Here we go! It's bigger than it looks.
We made it! The view from the other side:
These little white specs are mountain goats. (click on the picture to get a bigger view) Wish we'd brought our binoculars!
Check out the next bridge we're about to go over--Yikes!
Okay, we didn't really go over that one.
Look at how the terrain has totally changed once we reached this elevation. This area is covered with gray rocks, bright blue lakes and very little green. It almost feels like we are above the "tree line."
We've finally reached the Canadian border and our turn-around point. The scenery here is a little greener than the area we just came from. This is the boarder guard shack:
After we check in with the Canadian boarder officials and a run around the turn-about, we're back on our way . . . down the mountain again.
Oh my gosh, a bear! I was so excited to see it, I almost missed taking its picture. He's just running into the bushes here:
The engine . . .
and the caboose.
Oh, the old cemetery! We'll get a better look at that later.
Back in town for a bit before it's time to get on the motor coach for a trip to an old mining village, salmon bake and the old cemetery. Side note: our guide for this outing was a BYU student driving a bus for his summer job. Most of our guides/drivers were college students on summer break. This guy was. Such. A. Tool! He looked like a mix of Ashton Kutcher and David Archuleta. Before we could get moving he had to open his jacket and show us all of his awards for being the best guide. Sure, it might have been funny if he wasn't so full of himself. I bet you can guess that this guy didn't get a tip from us.
Enough of Ashton Archuleta and on to the salmon bake:
It was pretty good food and REALLY good salmon. This is who serenaded us as we ate:
Over to the old mining village. These guys were the welcoming committee:
Each tent was occupied by an old time merchant like clothes washer, grocer, post office, brothel . . .
Here's the chutes used for mining gold. Oh, lets try that!
Wait, first we have to sit through a little entertainment . . .
a reenactment . . .
and instructions on how to pan for gold.
Finally, we can give it a try for ourselves. We picked the Hunker Creek chute.
We fared pretty well. I found the biggest piece of gold!!
Okay, we actually ended up with a few little specs of gold to take home as souvenirs. They said they bought the gold pieces off the internet. It's probably fool's gold, but it was fun panning for it anyway.
After a brief scenic tour of Skagway . . .
it's on to the old historic cemetery.
I couldn't really tell if it was THE old cemetery or a replication, but it was still kind of cool.
As we were about to leave, the train passed by us:
Don't know what these plants are, but I spied them on the way back to the motor coach. They sure don't have these in Utah. (at least I've never seen them before)
Tomorrow is our last port . . . Prince Rupert, Canada.
1 comment:
Wow! It looks amazing. I bet it is fun to kind of re live it as you put all your pictures up on the blog.
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