Skagway

On Tuesday, we were in Skagway. After breakfast, we went to the dock and got on a shuttle to take us up into the Yukon Territory to where gold was discovered in 1898. Remember the people that we met in Vancouver who were the parents of a friend of Hailey's? Well, they were on a different ship, but in Skagway on the same day as us. We couldn't believe it when they got on our shuttle bus! They were only going on the 3 1/2 hour tour and we were going on the 7 1/2 hour tour, so we ended up just riding with them to the next shuttle bus. I still can't get over meeting them. Terrell, was our bus driver. He was very entertaining and informative. I haven't been on very many guided tours, so it was a plus that he was enjoyable. Terrell would stop for photographic scenery whenever we wanted. We saw a black bear at one point. The bears' back had some long cinnamon colored hair on it. We have a black bear rug and it does not have that on there. We continued on to Carcross. Originally, it was know as Caribou Crossing, but was shortened to Carcross. They had a barbecue lunch for us prepared. Afterwards we roamed around and went to an animal museum and looked at the Ididerod puppies. There were some puppies with their eyes still closed. We left Carcross and continued 10 more miles to Emerald Lake. I have to say it is the most beautiful lake I've ever seen. There are 5 or 6 colors of blues and greens. Absolutely gorgeous! We started back towards Skagway still on the shuttle. On our way to Fraser, BC, we stopped at Carcross Desert, which is the smallest desert in the world. The desert is the remains after a glacier completely melted. When we got to Fraser, British Columbia, we got off the shuttle and boarded the White Rail Pass train. More beautiful scenerey of waterfalls, train trestles, tunnels, and the original trail made by the goldminers in 1898. When we got off the train, we walked around Skagway for a bit and then back to the ship.