Skagway

Alaska is one of the few places in the world where in order to reach some of its towns by road, you have to enter through another country. We had already entered Hyder, Alaska by way of Stewart, BC and, in fact, once you get to Hyder, you can't get anywhere else in Alaska by road - it's a dead end. Given this strange circumstance, it seems quite ridiculous to have to go through immigration check points (American and Canadian).

To get to Skagway, you head south from the Alaska Highway, passing through the Yukon and BC and facing very strict Homeland Security questioning at the US/Canadian border. From Skagway, the only way to continue is by ferry boat, which can take you and your vehicle to other Alaskan towns, to towns in British Columbia or all the way to Washington State.

We left Whitehorse in miserable gray and cold weather and as we approached the high pass of the coastal range mountains, the skies cleared and we dropped down to sea level at Skagway under a gorgeous blue sky.

Skagway has been completely restored as a National Historic District to faithfully re-create the look and feel of a gold rush town (even the crowds of people coming off the ever-present cruise ships faithfully re-create the throngs of gold-seekers waiting to make their way over the pass and northwards.) Even the narrow-gauge train (The White Pass and Yukon Route Railway) that was built to ease the burden of getting to the gold in 1900 is still operating and full of tourists .

After looking around a bit, we decided to take advantage of the gorgeous weather and the fantastic scenery to take a hike up to an alpine lake. The hike was brutal - steep and unrelenting and we weren't able to achieve our final destination at the lake, but we did get incredible views of the surrounding mountains and had a good time trekking in the snow.