Skagway

Monday, we left Johnson's Crossing to drive 130 miles to Skagway, Alaska.  It is one of the most spectacular drives we have been on yet! 

The road wound around the mountain settings.  I think we drove down there the whole time with our mouths opened in awe.

We made it to Alaska for right now.  We will be in Skagway for five days and then we go back into Canada to continue to the main part of Alaska.

There are waterfalls everywhere!

We went through the U.S. customs with a few questions and we were back in the U.S.A.!

Skagway was the beginning of the journey for the "Stampeders", the men who came to Alaska hunting for gold in the Klondike in 1897.

Today, it is a small town with a population of a little over 1,000 people.  In the summertime, that population can be over 10,000 when the cruise ships stop by with their passengers.  I read on statistic that said 1.2 million people visit Skagway in the summer, 1.1 million are on cruise ships.

This is the most photographed building in Skagway. It is the Visitor's Center  and is covered in driftwood.

The lupines are in full bloom.

Our first afternoon there we toured through some of the shops and talked with one of the shopkeepers for quite awhile.  When he found out we were not on a ship and here longer than one day, he began telling us of the events going on in town in the evening.

The Red Onion Saloon is a popular tourist stop, but on Monday nights the locals go there to hear the Windy Valley Boys play.  It is a group of people that get together and have a jam session.  We had to check it out and it was pretty entertaining.