We arrived at Skagway, a town of about 1,000 people at 7:00 in the morning we woke a little earlier than we had to because we misread our tour tickets and thought we needed to leave at 8:45 when we didn’t need to leave until 11:00. So we had a leisurely breakfast and went down to the pier.

Skagway was one of two places we booked a ships tour on the White Pass and Yukon Route narrow gauge railway which traces part of the route of the original gold rush. We took the steam train rather than the diesels because I love steam engines.

We got on a bus to the train depot in a light drizzle. Fortunately it never got any worse and improved toward the end of the trip.

The ride itself was fascinating up the mountain to the pass, close to the edge of the gorge with white wate below. Mountains, half obscured by clouds, in the distance. Meantine the engine chugged away throwing off clouds of smoke from the boiler. We went through two tunnels one short and one a bit longer and over wooden trestle bridges.

At the White Pass they served champagne and Milano cookies to commemorate the event.

Once through the pass we crossed into Canada’s Yukon Territory. We had been told that we needed to bring our passports though no one ever checked. A short time later we filled up the boiler at a water tower, the wheels and pistons were checked and we turned around in a siding.

Once we got back we got off the train and walked through the small town of Skagway. As we were walking our train came by going into the yard so I was finally able to get a good video of the train complete with the sound of its steam whistle.