Skagway Port of Call
Skagway Harbor 01, 5428 byte(s). Skagway Harbor 02, 5867 byte(s). Skagway Harbor 03, 6168 byte(s).
Skagway was our first port of call and we didn't know what to expect. Skagway turned out to be very small. The picture of the town above is it... all of it. But there are lots of shore excursions available from Skagway. That's true of all the ports. We took two shore excursions here: The Narrow Guage White Pass Train and the Glacier Point Wilderness Safari.
White Pass Train
White Pass Train 01, 6333 byte(s). White Pass Train 02, 5902 byte(s). White Pass Train 03, 8793 byte(s). White Pass Train 04, 7063 byte(s).
White Pass Train 08, 4825 byte(s).
White Pass Train 05, 7294 byte(s). White Pass Train 06, 150939 byte(s). White Pass Train 07, 8252 byte(s).
What a beautiful train ride this is! It amazes me that men were able to build this line through such rugged country. As you can see, the train starts out right next to the dock. From there, it climbs steeply about 30 miles up to White Pass at the Canadian border. The border is marked simply by a small shack and a few flags. At that point, the train turns around the heads back down the way it came.

In pictures 4 & 5, I looked across the canyon and said to Genelle, "Look at that rickety old trestle! It must be left over from an old train track that's not used any more." But within minutes, our train did a switchback and we were going right over that trestle! You can also see where the cliff has been shored up with steel plates. I know it had to be safe, but it sure didn't look it!
Glacier Point Wilderness Safari
Safari 01, 5358 byte(s). Safari 02, 8914 byte(s). Safari 03, 8253 byte(s). Safari 04, 7825 byte(s). Safari 05, 5366 byte(s).
Safari 06, 8898 byte(s). Safari 07, 6311 byte(s). Safari 08, 5140 byte(s). Safari 09, 6764 byte(s). Safari 10, 6023 byte(s).
This shore excursion was a lot of fun! We started out traveling 45 minutes on a high-speed (50 knot) catamaran that dropped us off directly on a beach. From there, a couple of old buses took us about half a mile to a supply shack. After donning several layers of protective gear, we hiked 1/4-mile to a river where we boarded large canoes and went right up to the face of a glacier. This glacier is not know for calving, so we were allowed to get quite close. Notice the dark blue spots on the glacier. That is where the ice is especially dense causing it to absorb all light waves except the very short blue light waves.
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