At its birth, Skagway’s sudden appearance made it grim and lawless, full of gruff men prepping or returning from their 500 mile hike out the Chilkoot Trail to the goldfields in the Canadian Klondike region. Now, 110 years later, Skagway has become a great big Alaskan shopping Mall full of bright cheery vacationers. The Chilkoot Trail still exists, a 33 mile piece of it anyway, and hard core hikers use it for a recreational 3 day adventure. Modern Skagway stands as a blatant contrast to its past.
I thought Skagway would be a day of rest, really. Maybe some light shopping. Certainly plenty of picture taking… But, for the most part after the hectic day before in Juneau, it seemed like this would be a good day to just wander around.
You get off the ship and you’re greeted by vacationer graffiti made over the past few decades. Right at the bottom of our ramp was a big boulder stuck into the side of a mountain. It was painted blue, with the words:
“I’ve seen shops and mountains,
And roads that are pitty.
But now I must return
To my own home city.
When I get there I’ll tell them all
‘Skaguay is GREAT!’
I know ‘cause
I’ve been there
In ’78!”
The whole hillside is painted with these landmarks.
On past the walkway as we entered into Skagway, we were greeted by the Pullen Creek Fish Passage and Habitat Improvement Project, an extension of the Taiya Inlet Watershed meant to improve the habitat for the local salmon populations. My first trip here this water was teeming with salmon. I guess we were too early this time.
I didn’t know when I shot this old building what a prominent figure Jeff. Smith was in that past. I just thought it was a cool old building that has been preserved for over a century. But, the guy who operated this “Parlor” was a bit of a gentleman scoundrel. I’ll let you read about him here if you want, although I’ll have to say his funniest gag was selling $5 telegraph messages several years before telegraph service was actually set up for Skagway.
And really, what lawless, Wild West town full of desperate (in more ways than one) men would be complete without full service brothel? Seems every southeast Alaska town had one, and Skagway was no different.
This is the Red Onion, and an unknown tourist who looks none too happy to be part of my show. The Red Onion is now a simple tourist bar, again showing the contrast of modern sensibilities with those of the insulated and isolated untamed west around the turn of the last century.
This guy cracks me up… He almost looks guilty, doesn’t he?
Almost everywhere I went in Alaska there were dogs. Your own dog is a virtual requirement in these parts, it seems. I have plenty of dog pictures in these sets...
Puppies always seem to know how to work the crowd for a little extra attention...
I did a little walking off the beaten path and found surprisingly normal looking houses just a block away from the main street. Then there was a row of 1950’s Cadillacs parked alongside one of the streets, and no shortage of Alaskan pride. One odd thing I noticed is that the satellite dishes look like they’re pointed at the ground. I saw this everywhere up north. If you’re at the top of the planet you have to point your dishes downward to get a signal.
Shortly I met up with the crew, back over by the Days of ’98 theater on (aptly named) Broadway, the main drag in Skagway. While waiting there with Missy we met Charlie. A couple of shots of the building was all it took for Charlie to surmise my tourist status, so he began the sales pitch for a bus tour out the Klondike Highway, opposite the Skagway River, where on the opposite ridge rests what’s left of the White Pass & Yukon railroad, with its 3 and a half foot wide track and $100 per passenger tourist runs. Charlie’s a Seattle transplant, and spends his summers in Alaska working for the theater, where he sells tickets to shows, and the bus tours. I had no idea who this guy was, but, the more he talked to us, the friendlier he seemed, and the more interested in the trip I became. The bus was way better than the train. On the train, you can’t get off. The bus stops a few times. Bonus! Then there’s the fee, which was by comparison to other tours up there, a paltry $40 bucks… Another score! So why not? Well, Missy knew why not, and she and her mom went back to the ship for some R&R.
Pretty soon Charlie was writing up a ticket for Aunt Sharon and me.
I understand Missy and her mom caught a movie while Aunt Sharon and me shared the bus with another whole family of mom, dad, two rock throwing maniac pre-adolescent boys, and two older kids who just seemed way above this sort of kitschy touristy nonsense. One of them slept most of the trip. There's $40 well spent.
And a good decision to go it was it was once I settled that some horrible unplanned fate did not await us. My neurosis led me back across the street to the little cookie stand where earlier I had scarfed what easily has to be the world best chocolate chip cookies. The lady that ran the stand seemed trustworthy enough, and when she explained the rules of tourist engagement in Skagway, my little silly fears about returning late or being left for dead someone in western Canada were permanently laid to rest. I mean, if someone with cookie-making-skills like that vouches for Charlie, that’s good enough for me! And seriously, these were the best chocolate chip cookies I ever ate. Warm, gooey, still melting chocolate chips… Wow.
And so me, Aunt Sharon, and The Obnoxious Family piled in the bus driven by Dave, a player in the Days of 98 Theater who hangs out in the offseason and, of all things spends his Alaskan winters working construction…
We all headed north toward the Continental Divide and the Canadian border. You can imagine the scenery. And he did stop as promised, many more times than I anticipated, so you don’t have to completely imagine it. We saw Dall Sheep...
...Pitchfork Falls, which is actually runoff from a hilltop lake called “Goat Lake,” which provides all the electricity needed by Skagway and a neighboring town…
I thought Skagway would be a day of rest, really. Maybe some light shopping. Certainly plenty of picture taking… But, for the most part after the hectic day before in Juneau, it seemed like this would be a good day to just wander around.
You get off the ship and you’re greeted by vacationer graffiti made over the past few decades. Right at the bottom of our ramp was a big boulder stuck into the side of a mountain. It was painted blue, with the words:
“I’ve seen shops and mountains,
And roads that are pitty.
But now I must return
To my own home city.
When I get there I’ll tell them all
‘Skaguay is GREAT!’
I know ‘cause
I’ve been there
In ’78!”
The whole hillside is painted with these landmarks.
On past the walkway as we entered into Skagway, we were greeted by the Pullen Creek Fish Passage and Habitat Improvement Project, an extension of the Taiya Inlet Watershed meant to improve the habitat for the local salmon populations. My first trip here this water was teeming with salmon. I guess we were too early this time.
I didn’t know when I shot this old building what a prominent figure Jeff. Smith was in that past. I just thought it was a cool old building that has been preserved for over a century. But, the guy who operated this “Parlor” was a bit of a gentleman scoundrel. I’ll let you read about him here if you want, although I’ll have to say his funniest gag was selling $5 telegraph messages several years before telegraph service was actually set up for Skagway.
And really, what lawless, Wild West town full of desperate (in more ways than one) men would be complete without full service brothel? Seems every southeast Alaska town had one, and Skagway was no different.
This is the Red Onion, and an unknown tourist who looks none too happy to be part of my show. The Red Onion is now a simple tourist bar, again showing the contrast of modern sensibilities with those of the insulated and isolated untamed west around the turn of the last century.
This guy cracks me up… He almost looks guilty, doesn’t he?
Almost everywhere I went in Alaska there were dogs. Your own dog is a virtual requirement in these parts, it seems. I have plenty of dog pictures in these sets...
Puppies always seem to know how to work the crowd for a little extra attention...
I did a little walking off the beaten path and found surprisingly normal looking houses just a block away from the main street. Then there was a row of 1950’s Cadillacs parked alongside one of the streets, and no shortage of Alaskan pride. One odd thing I noticed is that the satellite dishes look like they’re pointed at the ground. I saw this everywhere up north. If you’re at the top of the planet you have to point your dishes downward to get a signal.
Shortly I met up with the crew, back over by the Days of ’98 theater on (aptly named) Broadway, the main drag in Skagway. While waiting there with Missy we met Charlie. A couple of shots of the building was all it took for Charlie to surmise my tourist status, so he began the sales pitch for a bus tour out the Klondike Highway, opposite the Skagway River, where on the opposite ridge rests what’s left of the White Pass & Yukon railroad, with its 3 and a half foot wide track and $100 per passenger tourist runs. Charlie’s a Seattle transplant, and spends his summers in Alaska working for the theater, where he sells tickets to shows, and the bus tours. I had no idea who this guy was, but, the more he talked to us, the friendlier he seemed, and the more interested in the trip I became. The bus was way better than the train. On the train, you can’t get off. The bus stops a few times. Bonus! Then there’s the fee, which was by comparison to other tours up there, a paltry $40 bucks… Another score! So why not? Well, Missy knew why not, and she and her mom went back to the ship for some R&R.
Pretty soon Charlie was writing up a ticket for Aunt Sharon and me.
I understand Missy and her mom caught a movie while Aunt Sharon and me shared the bus with another whole family of mom, dad, two rock throwing maniac pre-adolescent boys, and two older kids who just seemed way above this sort of kitschy touristy nonsense. One of them slept most of the trip. There's $40 well spent.
And a good decision to go it was it was once I settled that some horrible unplanned fate did not await us. My neurosis led me back across the street to the little cookie stand where earlier I had scarfed what easily has to be the world best chocolate chip cookies. The lady that ran the stand seemed trustworthy enough, and when she explained the rules of tourist engagement in Skagway, my little silly fears about returning late or being left for dead someone in western Canada were permanently laid to rest. I mean, if someone with cookie-making-skills like that vouches for Charlie, that’s good enough for me! And seriously, these were the best chocolate chip cookies I ever ate. Warm, gooey, still melting chocolate chips… Wow.
And so me, Aunt Sharon, and The Obnoxious Family piled in the bus driven by Dave, a player in the Days of 98 Theater who hangs out in the offseason and, of all things spends his Alaskan winters working construction…
We all headed north toward the Continental Divide and the Canadian border. You can imagine the scenery. And he did stop as promised, many more times than I anticipated, so you don’t have to completely imagine it. We saw Dall Sheep...
...Pitchfork Falls, which is actually runoff from a hilltop lake called “Goat Lake,” which provides all the electricity needed by Skagway and a neighboring town…
Then there was the Fairweather Fault, where we crossed the Moore’s Creek Bridge, a rare Single Point Cable Stay Cantilever Suspension Bridge, which is constructed such that if there is an Earthquake along the fault, the entire bridge structure will disconnect from the far side, saving it from collapse…
This was one of those moments where I saw the bridge approaching, and I one of my favorite photographic subjects is bridges, so I immediately started wishing we could stop. We drove over it, went on our way, and then Dave stopped right in the perfect spot for me to shoot. Of course I couldn't get off the bus fast enough.
Then there was the dichromatic Summit Lake, colored such because on half of it is full of glacial silt (pictured above). On the way back we stopped long enough for me to get a shot looking back northward along the Klondike Highway. Those poles off to the side of the road… Those are not lights. Those are guides for snow plows so they know where to go when the snow piles up, sometimes as high as these poles.
This was one of those moments where I saw the bridge approaching, and I one of my favorite photographic subjects is bridges, so I immediately started wishing we could stop. We drove over it, went on our way, and then Dave stopped right in the perfect spot for me to shoot. Of course I couldn't get off the bus fast enough.
Then there was the dichromatic Summit Lake, colored such because on half of it is full of glacial silt (pictured above). On the way back we stopped long enough for me to get a shot looking back northward along the Klondike Highway. Those poles off to the side of the road… Those are not lights. Those are guides for snow plows so they know where to go when the snow piles up, sometimes as high as these poles.
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