Skagway was, next to Juneau, my favorite port of call on the cruise. I believe, and I could be wrong here, that the entire town is part of the Klondike Goldrush National Historic Site, a part of which also exists in Washington State. A National Park's Visitors Center exists near the docks but, unlike other National Park sites, there really isn't any land set aside which contains the Park or Site. In the middle of the small town of Skagway an old house exists which has become a museum, and which does have National Park signs around it. But that is really it as far as the National Park Service stamp of ownership is concerned.

We docked about 7a.m. in the Sunday morning and I was off the ship as soon as I could be. I had until about 10:30am to see what there was to see, visit the Visitors Center to get the stamp in my National Park's Passport book, and do some shopping. At 10:30 was my excursion for the day, the Glacier Point Wilderness Safari (more on that below). Pretty much all of the shops were closed until 8a.m. so that cut my time down even farther.

The walk from where the ship was docked to the town was about 1/2 mile or so. There was a shuttle between the dock and the town that one could also take for a couple of dollars that would bring you close to the ship as well. The town itself was very small - I really do wonder what happens once the tourist season is over. Does everyone leave? This is the starting point for the trek into the Yukon gold mines to the northeast in Canada, and one of the excursions people could chose to do (and I did not) was take a train up the hill along the route miners used to follow. I am told the scenery is quite lovely and, if I am ever in Skagway again, I will most likely do that.

As per normal for this trip, it was overcast and a bit rainy but not as bad as it would be in Ketchikan the next day. Certainly not as good as the weather in Juneau. It was actually comparable to Sitka, where it rained on and off throughout the day. Early in the morning, it was just overcast; it rained some on the Excursion which made taking pictures somewhat of an adventure. However, I did manage to take over 60 (!) pictures during the Excursion.

It took me about an hour to see all there was to see in Skagway. At which time, the stores and other attractions opened. I did some more shopping - really, you could not help it as the stores were just right there! I visited the Visitors Center to get my stamp, and made it back to the ship in plenty of time for the Excursion.

 

The Excursion lasted about 4 1/2 hours. Emebet, her mother, and I were the only members from our group on the Carnival Spirit that went on this Excursion, and this was the most expensive of the Excursions I selected. And, along with the Mendenhall Lake Canoe Adventure in Juneau, it was one of the most memorable. In a good way, of course.

The start, however, was not very auspicious. The catamaran that was to take us from the dock over to Glacier Point was nowhere in evidence, so we ended up waiting for about 20 minutes. The ride back and forth to Glacier Point itself takes about 40 minutes one way - on the way back we were given a box lunch. On the way to Glacier point, we saw some humpback whales.

Once at Glacier Point, we disembarked from the catamaran directly onto the beach - no dock here - and boarded an ancient schoolbus for a ride through the woods on a one-way dirt road (the one-way being the way you were traveling at the time). The bus ride ended at a small compound, which contained a shed of additional gear we needed to don, plus the last place we could use the restroom. The gear consisted of rain gear, both pants and a coat, rubber boots, and a life jacket. I felt like the Michelin Man when I was finished dressing. This was in addition to the several layers of clothes I already had on. The only thing I got to remove was my shoes.

We then hiked through the woods for about 15 minutes to reach the spot where the canoes were moored. From there, we could see the Davidson Glacier. We loaded up the canoes - we had enough people for 2 12-person canoes - and went off on our adventure.

Our canoe went towards the front of the Glacier first. Like with the Mendenhall Glacier, we were not allowed to get any closer than about 100 feet due to the possibility of calving. Unlike at Mendenhall, we only paddled for part of the trip because the canoe had a motor. It also got colder the farther we got away from where we climbed into the canoe; I was very grateful for all of the extra geer. Plus, it was raining at the beginning of our canoe trip. The rain did stop after a while but many of my pictures do have water spots because of the rain.

Christy, our guide, also sang to us along the way; she had worked at the Disney parks at one point and she has a lovely singing voice. There is a picture of her with Emebet and her mother, above.

After going to the front of the Davidson Glacier, we backtracked a little and went to a small lagoon. We were able to travel up the lagoon to the side of the Glacier and got up to about 5-10 feet away. It is much safer on the sides so you are allowed to get closer. From what Christy said, normally the water was not deep enough to allow us to get up this close.

We spent about 30 minutes in the lagoon before retracing our path back to the place where we climbed into the canoe. The trip there went in reverse and we hiked back through the woods, returned our extra geer, boarded the bus for the return trip to the beach to board the catamaran back to Skagway.