Alaska Cruise Day 4

Day 4 we were in Skagway (or Skaguay as I also saw it spelled). Skagway was about the size of my hand. It's very small but it was the first place we went that didn't rain the whole time! The first place since Vancouver, that is. It only rained part of the time in Skagway. We took a train to the White Pass and Yukon Route that left right from where the ship was docked. You can see how close it was in that top left photo. The train had one car with a wheelchair lift so all the people in wheelchairs were on one car. Drew called it the cripple car. Most of the other passengers had thick New York accents. We heard many different accents on the cruise: Southern, Midwestern/Central Canadian, Australian, British, the captain of the boat was Irish and the servers in the dining rooms were from all over but mostly Eastern Europe and Asia. Anyway, the White Pass train took 1.5 hrs each way all the way to the top of the trail the gold miners took in 1898. It was a refurbished vintage train for the total effect. The route was often called the White Pass because it was so covered in snow. I think the guide said we ascended over 1200 ft (and about 20 miles straight up) in an hour going from Skagway to the top. The very top is actually on British Columbian soil. We saw the miner's graveyard where so many who died along the way were buried. We crossed a creek known as Dead Horse Creek because so many horses died in it. Apparently, Yosemite is not the only place with a Bridal Veil Falls. We saw a waterfall with the same name along the way. Perhaps because John Muir spent a lot of time exploring Alaska. So the bulk of our day was spent on the train. It was a little boring on the way back because the guide went over all the same info. I could not sit next to Drew so I kind of bounced from one side of the car to the other to stand and talk to him, take pictures, and to sit. When I was sitting I sat next to an older lady from FL who was freezing. Yes, Alaska is pretty cold. So I saw both sides on the way up whereas everyone else really got a new view when we did the Summit Shuffle (shifting seats to the other side of the car). It was pretty cool to be near the top and see our ship docked off in the distance between 2 mountains. Oh and we saw a grizzly bear right next to the tracks! He was too fast for me to get a photo though.