Day 10 Skagway Klondike Highway and town

After spending some time at Summit Lake we were met by our driver Harrison and we piled into the minibus ready for our trip back down to Skagway town via the Klondike Highway.
We had to pass through the border control back into Alaska USA & our watches changed back by the hour again, quite remarkable going through 2 border checks and 2 time zones so closely!

We had a stop at a huge solid concrete bypass, right where a waterfall ran down the rock face and under the bypass via a tunnel. Because the highway crosses an active earthquake fault line, engineers replaced an old suspension bridge with a massive, solid concrete structure and the steel
archway underneath lets the water through.

On our way down the Highway we had pointed out to us, many red and white poles that were mounted at the edge of the road. Harrison explained that because Skagway has 12 metres of snow over winter, these markers are so the snowplough drivers can see where the road ends and the cliff face starts and it allows them to clear the road safely.

We were dropped back in to Skagway town, it was honestly like stepping into a Wild West movie set! Fabulous buildings and we watched a train come back into town too.

Whilst in the town the girls managed to lose the boys. We were half expecting to find them in the famous Red Onion Saloon, which originally operated as a high-class dance hall, saloon, and brothel for miners looking for entertainment. Today, it functions as a lively restaurant and bar on the ground floor and a historic brothel museum upstairs. The boys weren’t there but our second guess was successful, they were in the Skagway Brewing Co - what a shock!!

Soon it was time to head back to the ship for a well earned rest, after a great day out. What a place!

Cindy wasn’t feeling great that evening and decided to rest rather than join us for our meal. However, we made sure that we took a video of Graham doing the magic trick with our fabulous and entertaining waiters, so Cindy could watch it later.Read more