Skagway, located along the Northern tip of Alaska’s inside passage, means “the place where the north wind blows” in Tlingit. It’s home to just over 1,000 residents, but welcomes over 1 million tourists, mostly arriving via cruise ship, every year. It is best known as a former Gold Rush town, restored to offer a sometimes foggy glimpse back to an earlier time, but with the requisite diamonds, fudge, and novelty t-shirts to make it quickly come into focus as a popular cruise port.
On my very first visit to Skagway, as a newlywed on my honeymoon, I had more metabolism, but almost no experience cruising. As an aside, if given the choice, I’d sacrifice all my wisdom if it meant I didn’t have to assign a point value to the six grapes I can eat for lunch at my current age without gaining weight. But anyway, back then I had no idea what to do at any of our Alaska ports and probably just Googled “the most popular excursion in Skagway” before booking the “White Pass Scenic Railway” through Princess.
To book. To find. And to enjoy.
There are a number of ways to book the White Pass Scenic Railway excursion. You can book in advance through your cruise line or onboard through the excursions desk, in advance through a private company, or once you arrive in Skagway at the train station, which is a short walk from the cruise pier (assuming there are tickets still available).
If you book through your cruise line, the train cars will pull right up to your ship. If you book through a private company or at the train station, your train cars will be slightly further back, requiring a bit more walking. However, you’ll pay less and your cars may be less crowded.
Either way, the length of the excursion is around 3 hours. There are also tours that take the train on the way up and a bus on the way down. You’ll actually get to stop to take some photos at key sites if you choose this option. Here’s a good option: White Pass Railroad And Bus Excursion.
On your 40 mile round trip journey, you’ll climb 2,888 feet in elevation from sea level in Skagway to the Summit of the White Pass. Along the way you’ll take in stunning views of rivers:
tunnels and waterfalls:
dramatic trestle bridges:
rocky cliffs:
mountains blanketed in evergreens:
wildlife:
and historical markers:
Which brings me to reason number three.
The history of the Klondike Gold Rush and the White Pass Railroad is more intense than the final season of Game of Thrones. And it really happened! Below is a brief introduction and some ruminations to wet your palate, but you’ll learn substantially more as you wind through mountain passes snapping photos from between train cars and thinking “how is that possible” and “aren’t we humans cleaver and brave.”
And sometimes hasty and reckless as those who died along the journey or returned home void of gold serve to remind us. But we won’t focus on that part, because words like “hasty” and “reckless” make some of us who quit our real jobs to start cruise blogs feel defensive.
In 1896 three prospectors, American George Carmack and Tagish First Nation members Jim Mason and Dawson Charlie, discovered gold in what is now called Bonanza Creek, running through Alaska and the Yukon Territory.
When news of gold spread by 1897, tens of thousands boarded boats bound for Skagway and Dyea where they would set out on foot for the Klondike in search of the yellow metal they hoped would bring them riches.
The above photo should be interpreted as ironic. Because when Mr. Cruise married me, I was teaching at a private liberal arts college and making less in a year than he made drafting two contracts before taking an early lunch. He clearly didn’t marry me for my money, but rather for my sophisticated sense of humor. Fart joke forthcoming.
But if a Skagway gal were to write home back in the late 1800’s with news of her new beau, the gold digger, her hand remained steady as she penned the honest to God truth and mom and dad waited for a second parcel containing a shiny nugget large enough to fund their dream of an indoor toilet.
But it wasn’t as glamorous as you think.
My son “H’s” first word was “dada.” I suppose because Mr. Cruise was the one who lived cold sober and decaffeinated for the two years he most needed martinis and mochas in order to bring “H” into the world and sustain him before he sprouted teeth. “Ouch!” And because Mr. Cruise can’t ever be that 40 year-old woman he criticizes for being “way too old” for that crop top – but secretly envies for keeping it tight – because his stomach looks like the dune fields of the Sahara after an intense wind storm and stays fully covered and camouflaged in bold print fluttery draping over a double pair of Spanx. Oh wait, that’s not Mr. Cruise at all, that’s me: Prof. Cruise. Known to my son as, mooooom.
Mooooom was my son’s third word and came directly after his second word, “ugh.” As in “ugh, mooooom!” I’ve been annoying and embarrassing him at least since his first ultrasound photo featuring a hand gesture I delightedly captioned, “look, he’s waving,” on Facebook but have since come to interpret as, “talk to the hand!”
And there’s one expression I frequently use – to encourage him to power through minor to moderate physical discomfort or less than optimal travel conditions – that elicits ughs and eye rolls so drawn out and sweeping that he’s still at it three weeks later: “we’re hardy folk.” As in “a little rain won’t stop us from enjoying this hike in Skagway – we’re hardy folk!” Ugh! Eyeroll! Moooooom!
But when I learned about the journey of the early men and women drawn to Skagway to seek fortune in the Canadian Klondike, trekking 600 miles, with heavy and cumbersome packs containing, per Canadian law, a year’s worth of equipment and supplies each, through dangerous and treacherous mountain passes and waterways, I immediately wanted to head back to the ship for a hot chocolate and a nap.
Even considering the desperate conditions many lived in back then, in the midst of a depression, I suspect I’d choose to survive another day on cabbage soup. Or I’d just send Mr. Cruise: “you go, I’ll stay here and keep our tar paper shanty warm with my cruciferous gas.” Maybe I’m not such a hardy folk after all.
The White Pass Trail, also nicknamed the “Dead Horse Trail” because nearly 3,000 horses got stuck in the mud and died on it, began in Skagway and was one of two routes leading to the interior lake country. There, stampeders would continue another 550 miles to the gold fields.
In 1898 two men, Sir Thomas Tancrede and Michael J. Heney, both with the same idea to build a railroad through the White Pass, met in Skagway and partnered to organize the The White Pass & Yukon Railroad Company. And in May of 1898, construction commenced on the narrow gauge railroad.
On July 29, 1900, despite staggering costs and equally daunting construction challenges, the 110 mile WP&YR Railroad was completed connecting Skagway to Whitehorse, Yukon, and then to northwest Canada and the interior of Alaska.
As originally organized, the railroad would be operated as three separate entities with the 20.4 mile stretch beginning in Skagway operated by the Pacific & Arctic Railway & Navigation Company. This stretch now constitutes the length of the “White Pass Scenic Railway” excursion enjoyed by Prof. and Mr. Cruise and countless other cruise ship passengers each year.
Having returned several times, enjoying a variety of different activities, since my first visit to Skagway and my first ride aboard the White Pass Scenic Railway, I stand by my assertion that the White Pass Scenic Railway excursion is the best option for most first-time cruisers to Skagway. It’s easy. It’s beautiful. It’s educational. And you’ll love it!
Although I offer no guarantee, so don’t go sending me your ticket stubs demanding a refund due to fog.
And with that…
Class Dismissed.
*Check out my other Alaska port posts here and my Guide To Packing For Alaska. And don’t forget to subscribe to the blog (scroll up to the top right) and follow me on social media:
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