Blue Lake

We had a little bit of time to explore Carcross between our train arriving and minibus departing. We used that time to grab ice cream at the general store before heading down to the beach to watch several kids in wetsuits jump off a bridge into the lake. You know it's cold when even kids choose wetsuits! We then wandered thrive Carcross Commons, a mall of sorts decorated with First Nations artwork and boutiques of local artisans. Carcross's economy is nearly entirely tourism based, with people coming from Alaska on the railroad and neighboring Whitehorse for a beach day on the lake. There are no grocery stores, schools or utilities, so the small resident population is dependent on Whitehorse for all of these things.

Upon leaving Carcross, the first attraction was the Carcross desert. It's small, but the sand dunes look very out of place with the surrounding forest. We also stopped at Emerald Lake before officially starting our trip down the Klondike Highway back into Skagway. Along the way, we stopped at many beautiful viewpoints that highlighted the diverse landscape carved out by the glaciers.

One new "attraction" was the site of the mudslide 10 days ago. They've cleared the road enough that cars can pass in one direction at a time and you must wait for the "pilot car" to lead you though (sounds like a thrilling job). They estimate that they will need to remove 2500 truckloads of dirt to fully clear the road, but the amount of progress they've already made is impressive.Read more