It is a 3 hour drive and our train ride eats up 4 hours of our touristy time in Skagway so we get an early start, up at 5:15 AM.  It is just getting light as we head out the door.

We check out the pseudo desert in Carcross.  Sand dunes walk up the windward side of the mountains as rock ground fine by the glaciers is carried to this spot by rivers then blown by the prevailing winds.  Looks like desert to me…except that the older dunes here are stabilized by pines not dune grass.  We find mountain goats high on the steep mountainsides.  Amazing given it is foggy and rainy!  We pass through what they call moonscape.  It is subalpine but too rocky and dry to support much tree growth.  It is rugged and beautiful but it sure looks like it would be horrific to hike through!

We started our history lesson on gold rush a couple months ago at the finish line, Dawson City.  Here in Skagway we see how it all started for most of those stampeders.  Here they chose either the White Pass or the Chilkoot trails to cross the coastal mountains to the interior and riches.  The stories of hardship, tenacity, determination, and ruthlessness are unbelievable.  That applies to the soon-to-be-miners and those who capitalized on their fever along the way.  This whole Klondike rush unfolded in just 2 years.   Oh, what gold fever can do to a man.

Vintage diesel engines pulled 12 restored parlor cars up to White Pass.  This is certainly a lot better than hoofing it like the early stampeders.  It is a beautiful valley and there are great old bridges, tunnels, and trestles (even one old wooden trestle).   I love train travel.