I cannot believe how lucky I’ve been with the weather in Alaska. I looked at the weather forecast a couple of days ahead of Denali, Juneau, and Soldotna and every one of them predicted rain – but all were fine. The same held true for today’s railway excursion from Skagway to the summit of White Pass, the first stage on the route that the Gold Rush Stampeders took. The four hour round trip was an opportunity for me to just enjoy the spectacular scenery and take photos without having to concern myself with staying safe on the road.

I arrived back in Skagway around 12:30 to start the drive back to Teslin, YT on the Alaska Highway. Since the highway is the only road route to Alaska I have to backtrack a bit further but, tomorrow, I will switch to the Cassiar Highway which runs south through British Columbia. This is a more remote scenic byway and the community where I am staying tomorrow night does not even have a restaurant. However, the motel promises “high speed wi-fi” so I’m hoping to be able to post an update.

Since most of today’s drive was retracing my path I did not stop for photos but the video has plenty of scenery. You will find it, together with the map, here.

Building the White Pass and Yukon Route over such rugged terrain was a huge engineering challenge in 1898 but was completed in only 26 months. There are many trestles and tunnels on the route.

Fantastic landscapes were all around us.

Those of us who had traveled independently had our own carriage which was only half full but the other carriages, with cruise ship passengers, were full .
At times you could see the old White Pass Trail that the stampeders had to climb around 40 times.  The narrow path  is visible on the opposite side of the Skagway river in this image.
Back in Skagway the salmon run was in full flow.