Skagway, Alaska to Juneau, Alaska
We were looking forward to our 4-day visit in Skagway. Having reservations is important as there are limited sites for RVs. Our reservations were at Garden Park, the first campground going into town. The Garmin will direct you to the left side of the street, however, Garden Park is on the right. The laundry and showers facilities were clean and neat. They have mostly pull thru sites available with 30 amp. Since it was cooler at the end of June, we did not need both air conditioners for the 50 amp anyway. The campground is about 5 minutes from downtown Skagway action.
We did observe the shops are set up to attract the passengers arriving on cruise ships. We have seen as many as 5 ships in one afternoon. They make up the bulk of visitors, while arriving and departing daily from the Port of Skagway. Once the ships dock, the passengers converge on the town or meet tour guides at the parking lot by the docks. It is quite entertaining to watch them file off the ships like ants. Now we know how we looked when we traveled by cruise ship.
The old downtown is quaint with the typical jewelry stores, restaurants, and shops with tourist stuff. Some of the shops also had museum type information. Very interesting. The National Park system had renovated a saloon into a museum with mannequins standing at the bar. The history was very interesting and entertaining. The streets were busy with most shops basically empty when the cruisers went back to the ship by 7-8 in the evening. On Friday, we ate dinner at Skagway Seafood Market down by the docks. It is a family owned restaurant. We had Alaskan King Crab. Our dinner was very good. The restaurant had 2 single rooms for rest rooms. Instead of Man or Woman, the door gave instructions as what to do: “Either Or—- Shut the Door”. That helps to make the issue perfectly clear.
One afternoon we walked the trails on the other side of the Skagway River. We walked a couple of miles and went out to Takutania Point overlooking the Lynn Canal toward Chilkat Mountains. We walked over to Smugglers Cove. This trip worked out well and we didn’t feel we were stuck in a tourist trap. We walked a healthy 4 miles out to and along the coast of part of the harbor. Great walk!!!!
Part of the reason we came to Skagway was we wanted to travel to Juneau and down the Fjords. We chose the Fjord Express. This catamaran was designed to view nature, whales, sea lion and seals along the way to Juneau. The trip left Skagway at 8 am with a trip over to Haines to pick up folks staying in Haines. We were surprised by two of the passengers picked up in Haines. Our Naples’ friends had driven to Haines and decided to take this same tour. No plans to meet up had been previously made. We had originally met them in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. As a side note, we have frequently, on this trip, caught up with fellow travelers we had met along the way. It is rather interesting it takes less than an hour to go to Haines by Sea. It takes 4-5 hours by land. So, back to the boat excursion. The catamaran has many large windows and an aft deck for viewing. The boat carries 40 people so it is not too crowded to see things and take pictures. We actually saw 3 humpback whales up close and got some pictures. It’s hard to get a good whale picture, however, did achieve 2 tail photos. We were able to observe and photograph sea lions and seals at several locations. The eagles were amazing flying and nesting along the way. The numbers of eagles we saw were more than we’ve ever seen even at home in Florida.
We arrived outside of Juneau and were taken by bus to the center of town. Our driver Whitney was very informative and entertaining. We had 3 hours downtown. We were able to see most of the downtown and the docks. Juneau has one main street with several sprouting off for housing. This main street has a big “End” sign at both ends of the road as Juneau is landlocked by huge magnificent mountains. In the downtown area, there are many retail stores filled with locally made crafts and tourist items. Jewelry shops are plentiful. There were a couple of shops selling and displaying items made of Alpaca. Since we are at a point in our life when we have too much stuff already, we do not make for good consumers. Neither one of us are shoppers. However, we do enjoy eating out now and again. We had lunch at The Hanger, a restaurant near the sea planes. The food and service was good.
The planes were Dehavilland DHC-3 Otters, taking off and landing on a regular basis. There were a lot of eagles around town. The Ravens were huge and plentiful. After our 3-hour visit in Juneau, we boarded the bus to the Mendenhall Glacier. We had an hour at the glacier and hiked out to the Nugget Falls, which is about one mile, so we could see the falls and the glacier. We got back to the visitor center in time to hear a short presentation before re-boarding the bus. The glacier has been melting and has been reduced by almost a mile. The early pictures in 1958 showed how far it has been greatly reduced. The tour guides say glacier warming, not global warming. Politically correct?????
After this visit, we headed directly back to the meeting point to board the catamaran. After dropping off our fellow Haines travelers, the return catamaran trip landed us back at Skagway by 8 pm. It was a full day and worth every minute. This company does a good job taking care of their visitors. We were also fed a continental breakfast and a snack when we returned at the end of the afternoon. These are the kind of places the locals know about and are always worth taking time.
Skagway is a small town with only a thousand people who live here year round. You can check out the history of the Klondike Gold Strike and the National Historic Park. We did and decided we would not have made very good gold prospectors.
