August 8

This morning we drove south on highway #2 to Carcross and set up camp in the Carcross Territorial Campground. We then set out for a trip to Skagway which turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip to date in terms of scenery and a very nice little costal town. The scenery can only be described in pictures but it literally took my breath away and I wanted to linger at each of many photo stops to just absorb enough to make it last. The stops included Emerald Lake and the Carcross Desert (yes, a miniature genuine desert created by persistent winds off Lake Bennett) coming into Carcross. Carcross is at the north end of Lake Bennett. The famous Chilkoot Trail, up and over the Chilkoot Pass of the 1898 Klondike gold rush, ends at the south end of Lake Bennett. That is the trail seen in pictures of miners loaded with equipment following one another almost in lock step up a very steep incline in the snow. At that time up to seven thousand boats were plying Lake Bennett but all we saw was a beautiful long sandy beach almost devoid of life. Leaving Carcross (named for the many Caribou that cross the narrow neck between Lake Bennett and Nares Lake on their annual migration) the highway follows the western shore of Nares Lake and then the Windy Arm of Tagish Lake followed by Tutshi Lake, the Tutshi River and then a long stretch of small lakes in a most unique and beautiful area called Tormented Valley. This valley is described in the Milepost as, “a rocky desolate “moonscape” of stunted trees and small lakes.” At the end of the Windy Arm we crossed from the Yukon Territory into British Columbia. Next was beautiful Bernard Lake and Summit Lake at the White Pass which parallels the Chilkoot Pass to the west and which also figured prominently into the Klondike gold rush era because that is where the railroad route was built and they still operate a narrow gauge sight-seeing train daily. This is utilized greatly by the cruise lines which come into Skagway for a trip to Carcross and then by motor coach to Whitehorse. Along the way there was no shortage of beautiful mountains and waterfalls. At White Pass is the international border between the U.S. and Canada. From there the road descends an 11% grade from 3292 feet to sea level for over eleven miles down the Skagway River gorge into the town of Skagway. In town we visited many sights but possibly the most interesting was the chance to again see hundreds of Pink and Chinook salmon in the small stream through Centennial Park that were spawning. We later had a dinner of king crab legs, baked potato and salad that was delicious. We then visited the old Gold Rush Cemetery where lay many of Skagway’s first citizens including “bad guy” Soapy Smith and “good guy” Frank Reid who killed each other in a gunfight in July of 1898. Next was a visit up the Dyea Road to the Chilkoot Trail head, the Slide Cemetery where some seventy to eighty people were killed in an avalanche on Palm Sunday (April 3) of 1898 along the Chilkoot Trail and the now non-existent town site of Dyea where at the height of the gold rush some ten thousand people resided. We finished the day in darkness which for this far north was, to say the least, very late with still an hour and one half ride back to camp. On the way the moon was peeking through high clouds and reflecting across the many lakes of the trip down for the frosting on the cake so to speak. To say the least it was a long but most memorable day. If and when we get internet access again it will be impossible to relay all the sights in pictures on the blog. You will have to wait for the slide show when we get back home. The st