Our first port of call was Skagway, Alaska. Skagway was the starting point of the climb during the Yukon Gold Rush. Our tour guides told us that at its peak, Skagway had a handful of restaurants and 80+ bars and saloons.

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In recent years, the town rebuilt itself upon its historical past, as you can see above. One of the first places we stopped (after our excursion) was the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park. Although it is a teeny museum, what impressed me in retrospect was actually seeing the equipment miners took with them, and pictures of the climb. Here is a link to the Chilkoot Trail Gallery. Go there and look at the pictures.

Then realize that the men who were making that climb were required to take 1000 pounds of supplies with them, which meant multiple trips up the “stairs.”

Our excursion in Skagway was a quick tour “Up the Yukon Pass”. Essentially it was a small bus that took us up above the treeline into Canada. Sadly, it was overcast and raining in the morning, so the view was not very good. Later in the day skies cleared, so I wish we’d have taken a later excursion. (Not an issue if you’re on your own and doing things at your own pace.)

This is probably the only picture that gives you any sense of the scale of the climb.

About the only thing you can tell from this picture is that we are above the tree line, and any trees are scrub that won’t get much higher.

Regardless, it was still a beautiful climb.