Rose Brooks

Episode 427 – Skagway and the Splendiferous White Pass Railroad

12°C/54°F and rainy. Glad we brought “real” raincoats. Wish I’d brought waterproof footwear. Ted is really happy with his Vessi’s!!

Skagway is a working port, without the seaside strip of shops and restaurants. For those, you need to walk into town, which we weren’t inclined to do in the rain. (Spoiler alert: we did it after our excursion.)

In April, there was a landslide that impacted cruise ships docking here, and the evidence was right beside us. This was the second April in a row for landslides in the port, although last year’s was worse, effectively closing the port to cruise ships. (News story here: KTOONews). I was glad that our berth was not in the slip closest to the shore!

Mid morning, before we even headed up to the New York Deli & Pizza for bagels and coffee, there was a full crew drill. We’re familiar with these from other sailings, but I have to say there’s something really comforting about knowing that weekly safety exercises take place. We never want those drills to be put into emergency use, but it’s good to know they could be – and another reminder that every single crew member on the ship does much more than just the job that is visible to us.

Our tenders/lifeboats deployed during the safety exercise.

We saved our outdoor walk for after this afternoon’s excursion, which was a ride on the White Pass Summit Scenic Railway, but first… a quick slice of sausage pizza, Ted’s “comfort food”.

The excursion, a 3 hour round trip to White Pass Summit on the WP&YR (White Pass & Yukon Route Railway) was absolutely awesome, in the truest sense of the word. The scenery and engineering were both breathtaking, and the onboard narration was full of interesting facts. This, for me, was an A+ excursion.

White Pass is actually named for a Canadian, Sir Thomas White, the Canadian Minister of the Interior. The founder of Skagway, Captain William Moore, had been hired by a Canadian survey company commissioned to map the 141st meridian (the Canada/US border). Several times on this cruise we’ve asked ourselves why Alaska isn’t part of Canada. It would be so logical! Mostly, it was because at the time that Russia was ready to sell, in 1859, Canada was not its own country yet, and Britain was Russia’s biggest rival. If only they could have looked into the future…

We only went as far as mile 20.4, White Pass Summit, spending a scant few minutes back “home” in British Columbia before turning back around and re-entering Alaska. The round trip journey to Whitehorse would have taken 8 hours, which was longer than we had in port.

Having travelled the route by train on a narrow gauge track, hugging the mountains on one side and staring down cliffs to the Skagway River on the other, makes it even more impressive that stampeders (those headed for the Klondike) made it on foot and with sorely overworked pack animals.

At times, our train ride was through heavy mist, making good photographs almost impossible, but Ted stood on our train car platform almost the entire way to the summit, and got some great shots.

I sat inside, warm and dry, and loved every minute.

The train cars are original, outfitted in wood and leather, with a stove in each car for heat. In 1959, the year Alaska attained statehood, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip rode this train (in the car named Lake LeBerge) to Whitehorse during their tour of Canada and the United States.

These pictures will allow us to relive our spectacular return route from Skagway to the summit and back. There are a LOT of photos from the train ride! After the ride we walked into town, where there were lots more things to see.

The river along the whole route, sometimes rushing and sometimes almost a dry bed, is the Skagway River.

The first photo below is of Bridal Veil Falls, created by waters from glaciers on Mount Cleveland and Mount Clifton, plummeting 6000 feet to the river below. The second shows some of the yellow-toned caribou lichen, which was everywhere!

We were often able to see our own train as we travelled the curved route.
Black Cross Rock marks the spot where on August 3, 1898, two railway workers, Maurice Dunn and Al Jeneux, were killed in a blasting accident that buried them under a 500 ton granite boulder. The cross is erected on that very boulder, over their bodies.
Top: the bronze obelisk marking the border between Canada and the US – the continental divide. Bottom: a replica of the original Northwest Mounted Police station.”Stampeders” entering Canada to reach the Klondike were mandated by the NWMP to transport a full year’s supplies to their site before prospecting could begin, to prevent widespread famine within Canadian territory. That requirement meant would-be gold miners needed to make several trips through the pass before they could begin searching for gold.
Summit Lake. The train conductor told Ted that while the lake is about 2 miles long, and narrow enough that on a clear day you’d be able to see across it, it is almost 250 feet deep!
In the mist, 1901 Steel Bridge, which at time of its construction in 1901 was the tallest cantilevered bridge in the world! It was decommissioned in 1969, and replaced by a tunnel through the adjacent rock.
Travelling across one of the still existing bridges. Just imagine building it!
The US Customs House, a full 12 miles from the border, on “Buchanan Rock” . The sign on the rock face was painted by the Buchanan Boys Tour Group in the 1920’s
Almost back to Skagway, with our first view of the Harbour, and the Koningsdam docked there.

Once back in Skagway, we decided to explore the historic downtown, with its interesting buildings and wooden plank sidewalks. It reminded us a bit of visiting Tombstone Arizona – externally frozen in time, but internally retail heaven. We did pick up a couple of very small Alaska souvenirs for our grandkids.

If advertising is key, then Kirmse’s Curios has it down to an art … painted on the cliff face!
The entire facade of the visitors’ centre (bottom right) is made of pieces of weathered wooden slats and tree branches.
Tucked between the shops was this touching bronze sculpture of a tired looking prospector and his dog.
We’d never seen a rotary snowplow like this before. This one was on display in a small park not far from the WP&YR train station.
We cruised from Juneau to Skagway overnight on calm seas. this plaque commemorating a horrific loss at sea in that same stretch of water – the most fatal shipwreck on the West Coast – was a chilling reminder of how fickle the ocean can be.

After a really wonderful excursion day, we were ready for food and entertainment. Our dinner in the main dining room didn’t disappoint.

Top: crispy vegetable spring roll over vermicelli and sweet Thai chili sauce. Centre: wild mushroom strudel with rice and Thai red curry; traditional meat lasagna. Bottom: peach and cherry crumble with vanilla ice cream: baked Alaska over dark cherry sauce.

After dinner we headed to the World Stage for a vocal performance by Major Fourth, who entertained us with 4-part harmonies ranging from Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran songs to a bit of Broadway and classic rock. We missed having a live back-up band instead of a soundtrack, but the show was energetic and fun.

All in all, another excellent day.

Tomorrow…. glaciers!!

10 comments

  1. Thank you so much for sharing your cruise with us. We are going in July 2024 on the Kogingsdam. I love the idea of the train. Did you do this through the cruise ship? Also can you tell me if there are restrooms on board?

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  2. I wore Vessi’s on the WC & am wearing them again for the upcoming cruise.
    Thanks for mentioning a raincoat-I was unsure before reading your comment.
    Safe travels!!

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  4. What a superb day in spite of the rainy weather. Mo and I did that trip on a sunny day with a bit of time kayaking at the summit somewhere in the Yukon. I think Skagway has always been my favorite port on an Alaska cruise. My friend is cruising to Alaska on Princess at the end of the month so I am following your blog closely and suggesting that she read it. You do such a great job. That food looks truly fantastic. I am curious if the food is geared to the tastes of discerning American cruisers because it looks much more interesting to me than much of the food we had on our British Isles cruise. Looking forward to reading each day.

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  5. Good day in Skagway. Our cruise didn’t stop there. The rain will stop sometime. Regarding Alaska being US or Canada, thankful it’s not Russia! Onward!

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