Back to Alaska (for 1 day)

Skagway & Haines are the only two towns in SE Alaska that you can drive to (you just have to go through Canada). They are at the top of the "Inside Passage" where cruise ships and ferries use The Alaska Marine Highway (you can access the road system again at Prince Rupert or you can sail all the way down to Bellingham, Washington.

So we drove through the Yukon and British Colombia to get to Skagway, AK.

Definitely NOT a Carribean cruise! ;)

Skagway is another quaint historical Goldrush town (that used to be a boom town/tent city that sprang up over night). 

100,000 stampeders left Seattle and other countries in search of the almighty dollar! They faced the harshest of conditions and went to extreme (often ridiculous) measures to chase after the dream. Skagway was the entry into the interior when there were no roads or trains yet and the famous Chilkoot Trial began in nearby Dyea (now a ghost town):

Thousands died or turned back. Only 30,000 actually made it to Dawson City (see our earlier posts from June) only to find that all the claims had been staked out and the gold already mined by locals from Alaska and the Yukon! :{ The Klondike Goldrush only lasted 2 years and yielded much less than other gold rushes, but it is one of the most famous because it is a testimony of mankind's determination & resilience and the power that the desire for wealth can cause one to literally goto "the ends of the earth" in search of it. You can still hike the Chilkoot trail (also known as "dead horse trail" for all the poor animals that lost their life along the way) and see scraps of metal and various items ditched along the way.

Today, tourists from the cruise ships leave Skagway with gold in their pockets, as they buy pieces of jewelry from the numerous "gold shops" lining the historical streets. Human nature never changes...the desire for "all that glitters" still causes people to goto extreme measures to attain it. Any gold acquired on this earth will be left behind as we trade up for the golden streets of Heaven!!! 

"Don't store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth & rust destroy, and thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in Heaven. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be." Matthew 6: 19-21