Skagway Alaska

On the nest part of the voyage we arrived in Skagway.  Most of Alaska remained hidden until the
Yukon Gold Rush broke out in full glory.  Today the population is 867.  The big thing to do in Skagway is the White Pass and Yukon Railway, a narrow gauge rail that brought miners to up the Dead Horse Valley closer to the gold fields.  

It was a lawless place that was full of miners, prostitutes and con men.   But then what town isn't, even in the lower 48?  Warren G.
Harding was the first president to travel to Alaska in 1923.  When he saw the incredible beauty, he set aside a land grant to preserve the area.

And the Quilt Shop is right there!

Skagway is one of three Southeast Alaskan communities connected
to the road system, completed in 1978. This allows access to the the Lower 48, Whitehorse and the Yukon and into British Columbia.  Skagway is also an important port-of-call for Alaska's ferry system — and serves as the northern terminus of the important and heavily-used Lynn Canal corridor. (The other Southeast Alaskan
communities with road access are Haines and Hyder. 

We took the ferry in Lynn Canal into Haines and went to the Eagle Preserve and the float trip. 

there is an eagle in that thar tree!  Can you see him?  I think our guide said it was a female.  She knew somehow, I guess that is why she is a guide and I a not!

The river was fed from the melting snow and glaciers in the mountains.  It grows in the spring and shrinks in the winter.  And is full of salmon in spawning season.

 

Here is our Alaskan Woman guide.  She lives in a dry cabin, by herself.  A dry cabin has no water or electricity.  If we had come upon one, I had no doubt she could wrestle a bear to protect us.

If you couldn't see that eagle, how about this one?

Female out hunting for her brood somewhere in the trees. 

the scenery was breathtakingly  beautiful. You can see the other group.  We had just four of us in our float so we were not bogged down on the shallows, all that rocking the float to get it off was making Frank sick.

If you want one still closer, check out this eagle.

Not ten feet from us.  Can't get that at home! 

I got a great shot of some geese taking off over us.  Against the snow covered peaks.

Come back tomorrow and  continue our journey!