Traveling the USA

Brief shower in morning and then we finally see some patches of blue in the sky for a change. It’s still chilly so we decide to drive in a nice warm truck to see some area sights. We first drive to the gold rush era Skagway cemetery where the bad guy Soapy Smith is buried, and then we hike up to Lower Reid Falls. Joe finds gold specks in creek by the falls but we don’t really have anything along to ‘pan’ for gold. We will hopefully have a chance to pan for gold some other place on the trip.

Then we drive out to the gold ghost town of Dyea. During the Yukon gold rush of 1898, Dyea was the starting point for the Chilnook Trail and was the same size as Skagway (starting point for the White Pass trail). Now there is almost nothing left of the town…we hike around the area and do not find anything.

However, it’s a very picturesque drive to Dyea. We see a bald eagle with talons out fly right in front of us when we stop above Dyea – very cool. We also see many seals in the water near Dyea. What we thought was going to be a short drive ends up taking several hours.

We return to the trailer, have a snack and then take a walk to Yakutania Point on the other side of Skagway. Very picturesque.

Then we return to downtown and do some shopping. After dinner we walk out to see one of the four cruise ships leave. As we walk back to the trailer we see three eagles above our trailer, just floating around in a big circle. Very cool.