We knew Skagway was going to be great. Miriam saw a beautiful blue kingfisher on the cliffs of Skagway right as the ship pulled in.
Arielle, Gabriella, Rafi, Sarah, Aunt Anna Lynn, Jeffrey and Miriam went on a hike to Lower Dewey Lake. We walked by the railroad tracks, up the hill a little, and turned for the hike.
The beginning was a dirt road, but soon it was a trail. Fortunately, it was well marked, since it twisted and turned and there were all sorts of possible routes to who know's where. Our path led straight up a rather steep grade. The forest was largely coniferous, the path was rocky, and the tree-covered cliff rather steep. It was also rather wet and slippery. Miriam held Arielle's hand. We passed water pipes which supplied the town, a lovely waterfall and a bridge with views of Skagway harbor and the mountains.
There was one point where the rocks were so sharp and the cliff so high that Miriam and Jeff almost gave up. But we all made it to the lake at the top. We could see clear reflections in the water, even though it had started to rain.
Coming down we paid close attention to a totem carved in the rock, wondering if it served as a "cross" on the highway--a marker of a death on the rock. Later we found out that a local artist had carved it.
Although it was pouring rain and cloudy and a "low-visibility" day, Aunt Sheryl, Uncle Jeff, Josh, Uncle Mike, Aunt Linda, Uncle Richard, Mom (Grandma) and the six of us went way up the mountain on a very worthwhile railroad trip. We saw this amazing river full of brown and white water, and lots of water falls pouring off the mountains. The railroad pass was cut by people coming to Skagway during the Yukon gold rush in a single year, and the scope of the engineering, the bridge building, the blasting away of inconvenient mountain rock to cut two different tunnels, all show how much people really wanted to get to the gold. Too bad that most of the gold-bearing claims had already been staked before they got there.
In addition to amazing views of the gorges and mountain passes, we also saw a bear.
After the train, we walked around Skagway. Someone took a nice digital photo of five of us (which I made into the flash entrypoint to this site). Most of the shops were really tourist-traps, but some had some interesting local art, including a furrier (the kids loved rubbing the real fur). One really interesting building claimed to be the most photographed building; it was faced entirely with pieces of driftwood. We decided to help maintain its record and we took a picture there, too.