Day #5 Alaska Vacation Wednesday 5/13/09 Skagway

We ended up getting up early this morning. It seems that Veronica's cell phone did not pick up a time change when she turned it on to set the alarm feature. We ended getting up at 5:15AM. After having breakfast, we disembarked early...around 7AM. Our excursion, the Yukon Discovery Tour, did not start until 9:15. Because we had plenty of spare time, Veronica and I had plenty of time to walk around town , visit a few shops that had opened early and took some more photographs. Because we had a day full of travel and sightseeing planned, we decided not to drag everything that was purchased around. The people at one store were nice enough to store all of our purchases in a secured room. We went back to the dock area and waited briefly for our guide from Frontier Excursions Missy, our guide, showed up in a 24 passenger tour bus. The type with the large viewing windows. Missy was great. She was friendly, outgoing and very knowledgeable of the area. Missy told us that Skagway usually gets only about 20-40 sunny days a year and today was one of those few and rare days...at least in Skagway it was. Missy drove us through town pointing out various sights and providing us with a history lesson of Skagway. We then headed out to the Yukon with our destination to at Caribou Crossing. The scenery up and back was absolutely beautiful. We made several stops for photograph taking. We hit every kind of weather during this trip. On our way to Caribou Crossing, it rained some and when we arrived at Caribou Crossing, there was sleet and snow coming down at times. At Caribou Crossing, they had a Sled Dog area, a museum, a gift shop, a small bakery and a small structure for cooking and a larger structure for eating. We ended up eating bar-b-que chicken with some side dishes. This was part of the tour also. One of the things that I remember most was how big the mountains were and how most of them were snow covered. It really was a beautiful sight to behold. On our way back to Skagway, we saw some Dall sheep grazing on the very steep portions of some the the mountain sides. We also got very lucky and saw a black bear that was only about 10 feet off of the side of the road. W4e watched the bear for about 5-6 minutes or so. We saw him get up on his hind legs and he started to kind of dance as he was rubbing his back against a small tree. It was a sight to see. We got back to Skagway around 4PM. We did a little more shopping and then picked up our previously purchased items from that store. We decided to have something different to eat, something they did not serve on the ship. We went to a local restaurant and had Halibut and Chips..Fish and Chips. It was really good food. We got back on the ship around 6:30. Because it had been a long day for us, we decided to take a nap so that we would be refreshed for the comedy show that was to be at 8:45. The comedy show did not end up being that funny so we left early. Tomorrow was going to be an exciting day because we were going to be sailing and viewing Glacier Bay.
Scenery seen from the ship as we were heading into Skagway

Another ship off in the distance also heading to Skagway

This is a view of some rock art. It seems that years ago, when the miners were in the Skagway area, they would leave messages on the rocks in a way of communicating with their friends

Skagway, Alaska

The scenery on the way to Caribou Crossing

The poles that you see are for the snow plow trucks. It lets the driver now where the road ends and where danger begins

These are some of the living quarters for the Canadian customs personnel. We had to cross into Canada to get to Caribou Crossing in the Yukon.

Here is Caribou Crossing

A retired sled dog

A future sled dog

A future sled dogs wet nose

A future sled dog playing peek a boo

Sorry but no this isn't a sled dog...rather the backside of a woolly mammoth. This was part of the museum exhibit at Caribou Crossing

Dall sheep grazing along the mountain side

Reverse reflections of a mountain

Reflections of a mountain

Did someone say "Da Bears"

On our return to Skagway

This contraption was used at one time to clear the snow of off the tracks. Now it is used to suck up and spit out inquisitive tourists

More rock art

This takes public restrooms to a whole new level