SUPER ALASKA CRUISE
I. Day 4, Part 1: Skagway
Since my excursion did not start till 11AM, I decided to explore Skagway. I grabbed a quick breakfast in the Sports Bar and then left the ship. One interesting site in Skagway is the cliff adjacent to the dock. Ship crews for about 10 years or so have been painting signs on the side of the cliff commemorating their ship’s first visit to Skagway. I guess crewmembers use the dock’s cherry pickers that are used to maintain the ships and the ship’s paint. It is interesting to see the names of all the vessels that have visited Skagway. Many cruise ships, foreign vessels, as well as ships from the US Navy, and foreign navies have visited Skagway over the past 10 or so years. One note: since our ship was a long way from the beginning of the pier (where the Excursions and a bus into town picked up people) (the distance was half the length of our ship plus the entire length of the Dawn Princess), the port has free golf cart service for the ship docked in the back (our ship) that brings passengers to the beginning of the pier and back.
Though there is bus service ($1 per person) that runs the 4-5 block distance between the dock and the town, I decided to walk it (as did most people). Skagway is a very small town that had a population in the thousands at the time of the gold rush, but now has less than 1000 full time residents and a few hundred more during the summer. The area with shops is maybe 5 blocks by 10 blocks. The main attraction of the town is the White Pass and Yukon Route narrow gage railroad. This is an open car railroad that starts at the cruise ship docks and goes up the trail used by the gold rush miners, into Canada. This is a very beautiful trip, be sure to take it when you visit Skagway. Note: You should purchase your rail tickets through your ship’s excursion desk while on board because the cruise ships purchase the tickets in advance and on days where there are several ships in port, there are few if any tickets available for purchase directly through the railroad (at the train station downtown). Although I will explain the best excursions to take on the ‘Excursions’ page, an ideal excursion in Skagway would be one that combines a rail journey up the trail and getting down another way. Such trips include the ‘White Pass Train & Bicycle Tour’, ‘White pass Railway/Kayak Adventure’, ‘Sawtooth Mountain Nature Hike’, ‘Laughton Glacier Train & Trail Hike’ or ‘Train/Bus/Gold Rush Trail Camp’.
Skagway has several buildings owned by the park service with gold-rush related exhibits, a railway station, lots of gift shops and tourist service facilities like a rental car agency, a bike shop, and restaurants/bars. Be sure to bring with you the Alaska travel coupon book that you picked up at the pier in Vancouver. You can use it to get discounts on souvenirs. There is also a post office (on Broadway, the main street of Skagway) and a grocery store, but no pharmacy. You should note that the price of the same souvenirs goes down the further the store is from the dock. The last store on Broadway (SOS-Skagway Outlet Store at 7th and Broadway) has lots of coupons in the coupon book and the best prices. After wandering around Skagway for two or so hours and purchasing souvenirs, I returned to my ship to get something to eat and catch my excursion, which met at 11AM.
In Skagway I took the ‘Klondike Bicycle Tour’, given by the Sockeye Cycle Co (www.cyclealaska.com) (This company runs all bicycle tours in both Haines and Skagway. They also sell, service and rent individually bicycles). Our excursion group of a dozen passengers was met by a 15-passenger van pulling a trailer full of bicycles. We took a narrated drive through town and then drove up the White Pass summit on the Klondike Road to the top, just over the Canadian boarder. The Klondike Road goes up the White Pass on the opposite side of a gorge from the White Pass railway, so we saw the train go up and down the pass during our trip. We would be returning back to the town riding down this same road and saw the same scenic sites as the people who ride the train. At the top the van stopped at a scenic view rest area where the guides unloaded the bicycles and outfitted us with helmets, gloves, raincoats (had a pocket for a camera), a water bottle (to keep), and rubber bands to keep cuffs out of the chains. The bikes were 21 or 24 speed mountain touring bikes (bikes in between trail mountain bikes and touring bikes). There were 2 or 3 different sizes of bikes. On this trip be sure to bring sunglasses (with a Croakies type strap) to protect your eyes from the wind, and a cheap pair of thin gardening gloves (usually available in hardware stores for $1-2/pr) to wear under the supplied gloves to keep your hands warm. You should also wear long pants or sweatpants because it is quite cold on the top of the pass and you won’t be doing heavy duty peddling to keep you muscles warm. Three guides accompanied our trip. One drove the van, one led the group on a bike, and one followed behind on another bike. All carried communication radios. We were given safety and procedural instructions, were fitted on our bikes (had adjustable seats), practiced riding around the rest area, were told we could leave stuff in the van, and were on our way. We had to ride single file on the side of the road and the guides kept a look out for cars.
This bike ride is almost all downhill from the top of the White Pass into Skagway (there is a short distance of a few hundred yards that is uphill and once you get back into town it is level cycling). Therefore, the ride is not hard since there is not much peddling, just holding the handbrakes. We stopped at most of the rest areas where the sights and wildlife of the area were explained and the guides made sure that we were ok. After the first few stops we were given the option to take the van down in case we could not do the trip. We saw lots of birds and waterfalls. We also saw a pipe that leads down from Goat Lake, which is on a mountain and provides hydroelectric power and water to the region. The bike ride was great and we saw lots because it was sunny out. At some of the rest stops the van driver took pictures with a digital camera that were available for viewing and purchase when we returned to Skagway. The ride took about 1 ½ hours and ended at the bike shop in Skagway. The pictures taken earlier were available for purchase, along with awesome t-shirts with a picture of a cycling salmon. This was a great trip that I would recommend (or else the trip that combines this trip with a train ride up the pass called ‘White Pass Train & Bicycle Tour’). From the bike shop we were driven back to the ship (some people walked back to the ship because the shop was in the area of the stores discussed above).
After eating lunch on the ship, I went back into town to do more touring and souvenir shopping since I had time before the ship departed (had to be back on the ship before 4:30).
Note: Most of the ships that go to Skagway (all of the Princess and Holland-America ships and some others) spend the entire day from before 7AM to 8PM or later instead of going to Haines earlier or later in the day. If you are on one of those voyages you may want to do two excursions when you are in Skagway.
E-Mail Me With Your Comments, Suggestions, Pictures, etc at:
Links to other pages in the Super Alaska Cruise web site