In Skagway, we splurged on our one and only excursion - the White Pass Railway. This was built during the Klondike Gold Rush in the 1890's and took us into Canadian territory up over
the mountains.
This is a great picture showing the fjord carved out by glaciers. The town of Skagway is at the water's edge, with our cruise ship in the harbor. Here, all groceries are either flown in or delivered by cargo ship, and most purchase groceries in bulk on-line from places like Costco. A gallon of milk costs $6 and usually expires in 1-2 days. It's not uncommon for people to fight over milk with a 5-7 day expiration date, since it's rare.
The rail cars are nicely heated, but we occasionally stepped out to breathe the crisp, cold air and take a few pictures. Of the 100,000 gold rushers that started on the journey, only half actually reached their destination, only a few thousand actually found gold, and only about a hundred actually struck it rich. Nordstrom was one that struck it rich, and he used the gold money to invest in a shoe store back home (you know the rest of that story).
Once at the peak of this mountain pass, the terrain was very different. The lush green fir trees were gone and replaced by sparse vegetation, including a rare white moss that is only found in very clean environments. This moss is extremely fragile, and has a unique ability to break down the granite rock, allowing other vegetation to survive.
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