Skagway is an interesting port because there is room for several ships.  I think there were four or five when we were there, but two of the ships dock on a spot that had a rockfall and they won’t allow passengers to get off and walk on that dock. We had to tender into the port.  This was a bit of a nightmare because everyone wants to get off at once and the boats only fit about 100 people.  

We had a tour through an outside company and were supposed to meet at a certain time.  Even though we had priority boarding for the tender, we still didn’t get on the first one.  Luckily there were other people on our tour in the same boat with us (literally).  We boarded a small bus which took us to the train station.  The driver was excellent, she told us all about Skagway and was very no nonsense. 

Our bus was given a train car to board, which was the last one.  It was awesome to have the last car because we were able to go outside see some great views.  

There was a woman who narrated the train ride for us.  The train tracks were either part of the trail that the gold prospectors had to take or right next to the trail. 

One of my favorite things she said to us was when she pointed out this trestle bridge in the distance.  It looked a little shaky. She said, I know it looks precarious, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it! 

Then we went by another bridge that was broken, but was very cool to take pictures of it. 

We passed a few waterfalls, but I was not quick enough to get a picture.  The creepiest place we passed was Dead Horse Pass.  She told us that by the time they got to this area, many of the horses were starving and could not physically carry the weight on their backs.  The prospectors either left them there to die, shot them, or pushed them off the cliff.  It made me very sad.  

The horses had their revenge though.  Their bodies, which sometimes ended up in the river, brought disease down to Skagway since it was their drinking water.  

When we were close to the end of our trip, we had the most interesting views. The whole area looked unreal. 

As we rode on the train, I got up a few times to take pictures outside the car.  

When we were near the end, it was quite chilly to stand outside.  Plus, you couldn’t hear the commentary about the trip.  

I got some really great pictures from just putting my phone up against the window.  

We had to have our passports with us because the last stop is at the Canadian border.  We had to wait in our seats for the border patrol agents to come look at our passports before we exited the train. 

We then boarded the same bus (she drove up to the border with another load of passengers that were going to take the train back down to Skagway). We went through border patrol quickly since our passports were already checked and started driving through the Yukon.  We stopped several times to take some scenic pictures. 

At one stop I was going to use the bathroom, but it had too many flies for me to handle.  (The driver did warn us that it was primitive and she wouldn’t use it.)

Our first extended stop was for lunch.  It was called Wild Adventure Yukon and it seemed like almost every tour stopped there, even ones from the cruise ships.  They had a BBQ chicken lunch that came with coleslaw, half a baked potato, doughnuts, and a few drink options.  You could also buy alcohol or soft drinks. It was pretty good. 

This place also had sled dogs that you could hire for a ride, animals you could see, two museums, a coffee/ice cream shop, and a gift shop.  After eating lunch we visited the animals.  My husband LOVES animals.  He was talking to the alpacas and standing a bit too close.  I was about to warn him, when the alpaca spit in his face.  This picture is right before he did it.  Needless to say, my husband will be staying clear of them in the future. 

One of the museums was filled with taxidermied animals.  Some of them were ancient, like a mammoth and some were common animals from the area.  I am usually not interested in that kind of thing, but it was pretty impressive. The other museum was about Canadian Mounties.  The gift store was nice because you could get some Canadian products. 

Our next stop was a small town called Carcross.  The driver told us about the haunted hotel and suggested a bakery and coffee shop.  We went straight to the coffee shop because she said there is usually a wait.  I was able to get a maple iced latte, which is my favorite.  We also sampled some birch syrup at a small shop.  It was not to my taste, but it was interesting to try it. 

We walked to the bakery and the cinnamon rolls looked amazing. They also had a variety of items with what looked like blueberries.  They were actually a local berry called haskap berries. She told us they were more tart than blueberries. We opted to try a muffin. The cinnamon roll was the best one that I have ever had.  The berries were quite tart in the muffin. 

The bus then took us back down into Skagway.  We could see the train quite often from the highway and the views were lovely. It took about an hour, I think.  We stopped once for a picture. 

Since all the tours seemed to end at the same time, we opted to look in some stores before we headed back to the boat.  I’m not sure if that was a good idea or not, but when we got to the spot to board the tender, the line was so long.  It took 45 minutes to get back to the boat.  However, the line never got shorter so maybe it didn’t matter.