Guerin’s On The Go !

We visited two ports today, unusual on a cruise ship….

Our first stop was Skagway, which was the first city to be incorporated in Alaska. It has a rich history with all of the gold miners passing through here on their way to the Yukon in search of gold. They faced terrible hardships , long journeys ,on foot, carrying all of their supplies on their person and after 2 years of heading into this unforgiving environment, they arrived at the gold rich areas only to find all the claims were taken…

We were fortunate to have a nice driver take us up into the Yukon while we could sit back, listen to him explain the history and enjoy the sights. We traveled across tundra areas , into valleys, and down to lakefronts. It was a long tour, that thankfully included lunch at place called Carcross . They had a few live animals, some mushing dogs and puppies as well as a taxidermy display, which I usually fine unsettling but these were so well done, I was fascinated… Afterward we headed back to Skagway for a bit of walking around downtown.

We climbed back aboard and grabbed some dinner before com8ng into port in Haines. Haines is a very small town in Alaska but it is known for its wildlife, bears and eagles in particular. It is home to the Chilkat River Bald Eagle Preserve . There was a US Army fort there that was in use through WWII. It has been decommissioned but in true Alaska nothing is wasted. The officers homes are now a nice neighborhood of residents.

Our excursion was wildlife viewing but the weather was not on our side. We did see a couple of bears on the weir of the Chilkat River. A weir is a device used to control and count the salmon going upstream to spawn. The collection of fish there make it like an all you can eat buffet for the bears! There was a mama bear teaching her two cubs to fish. We also saw some seals in the river feeding o the salmon but the rain brought the darkness on too quickly. Also it made the bus windows fog up making it hard to see. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day for wildlife viewing ….