Crappy picture of cute main street in Skagway, but it's the only one I got.
Whoa! This is a display of a snow play on the front of a train!
Poor Orion was sooo overtired by this point. We got stuck waiting to go into town because the train coming back was stopped on the tracks, so we sat on a handcart so Orion could have some mama time.
Interesting building on the main street.
We didn't explore the town too much, because we were on a mission to find Ron sweat pants. We managed to find some a bit farther into town and even bought a few other Tshirts and souvenirs. But that we had to hoof it fast back to make the train.Here is one of the first views when the train went around a bend and we could see alot of it.
There is a whole story behind this picture. It is hard to make out, but the letters on the wall say "ON TO ALASKA WITH BUCHANAN". He was a wealthy dude who helped fund trips to Alaska for low income boys. They were so thankful that they painted this sign for him.
Reminds me of several comments I made about Canada, but wow, words reeeally can't do justice. This waterfall literally takes up a whole mountain! There was even more of it up above this section. Really made me wish I had a better zoom! Then again, I was shooting from a moving train, and there was only a small section where the trees broke. So I am probably lucky I got this one!
Ron, sleeping on our $100 train ride. OK, in all fairness, we took window seats on both sides, and he had the "boring side" on the way up. But still!
could it be... a glacier! I suck though because I don't remember the name of this one either.
Tunnel! If you look closely, you can see people standing on the platforms. We were not allowed to go between cars, but each one had a platform on either end of the car. That was the neatest part about the trip. I even went out, thought I was a bit hesitant on those sheer drop offs due to my fear of heights!
This area is called Inspiration Point. Believe it or not, you can see the ship down there in the water.
Orion enjoying the platform.
The old cantilever bridge! The train used to travel across it, but it takes a different route now through another trunnel.
Whoa - that is all.
The narrative about the history was the most interesting part of the trip. This is the actual trail that people used to head into the Yukon. They were required to bring 2000 pounds per person, so they usually had mules. Yet this tiny trail was heavily traversed in both directions. Reminds me of when you are driving on a one lane road and meet another car, then have to decide who is going to back up!
I love this shot because it captures this lone dwarf tree (and again, what luck to get it while moving!) I kept looking at these trees, and the whole landscape, and thinking they looked kindof odd. I was wondering if we were higher up than I realized. Then the tour guide explained this was all previously under a glacier, and that when they recede, they strip most of the soil away. She said that many of these trees were over 100 years old! What a trip.
Another neat glacial landscape shot.
This is the area where the train made a big loop so it could head back down the mountain. Orion was falling asleep at this point, so Ron took the camera. I don't want to hear any comments about how the second half of the pictures are better!
Except for a kept telling him the whole way down what to take based on what I had missed LOL. Like this - there was this whole neat section where you could see two kinds of water. The opaque blue glacier water is in the background, and the "regular" water is in the foreground.
Border area. Not a very exciting picture, but some interesting factoids go with it. Not in the picture is the little tiny shack where the officials lived. These were the dudes who verified you had enough stuff to go up into the Yukon. The guide mentioned that there would sometimes be families with newborns heading up! And still a mom, dad and new baby was required to have 6,000 pounds of stuff. You were turned away if you didn't have enough! Bad prospector - no gold for you.
This is what the end of the cantilever bridge looked like. Neat shot I thought.
This is a view similar to Inspiration Point, but a bit farther down. You can actually make out the outline of the ship in this one. Interesting... (hahaha, that was for you Ron and Dane.)
Skirting the mountain...
Hard to see, but there is a group of people just to the right of the train in the middle of the frame. These were hikers waiting to be picked up by the train behind us. Man! All the best excursions had age limits. I would so love to go back to Alaska with Orion when he is a bit older and do some more adventurous stuff!
Phew! That is a trestle we did cross over!
OK, so Ron really kicked my butt on this shot. So glad he got a much better close up!
And this was on the wrong side for me going up. This is the old pioneer cemetery. So cool! I wish it had been within walking distance of the main town. Ron had a hard time getting a good shot because of the dappled light, but this was the best of the bunch.
And just to include one nighttime shot... this was after a show featuring Chinese acrobats. (They were great when they actually performed haha. The show was 75% singing and dancing and maybe 25% awesome performances of balancing, contortion, etc.) Here the stage is full with crew members. If you know who you are looking for, one of Orion's counselors is on the lefthand side, near the back, in a grayish greenish suite. He is bald, hence is ship name of Egghead.
And then we partied 'til dawn! Just kidding. But it was the first night we signed Orion up for an extra hour because we knew he would be up until at least midnight anyway. It was perfect because his best buddy Olivia was there too. Not Jessica and Dane's Olivia - it just so turned out that there was another Olivia on board just his age, and they bonded like Superglue and a construction hat haha. He even went to be OK, but oy, we are in for a late morning tomorrow!
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