I’m a bit behind. Par for the course when having fun. It’s Saturday as I type this, and we’re having a rainy day with limited visibility at sea. There was just a Coast Guard medical helicopter evacuation of a passenger, and apparently there are plenty of idiots who can’t follow simple instructions like “stay inside and do not go out on the balcony.” Sure hope the patient and their family have a happy ending to this chapter.
Thursday we docked in Skagway, a town with under 1000 year-round residents these days but an order of magnitude more about 125 years ago during the 1898 gold rush. Derek wisely disembarked early to be able to rent a car with enough driver seat space for him to drive (at 6’7” or a bit over 2 meters that’s an issue). Alison, David and I meandered over to the car rental at a more leisurely pace, stopping for some caching along the way.
The weather in Skagway was cloudy. By the time we climbed the mountains we were in the clouds. It was possible to see a few street markers but the trees a few yards (meters) away from the road were not visible. Getting through Canadian customs was easy, and this is a location where they’re used to day trippers. Eventually it started clearing and because a very sunny day. We stopped a few times for pictures, including at the pullout for the Welcome to Yukon Territory (and, facing the other direction, Welcome to British Columbia) sign. Went to the dunes area — yes, dunes, not a desert, as many geocachers know — then into the town of Carcross to get lunch.
The northernmost, and most beautiful, place we visited was Emerald Lake. The lake truly is jewel-toned — light greens like jade, medium greens like emerald, and rich blues like lapis. We photographed it from above, then went down to lake-level to take more pictures. And yes, to find a cache. From a sightseeing perspective, truly the highlight of the day.
We returned to Carcorss to find a few more caches. The sign at the entrance to the town, formerly known as Caribou Crossing, was a metal caribou. A boy caribou for those keeping score at home. The caribou itself did not have a cache, but there was one nearby. We found another cache with some nice views, then went to a cache that turned out to be quite near the train….didn’t find the cache, but did get some nice pictures and a video of the train.
More photo and cache stops on the way back, including one where we spotted a bear on a hill at a great distance. Not quite the bear holding salmon photo that David hoped for, but at least a bear in the wild. We left plenty of time for what turned out to be a quick stop at the US customs. Explored a bit more of the Skagway area, including both a drive up a glacial river and a meander through town. Decided that even though we still had time before we needed to be back on board that we were all tired from a busy and fun day so boarded in time for dinner. I think it’s safe to say that we are getting older as we all called it an early night.
Yesterday (Friday) we went through Glacier Bay National Park. Didn’t get to get off the ship, but the park rangers joined us on ship. Another long-distance bear sighting. Lots of otter and birds (gulls and some arctic terns) but didn’t see any salmon. The rangers did a great job of informing and also providing quiet times. We each went up to the bow of the ship for a “wider” view but did most of our viewing from our balcony — double-wide since we removed the barrier between us and our next door neighbors (Alison and Derek).
The tidewater glaciers (so called because they reach the water) are spectacular. White rivers with areas of blue. Black and brown spots where the glacier moved and absorbed the earth beneath it. Some atop mountains, others in valleys between the mountains. Nothing like the grandeur of glaciers and mountains to realize how small we are. Hard to describe…definitely recommend visiting this spectacular area.
Today was mostly a lazy ship day. Probably a good thing as tomorrow we disembark, take a bus from Whittier to Anchorage, pick up a rental car or two (depending on size), host an event cache (GCACT5N), check into our airbnb, and see Hamilton. But after dinner we reached the college glaciers so had what David referred to as the “cherry on top” to our glacier experience. I hadn’t realized that this was the first time he’d seen glaciers, what a treat to get to share that with him (yes, I’m spoiled and have seen them in Alaska, Canada, Norway, New Zealand and maybe somewhere else).
Time to call it a day. Likely my next writing will be after we leave Anchorage.
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