Sharp's Travels

We were real slow moving this morning. We didn’t have any schedule to meet. By 10 am we were ready to walk uptown and do a few more pictures of the town.

We visited the Moore family homestead here in Skagway. They were a family that settled in this valley to capitalize on the future gold rush.

We stopped into the Skagway News Depot and I bought a few books by Sue Henry. She writes adventures of Alaska. I’m told it’s a good reading.

We had an early lunch so we could be down at the train station for our afternoon excursion to White Pass summit. It was a 3 hr, 40-mile round trip from Skagway to the summit of the White Pass—a 2,865ft elevation. We climbed 20 miles up to the summit. The tight curves of the White Pass called for a narrow gauge railroad. The rails are 3ft apart on a 10ft road bed.

It’s a narrated tour with cascading waterfalls, two tunnels, sky high trestles and spectacular scenery. The train was pulled by vintage diesel locomotives.

We spent the whole trip up on the viewing stand at the back of the car and sat in our seats for the return trip.

When we arrived back in Skagway we decided to have an early dinner. We went to a restaurant within walking distance of the campground. It was a good thing we went early. They opened at 4pm and by 4:30 people were waiting already. We had deep fried halibut and fries. It was very good. Of course we thought we needed dessert so we walked back to town for a hand dipped ice-cream. Now our night is complete.

Gay has uploaded pictures of the day. See album: Skagway-White Pass 7/5/08