Day 48 Alaska Skagway
Trip Start
May 07, 2008
1
58
205
Trip End
Nov 22, 2008
Skagway,
Alaska,
United States
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
We left the Yukon and drove on the Canada 1 or the Alcan highway as it is called.
The road is great with no real challenges. In fact maintaining 100kmh was not a problem.
The number of Rv's heading along this route both ways is quite surprising, but again no real problem the traffic simply keeps flowing.
We were fortunate enough to have a moose cross the road in front of us, it appeared on the side of the road, hesitated and looked behind itself, then chose to go across. We had to stop the Castle to ensure we didn't hit it, and looking to the side it had entered the road from, we spotted another one, the second one looked up and then ran alongside the woods beside the road.
The photographer was a little slow and failed to take a photo, (gee how slack's that? Sack ME!)
The next one spotted was just alongside the road and a small deer was also spotted grazing beside the road at one point
Broadway Skagway
. We are definitely having a great time sharing our trip with the local wildlife. (I must mention here the other day on the road through from Stewart(I think) there was another animal crossed in front of us, I "Thought" it looked like a bandicoot, but after walking around Skagway today and seeing a Stuffed (as in taxidermist) Wolverine, I now realize this is what we saw.Back to today's part of the journey, we turned off the 1 and headed to Skagway, the map indicated a gravel road, this is incorrect, and we didn't really lose any time on the change of highway and no gravel.
The road is, as written very spectacular with some wonderful opportunities for photo shots. Mind you the wind was cold and any stops also involved a battle with VERY LARGE mossies.
The ice/snow was alongside at a few spots, Earnie was driving and unable to stop so we could take photos, maybe tomorrow will change that we definatley have to have a photo of Karon in the snow, Don't we Danial?
We passed out of Canada and had to re-enter the USA via a customs checkpoint, we were re-issued with new stamps in our passports, that now allows us to stay in the USA for 6 months,until December 23rd.
We are happy to have that done because we were restricted before if you recall upon our first entry to the 6th of November
Skagway's firengine for Fireman Earnie to observe
. Now we are able to stay until our booked flights back on the 22nd November.We drove on down into downtown Skagway, This is a wonderful old time gold mine town, with original buildings and boardwalks for footpaths.
When we arrived there were 3 cruise ships in port, now at 8:30pm there were 4, one is leaving as I type this. We spoke to a shop owner tonight, and she said they get around 8000 people a day off the cruise ships for 4 days a week.
It certainly is a big business, and the crowds all seem to enjoy the shops as we did, we managed to buy a few things (like gloves and beanies and warm socks) Be warned Marian pack warm clothes!!
We picked up some groceries and then wandered back to our castle, after a short discussion it was decided to eat out tonight, so we put on warm gear and walked back to the main street and found a bar and grill and had a feed, then across the street to an ice creamery. Gee life is grand.
We are planning to revisit this place after Anchorage, to allow Marian a chance to absorb this atmosphere as well, we will most likely book a fast cruise to Juneau, that takes in a full day to Juneau and back as well as some fjords, sightseeing, wildlife and a tour of Juneau when we arrive.
We will have to book in advance for this as well as book the RV park, We were lucky today to obtain the last spot in the park we are in tonight, it is right by the harbour and only a short walk into the town, so I guess we will re- book if possible for our return.
So from Alaska we bid you goodnight, even though there is 21 hours of daylight we still require sleep. Obviously we have no net coverage tonight and you will see this at the next stop.
