Skagway, Alaska

On our way further north to Skagway, the Garden City of Alaska. Located at the northern tip of Alaska's Inside Passage.

Our ship docked in port.

Skagway has only ~850 year round residents. It is now a restored gold rush town and the head-quarters of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park.
We visited the actual site of the gold rush town, then just a mass of tents. This visitor site is a recaptured vision of what it probably looked like and the people dressed, spoke and acted as if they were back in the early 1900's. Below I "had" to step into the Brothel : } The women got $5 per 15" of their services. It was the only tent that had a bed in it! I just can't imagine what it would have been like to be up here in the dead cold of winter....all for the rush of gold.
We went all the way north to Fraser, Canada by train then had to be brought back via bus. The tour bus guide was extremely entertaining. This was a bridge we had to cross over that was attached to the ground only on one side due to the frequent earth tremors. This was a fault line area and proved to be more stable for the bridge this way! A little unnerving to say the least BUT adventurous : }
So to get up to Fraser, Canada we took the White Pass & Yukon Route railroad. This is the train that carried tens of thousands of men with picks and shovels and 450 tons of explosives over a 26 month timeline over a century ago during the gold rush. They overcame harsh climate and challenging geography and earned the name"the railway built of gold". Along the way north, these are some of the scenes we were blessed to see. Looks like a mighty BIG bear crossed here, maybe more than one?!!
If you blow this pic up you will see the path the gold miners used to get into the mines. This path was in Dead Horse Gulch. It earned this name! The miners came from all over the world in search of gold. They brought horses that they loaded down so heavy with equipment they could hardly stand up. These horses were required to walk this path and of course, many slipped off and fell to their death. Others that made it over this path, either died from heart attacks from carrying too heavy of loads or pulling things way too heavy or died from not being cared for properly. In one year, over 3000 horses died : {

One of the many old wooden bridges over deep ravines and gulches the train had to cross.

You can see the the ocean in between the mountains at this height from the train.

Got a glimpse of our trains' engines as they pull us into the tunnel in the side of the mountain.

We were allowed to stand outside on the small platform between the different train cars. Fun!

These flags were on the border between Alaska and Canada. We had to show our passports at this point!

In Canada, standing outside the caboose before getting on the tour bus to head back down to Skagway.

Simply gorgeous!