Our next, and final, land excursion was in Skagway, AK. Our morning started by boarding the train that took us up the White Pass into Canada (for a very hot second) before turning around and coming back down to Skagway.
It goes without saying, as is the case with most everything in Alaska, the views were breathtaking. Spectacular really. And the history of this particular pass/railway is quite extensive and really quite sad. To make a very long story short, it started with the Gold Rush of 1898. Because gold was found in the area, people flocked to this ice free mountain trail leading to the interiors of Canada in search of striking it rich. It was classified as travelable by foot and with pack animals, however more than 3,000 horses died ascending the trail and countless men. As man continued to climb by foot, a railway system began to be constructed.
It was a hard, hard living for these men in HOPES of striking it rich. But because of these men, we now get to enjoy the beautiful, breath taking scenery on a comfy, narrated train!
Here are just some of the amazing views from the train. And again, I preface it by saying, as beautiful as the pictures make it seem, the actual beauty in person is 1,000 times prettier!
Some of the old railway system, no longer in use. Thank heavens!
We crossed into Canada, for only a brief minute.
It is said that back in the day, Canada was the only one who sent men to the borderline to stand guard. As time went on, the USA began to realize that the border kept changing, and not in their favor. Turns out those Canadian guards took a little liberty each day moving the border ever so slightly in their favor!
More amazing views...
After disembarking the train, we headed over to meet some Iditarod dog sleds and a musher that will be competing in the 2020 Iditarod.
This is the musher, Casey, who will be running her first ever Iditarod in a couple winters. She looks small, but she is fierce! It will be fun to watch her journey in a couple winters to see how she does. Her goal is simply to survive and finish. She said she will call that a HUGE victory for a rookie.
We got to see and pet these Iditarod dogs - some of whom Casey will take on her journey.
After meeting these sweet, and VERY lively dogs, we got to snuggle some 9 week old puppies.
How absolutely adorable are they?!? The one we got to hold was named Captain America!
We also did a couple of "touristy" things too - like step inside a -40 degree Fahrenheit freezer to simulate what the winters feel like for the mushers on the Iditarod trail.
We also panned for gold - where we all struck it rich with the amount of gold we found. I see an early retirement in our future! Ha!
After striking it rich, we walked the cute and quaint town of Skagway before heading back to the ship.
The following day was an onboard excursion, meaning that the ship took us into Glacier Bay National Park. The park rangers tendered over to our ship and climbed aboard. Throughout the day, they narrated what we were seeing and the history of the bay with its amazing glaciers!
Spectacular glacier formations...
Spectacular spectators...
Some of the pictures are not as clear and crisp as I would hope. That is because while we were on vacation in Alaska, the state was experiencing over 100 wildfires (not counting even more in western Canada). This caused views to be hampered some. Beautiful weather, hazy views! That said, you could hardly complain about what we did get to see!
It was pretty amazing to see the glacier, but even more amazing to see it calf (or have ice fall off of it). You would hear the noise well before you spotted it happening.
Enjoying all that the glaciers had to offer...
The final onboard excursion, and last sail day before our cruise was over, was through College Fjord - which was again filled with glaciers. It was pretty amazing to see the difference between the glaciers we saw. This one was obviously dirty from the soil runoff while melting.
Nonetheless, still amazing to see!
After the cruise was over and we headed back to the airport, we had a 2 hour bus tour to take. I initially was dreading sitting on a bus that long just to get to the airport, but to be honest, it was a beautiful drive. I was (and am) in constant awe of the beautifulness of Alaska!
All in all, the cruise was phenomenal - we traveled 1,566 nautical miles, visited 3 land ports, saw amazing wildlife and mountains and glaciers. We got to see and do things that are priceless, once in a lifetime opportunities. And we got to do it with some pretty amazing, special company. We enjoyed being able to make these wonderful memories with Nana and Papa.
And with that, this wraps up our Alaskan adventure...!
