Skagway

Skagway is a small city of about 968 people in the panhandle of Alaska.  The name Skagway comes from a Tlingit name "Skagua" or "Shgagwèi" which means "a windy place with white caps on the water."  In 1896, gold was found in the Klondike region of Canada's Yukon Territory.  This caused many prospectors to settle in Skagway.  The path used by prospectors to travel to Canada is called the White Pass, and it is still used today.  White Pass is one of the many attractions Skagway offers tourists.  Other attractions include Skagway Museum & Archives, Gold Rush Cemetery, Lower Reid Falls behind the Cemetery, Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, the Look Out on Dyea Road, Lower Dewey Lake, AB Mountain, Yakutania Point, Molly Walsh or Pullen Creek Park.  For more history on Skagway please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skagway,_Alaska.  For more more information of visiting Skagway check out http://www.blogger.com/goog_1650671240

On the forth day of our trip, the cruise ship stopped in Skagway, Alaska.  We woke up early so we could meet our tour guide, and finish the rest of our two week stay traveling on land.  Our wonderful tour guide was named Adam.  When we got off the ship, the first thing I noticed was how beautiful the city was.  Everywhere I looked I saw white snow capped mountains; it was truly breath taking.  Our tour group soon boarded a bus, and traveled to the Gold Rush Cemetery.  We walked around the cemetery looking at the gravestones, and we even got to see the world's biggest gold nugget (which is actually a rock painted gold).  After we saw the cemetery, we hiked up the mountain to see Lower Reid Falls.  This was the first natural water fall I have seen.  We walked right along the water listening to its tranquil sound; I could have sat for hours listening to the water rush down the mountain.  My brother splashed me with water, so I had to get even.  Soon it was time to go, and we walked back down to the bus and rode to town.

When we got back into town, my family and I walked around.  We saw the shops, different restaurants, and hotels.   When we found the rail road tracks, my dad told us that he and his friends put pennies on the tracks; they would wait for trains to pass over them and then the penny would be flat.  He was amazed that my brother and I had never done that.  My dad gave us pennies and we waited for a train.  Soon a train came and flattened our pennies; I still have mine.  The tracks lead us to a little stream where we met two local men who were fishing for salmon.  We conversed about the town, fishing, and salmon.  We learned we could watch the salmon swim up stream if we walked to a bridge in the woods.  When we got to the bridge, we saw salmon fighting their way up stream.  The salmon were jumping out of the water on every stroke.  By the bridge there were traps set out by biologists; they caught salmon so they could breed them.  Soon it was dinner time, so we ate a local restaurant called the Red Onion.  The Red Onion used to be brothel back in the gold rush days, and upstairs was converted into a museum about the brothel.  We started talking to our waitress and found out that she was from Austin, Texas.  I thought it was strange to find a fellow Austinite working in a small town in the middle of nowhere Alaska.  She said when she got back home in a few months, we should visit her at the bar she worked.  After a delicious dinner, we attended a musical show about the history of Skagway.  After the show, we got to talk to some of the cast members and when we mentioned that we were from Texas they said, "You know we could cut our state in half and it would still be bigger."  We laughed.  Finally, we went back to our hotel rooms and went to sleep.      

The more time I spent in Skagway, the more I fell in love with it.  Skagway is my favorite city in Alaska even though it is very small.  What I love most about Skagway is the view.  There are mountains everywhere you look.  I also loved the slow place of the town, no one was ever in a rush, and there was no traffic.  I would love to go back and visit Skagway again.    

Note: If you plan on going on a land adventure in Alaska and the Yukon, do not travel with Holland America.  The hotels were nice, we had a wonderful tour guide, and I had a great experience.  However, most of the people who travel with Holland America are over 60.  The tour guide, my brother and I were the youngest.