There's Gold in Them Thar Hills

Upon arrival in Skagway, we discovered a very expensive town that basically caters to cruise ships. There were three in port the entire time we were there. The people that come on boats sleep on the boat, so there weren't many hotels to speak of and the ones that were there ran about $200 per night. We were fortunate to find one in town that wasn't quite that much. It was kind of a neat place, but everything was geared for people with LOTS of money. You wouldn't believe how many jewelry stores there were, like 2 or three per block. We tried to go to a Robert Service poetry reading, but were told that children weren't invited. Pooh! So we went down by the stream and watched the spawning salmon instead.

We also saw this really cool train. It is basically a snowplow. Really huge and neat.


We decided to try something a little more kid friendly the next morning and drove to nearby Dyea, a rival of Skagway's during the gold rush. Skagway ended up winning out because of the railroad. There isn't much left of Dyea now, just some artifacts on the ground and one false front.


Then we went to Slide Cemetery. Turns out there was an avalanche during a time when a lot of people were trekking over the Chilkoot Pass and it killed about 50 people I think. They are mostly buried in this cemetery. It was a bautiful, quiet place.


On the way back to Skagway, we did a little wildlife viewing. We saw our first grizzly bear catching salmon in a river on a one-lane bridge close to Dyea. We stopped several times and looked through the binoculars at bald eagles and other birds. The kids had fun sitting in the Jeep.


Ryan spotted some dark shapes in the water (The part were the river comes into the ocean, I can't remember the name of it) which we figured out were sea lions also catching salmon. There were at least five or six of them and it was really fun to watch them.



Then we had a picnic by the river and the kids enjoyed playing on the rocks.


Ryan at the White Pass Summit. It was really foggy and kind of fun to drive in. Goodbye Skagway! Hello Yukon, Canada!

We spent two nights in Canada. The first in Whitehorse, which we really liked. The second in Beaver Creek. Kind of a fun little town that was about to close down for the season.

The Yukon was beautiful! We really loved all of the mountains, lakes and beautiful scenery. Here is a turquoise lake with an impressive mountain behind it.


Back in the US in Delta Junction for a picnic lunch. Just 100 more miles to our destination! Kimberly LOVES her little sister. She takes good care of her and loves to hold her.


We finally made it. We didn't try to drive too far in one day, so it took a little longer, but it was nice since we had two vehicles. We met a couple in Beaver Creek that had driven all the way from New York with their two kids! Far!

We were happy to finally get to Fairbanks and get to know it a little bit.