Garden City RV Park Skagway, Alaska Day 2

I’m really glad we chose to stay in Skagway for a second day.  This morning we took the road to Dyea.   This was a great place to explore with the Jeep.

The native Tlingit people established the village of Dyea.  The Taiya River and the Chilkoot Trail were used as a transportation corridor by the tribes so that they could trade goods.  When the gold rush began, the stampeders came into the harbor and used the trail to reach the interior of Alaska.

During the Klondike Gold Rush, on April 3, 1898, men were traveling in a steady stream on the trail.  The Tlingit guides were concerned about avalanche dangers but the gold seekers did not pay attention to the warnings.  More than 70 men were killed in the avalanche that day.  We went to the Slide Cemetery.  It is a little disconcerting to see all the grave markers with the same date of death.  These men came from many places…Colorado, New York, California, Oregon, Washington, Florida, and Denmark to name a few…hoping to strike it rich.  The percentage of people who actually found gold was very low.  Most people were not so fortunate.

There were big trees in this area.  We haven’t seen big trees in weeks.

The scenery was very beautiful.  The river by the road was wild and rugged.

We were standing on a bridge over the river when the clouds lifted.  There was a glacier that hadn’t been visible before…gorgeous.

We traveled to the end of the pavement and then on the rough dirt and gravel road.  We took it as far as we could.  There was a very steep, very pitted and rocky hill and we stopped the Jeep to investigate before going further.  The trail turned to muck and stopped not far after the crest of the hill…ride over.

We stopped at the turnout to look down on the town of Skagway.

We took a bike ride this afternoon and then this evening we had dinner at the Skagway Brewing Company and took a walk.

The old truck of the day.