we lined our truck & camper in the “staging area” ready to drive onto the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry. Everything is transported on these ferries, like semi-truck trailers, huge motor homes and little bitty cars. It would have taken many hours and I think 350 miles to drive from Haines to Skagway. Once everybody was loaded, it took us an hour to travel down the Lynn Canal to Skagway. I asked today why it is called a “canal” and the tour driver told us that because they couldn’t spell “fjord”, which is what it really is. We wondered why the ferry runs to Skagway so late at night, and then Chris realized that it had to do with the tides…the tide was in Haines when we left. Big boat needs big water….got it?
So, late last night we docked in Skagway; we couldn’t really see the mountains on the sides of this “scenic byway” of Alaska because the clouds and rain had it so dark. We pulled off of the ferry, went round the corner and parked in our campground. Didn’t take but a few minutes to get us tucked in from our long day.
Today, in Skagway, we took a “Klondike tour”. Very interesting. The young tour guide moved here 13 years ago, and like so many other people tell, just never left. Alaska is a captivating place. We heard so much information about the gold rush, the historical city of Skagway, the biggest shoot-out since the “OK Corral”, the building of the White Pass & Yukon Railroad, and many fascinating facts about the goldrush that brought Skagway to life in the late 1890’s. This blog isn’t big enough for me to tell you all that we heard…but one fact sticks in my mind. The White Pass & Yukon narrow guage Railroad was built during the gold rush and was done with such speed through some terribly rouged terrain, that it is listed as one of the architectural wonders of the world, right next to some more familiar landmarks like the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty.
Of course, it is still raining…but our tour guide today gave a different twist to it. He called this “coastal weather”; well, OK….that’s what it is for now for me.
Tomorrow we are up early to get on the fast ferry to Juneau. We’ll be gone all day. Tommy will be staying home and a lady will be coming and taking her for a walk in the middle of the day. She’ll just sleep all day anyway.
So, as the rains continue outside, the horn from the cruise ship docked just down the way honks as it glides out of the dock, Tommy is in her “full curl” sleeping for the evening, I will just say,
…until we “connect” again…
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