A Busy Port with Lots of Cruise Ships & Access to the Alaska Highway
After spending a couple of days back at Mendenhall Campground in Juneau it was back on the ferry and our last stop in Alaska, Skagway. The ride on the ferry was uneventful, with beautiful views of the mountains, ocean and waterfalls along the way. When we got to Skagway the town was pretty busy with four or five large cruise ships docked, but we were able to negotiate the way from the terminal to our campground, Garden City RV Park, without too much trouble. Garden City has electric-only sites without water and sewer hookups even though there were what looked like pipes at the sites that must be from a defunct water/sewer system. There is potable water and a dump station available at the RV park and we knew it was electric only when we booked it.
Skagway is the furthest north of the Alaska Panhandle’s ports, with access via the Klondike Highway to the Alaska highway so it’s in a good spot. Sitting at the top of the Chilkoot Inlet, it’s an extremely busy port of call for cruise ships and therefore has a ton of shops looking to cash in on the crowds. Not as crazy busy as Juneau, but still crowded. The good news for us is that after the cruisers start to leave in the late afternoon and evening the town starts to empty out and there are a ton of good restaurants to enjoy.
Our campground was only a short walk to downtown, so we walked down to check out the shops and restaurants after we got set up. The town was pretty busy when we first got there, but after 6:00 or so things started to thin out as the cruise ships got closer to departure. There’s a lot to see along Broadway including a National Park Service visitors center, the White Pass & Yukon Railroad and Shoreline Park. We had a great barbecue dinner at Skagway Brewing (brisket & spicy sausage) along with some of their Chilkoot Trail IPA.
There are three units of Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park in Skagway (the fourth is in Seattle) with the visitors center and a couple of museums in town and the former site of the town of Dyea, a couple of miles from Skagway. Dyea has a National Park Service Campground and the Chilkoot Trail trailhead on the east side of the Taiya River. The old townsite and the Dyea Flats Municipal Campground are west of the river. There’s also a cemetery on that side of the river where the remains of more than 70 people on their way to the Klondike gold were killed in an avalanche on Palm Sunday 1898 are buried.
Up Next: Homeward Bound
After six weeks in Alaska it was time to head home. You can check out all of our trip on our blog page.
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