Excursion into the Gold Rush : Skagway, AK

“Strange waters to you, are home ports to others.”

Robin Hobb

Peaceful Morning on Queen Elizabeth

During the night, Queen Elizabeth journeyed past Juneau – the state capital and port that we will return to later in the voyage - and continued through Favourite Channel, passing the small community of Haines along the way. By the morning of our fifth day on board, we were approaching Skagway and with it the midpoint of our Alaskan journey.

The skies were clear when the day began. Sean, as usual, was awake absurdly early. Moving quietly around the cabin so as to try to not to wake me, he dressed, slipped out the door, and made his way up to the Lido for a quick coffee before heading out to the aft deck.

He loves these early moments of the day - the quiet hours when most of the ship is still asleep, the world is peaceful, and the day begins with stunning displays of light and is still full of new possibilities.

For my part, I usually join him an hour or so later. These journeys are, after all, about getting some relaxation in. Rather than running on 2-3 hours of sleep a day for the 10 days we are on board, I prefer, from time to time, to stay in my deep, cozy and warm bed for a bit longer.

Approaching and Docking in Skagway

As it turned out, this particular morning was perhaps a good one to linger in bed a little longer. When Queen Elizabeth approached Skagway, the conditions were heavily overcast, with fog and low cloud blanketing the surrounding landscape. The mountains that rise around Lynn Canal remained largely hidden, and the first glimpse of town came not as a dramatic panorama, but as scattered lights glowing faintly through the mist.

According to Sean, who had been up long before I was, the most interesting aspect of the morning arrival was not the scenery but the quiet procession of ships entering the harbour. One by one, the vessels approached Skagway, each keeping to its scheduled arrival window. Unlike the open solitude of a transatlantic crossing, where days may pass without seeing another ship, here the voyage felt carefully choreographed. Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruise Line, and Celebrity vessels as well as our Cunarder, all moved through the channel in orderly sequence toward the same destination.

By the time I finally made my way up to the outer decks, the ship had already completed the docking process. Queen Elizabeth now sat secured to the pier, pointing front first into town, which was a slightly odd sight, and surrounded by the steep forested slopes that rose sharply around the harbour. Thick conifer forests cloaked the hillsides, and somewhere above them the mountain peaks disappeared into the low clouds that still hung over the valley.

Having missed the arrival itself, we retreated to the Lido for breakfast. Here, a bowl of warm oatmeal with brown sugar and some fresh berries, a glass of orange juice, and a couple of cups of coffee provided a welcome start to the day before we set out to explore Skagway.

Notes from the Navigator

Sitting in the King’s Court buffet, we read through the daily program, which today was titled - In the port of Skagway, Alaska, USA.

The description framed Skagway as the gateway to the Klondike - a place where more than 100,000 stampeders once passed through in search of gold. Mentions of preserved frontier streets, the White Pass railway, and the dramatic mountain setting hinted at a town shaped as much by history as by the landscape around it.

Our time in Skagway offered a wide range of excursions for passengers. Some of the more popular options included the famous White Pass and Yukon Route railway journey into the mountains, helicopter flights to nearby glaciers, rafting excursions through the nearby eagle preserve, and wildlife safaris exploring the surrounding wilderness. There were also quieter options for those interested in the town itself, including photography walks and historical tours that explored Skagway’s colourful gold rush past - including the intriguingly titled “Ghosts and Goodtime Girls” walking tour.

Disembarking and Exploring Skagway

With breakfast finished, we gathered our jackets, binoculars, and camera gear and joined the steadily moving line of passengers preparing to go ashore. After scanning through the ship’s security checkpoint and walking down the gangway, we navigated around the groups assembling for their scheduled excursions before setting off to explore the town on our own.

Skagway sits at the northern end of Alaska’s Inside Passage, at the head of Taiya Inlet along the Lynn Canal. Though small today, the town owes much of its existence to the Klondike Gold Rush of the late nineteenth century.

In July of 1897, the first ships carrying hopeful gold seekers, known as “stampeders”, arrived here, eager to reach the goldfields of the Yukon. Within months, Skagway and the nearby settlement of Dyea had transformed into chaotic frontier boomtowns, as thousands of prospectors poured ashore searching for routes north. From here, they would attempt to cross the mountains via the White Pass or the famously difficult Chilkoot Trail, hauling their supplies toward Lake Bennett and eventually the Yukon River system beyond.

The boom was intense but short-lived. By 1899, the great stampede had largely ended, yet Skagway endured. The construction of the White Pass and Yukon Route Railway soon linked the town with the Yukon interior, allowing natural resources to move south to the coast and helping secure Skagway’s role as a transportation gateway.

Later, when ferry service began linking coastal communities in the 1960s, tourism gradually became the town’s primary economic driver. Today, Skagway’s small downtown still reflects its gold rush origins, with preserved false-fronted buildings and wooden boardwalks lining the streets.

From the ship, we had already noticed the famous White Pass railway waiting not far from the docks, its tracks running surprisingly close to the waterfront. The town itself appeared compact - only a handful of streets laid out in a tight grid between the steep forested hillsides and the water. Walking inland, it became clear that Skagway had always been less a destination than a point of passage.

Both the Chilkoot Trail and the White Pass route begin here, leading travellers north into the mountains and ultimately toward the Yukon. Even today, the town feels oriented toward departure - trains heading inland, trails disappearing into the wilderness, and ships arriving and leaving along the waterfront. In short, and in many ways, Skagway seems to exist because people were always trying to go somewhere else.

Perhaps because of its links to the Yukon and Canada’s north, we found the place unexpectedly familiar. One of the principal routes north from here leads toward Whitehorse - a community Sean once lived in, and a place we know well from our own travels along the Trans Canada Trail. The historic corridor linking Skagway and the Yukon interior is also part of a Story Map project we have been developing with the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, so much of this history already feels surprisingly close to home.

Skagway’s Historic Main Street

The history of the gold rush is evident throughout town – preserved storefronts, boardwalks, and diamond shops – each reflecting in their own way an earlier era and a legacy of ambition and quick wealth. Walking along Broadway, Skagway’s main street, it sometimes felt as though we had stepped onto the set of an old western film rather than into a modern town.

Wooden storefronts lined the main street, boardwalks tied together shops, cafes and saloons. Painted murals decorated several buildings, while shop staff in period clothing greeted visitors in character, recreating the atmosphere of the gold rush years.

Among the storefronts we noticed Alaska Geographic - an organization whose insightful publications fill several shelves in our own library at home - along with the trail information centre for the historic Chilkoot Pass route into Canada.

Yet alongside these historic elements were the unmistakable signs of a modern cruise port: diamond shops, souvenir stores, and a wide array of tourist curiosities.

Watching the scene unfold, Sean - who holds more than a few history degrees - found himself reflecting on the complicated relationship between history and performance. At what point, he wondered, does interpretation begin to blur into theatre and spectacle?

Still, there was no denying the appeal of the setting. Surrounded by mountains and steep forested slopes, Skagway’s preserved streets offered a vivid glimpse into the era when this small coastal settlement briefly became the gateway to the Klondike.

As the final two cruise ships arrived in port and the town grew noticeably busier, we were grateful that our own plans would soon take us inland as well.

White Pass and Yukon Route Railway

Normally, we are not particularly drawn to organized excursions and guided tours when travelling. The costs can add up quickly, especially when booking through cruise lines, and we usually prefer to explore ports and towns independently. In Skagway, however, we decided to make an exception. Our chosen excursion was the historic White Pass and Yukon Route Railway - a narrow-gauge line carved into the cliffs and mountains that rises beyond the town.

For anyone interested in the history of the Klondike Gold Rush, northern landscapes, or historic railways, the White Pass line offers a remarkable journey. Built at the height of the gold rush to help move supplies and people into the Yukon interior, the railway climbs nearly 3,000 feet in the first twenty miles beyond Skagway. The route threads its way through steep mountain terrain, crossing trestle bridges and passing through tunnels as it ascends toward the White Pass Summit along the border between Alaska and Canada.

Today, the restored railway has become both a historical attraction and an engineering landmark. The narrow-gauge line winds through deep gorges, past waterfalls and cliffs, gradually climbing toward the summit at 2,888 feet above sea level. Along the way, passengers pass well-known landmarks such as Bridal Veil Falls, Inspiration Point, and Dead Horse Gulch, each tied in some way to the difficult history of the stampeders who once struggled through this same landscape on foot.

The mountains beyond Skagway rise sharply, a stark reminder of what was demanded of those early prospectors. During the gold rush, thousands of men and women hauled enormous quantities of supplies over these passes in order to reach the Yukon goldfields. Having spent months and years walking long distances ourselves, we found it difficult not to view this landscape through the lens of physical effort rather than the romance of the rails. What now feels like a scenic railway journey was once a gruelling gateway into the north.

Seated in the spacious vintage railcars, the train slowly pulled its way out of the valley and began its steady climb. At times, the route felt almost impossibly narrow, the tracks clinging to steep slopes high above the valley floor. The scenery shifted constantly as we ascended – small ponds, dense conifer forests, steep hillsides and waterfalls.

Banks of fog drifted through the valley as we climbed higher, sometimes revealing distant ridges and sometimes swallowing the landscape entirely. I quickly discovered that the open-air platforms at the ends of the railcars offered the best vantage point, and spent much of the journey standing outside watching the mountains slowly unfold around us. Sean isn’t a fan of heights so he spent much of his time inside the car, enjoying the views through the banks of windows.

Along the route, we passed historic trestle bridges and remnants of earlier railway structures, including the famous cantilever bridge that once spanned the gorge below. Small ponds beside the tracks held scattered birds - surf scoters among them, along with a variety of ducks that seemed perfectly at home in these quiet mountain waters.

The train eventually passed through one of the tunnels near the summit before reaching White Pass itself. Here, the railway briefly crosses into Canada before looping along the high ridge and beginning its return journey toward Skagway.

Standing there, it felt strangely surreal to be so close to the Yukon interior. Whitehorse and the Trans Canada Trail– lay only a short distance beyond the mountains! After a final pause near the summit, the train retraced its route back down the mountainside toward the harbour at Skagway.

Return to Skagway, Buying Local

After returning from the railway excursion, we wandered back through Skagway’s small collection of shops. Like many cruise towns, a number of storefronts were filled with the familiar assortment of souvenir T-shirts and tourist trinkets. Those rarely hold much appeal for us, so we quickly drifted past them in search of something a little more meaningful.

Instead, we found ourselves drawn into a few smaller galleries and bookstores featuring the work of local artists and writers. These spaces offered a very different glimpse of the region, one rooted more in local culture than in mass tourism.

Among the pieces that caught our attention were several hand-drawn cards by the artist Allie High, whose work reflects Tsimshian, Haida, and Alutiiq heritage. High is known as a mask maker, printmaker, and coastal designer, and her work has appeared in a number of museums and private collections across Alaska. We selected a small collection of her cards, along with a modest print to take home - the kind of keepsake that carries a deeper connection to place than most souvenirs.

Whenever possible, we try to support local artists and authors when travelling. These pieces, small though they may be, often carry far more meaning once the journey is over.

Klondike Gold Rush

From the shops, we made our way toward the nearby visitor centre operated by the U.S. National Park Service, which interprets the history of the Klondike Gold Rush. Inside, we spoke for a while with one of the park rangers about the historic Chilkoot Trail - the steep mountain route that once carried thousands of stampeders toward the Yukon.

Sean, who has a habit of collecting trail guidebooks wherever we travel, could not resist purchasing a copy for the future.

The Chilkoot Trail remains one of the most famous historic hiking routes in North America, tracing the path that prospectors once struggled across while hauling nearly a ton of required supplies toward the goldfields. The route is notoriously demanding, climbing steeply over the Chilkoot Pass before descending toward Lake Bennett on the Canadian side of the border.

In recent years, parts of the trail have occasionally closed due to erosion and the challenges of maintaining a historic route that spans two countries. Even so, standing there in Skagway and learning more about the trail made it easy to imagine returning one day to experience that landscape on foot.

Hiking and Birding in Skagway

By the time we said our goodbyes to the Park Ranger, a familiar scene from Ketchikan was beginning to take shape in town. During our time on the train and in the shops, the docked cruise ships had continued disgorging thousands more visitors. Streets, sidewalks, and crossings filled quickly with people moving between shops, excursions, and tour groups. Rather than navigate the growing crowds, we chose to leave town behind and head for the shoreline trails at Yakutania Point and Smuggler’s Cove.

Before setting off, we paused briefly along the Skagway River to check for fish, ID the gulls overhead and photograph the coastline as the tide moved through the inlet. Here, a pair of Northern Pintails drifted across the water, their long necks and elegant profiles unmistakable even at a distance. In the grass nearby, a Savannah Sparrow paused briefly among the reeds before disappearing again into the dense coastal vegetation.

From the river, we crossed the metal pedestrian bridge and began following a broad dirt path that wound along the coastline. The trail alternated between open rocky shoreline and pockets of dense coastal forest, occasionally revealing views across Taiya Inlet toward the surrounding mountains.

This area also carries a much longer human history. Smuggler’s Cove - known traditionally by the Tlingit name Yakwdéiyí.áa - lies within historic Chilkoot Tlingit territory, and archaeological work here has uncovered evidence of both Indigenous and later Gold Rush era occupation. Artifacts found in the area suggest that, for a time, both Tlingit families and Euro-American settlers lived along this sheltered stretch of coastline during the late nineteenth century.

One of the highlights of leaving town behind - beyond escaping the crowds - was the remarkable richness of the coastal forest itself. The trail passed through thick stands of spruce and hemlock where the forest floor seemed almost entirely carpeted in moss.

Bright red rose hips hung from dense shrubs of wrinkled wild rose along the edges of the path. By late summer, these glossy fruits become an important food source for birds and small mammals preparing for the colder months ahead.

The damp forest also revealed a surprising diversity of smaller life as well. Fallen logs were coated in layers of moss and patches of lungwort lichen, their soft green lobes spreading across the wood in the cool coastal air.

Beneath the trees, the forest floor was alive with fungi. Pale woodland mushrooms pushed up through the needles while russet-coloured caps appeared beside the trail. In darker corners of the forest, small cup fungi sat like tiny bowls pressed into the moss.

Moist logs and stones supported clusters of lichens and fungi that thrive in these cool, damp environments. Together, these organisms form the quiet machinery of the forest — breaking down fallen wood, recycling nutrients, and sustaining the complex web of life that supports the larger landscape around them.

Nearby, several clusters of brown woodland mushrooms pushed through the moss and fallen needles, their delicate gills exposed beneath broad caps. Such fungi are abundant in northern forests and represent only a small glimpse of the vast underground networks quietly sustaining the ecosystem beneath our feet.

Eventually, we reached Smuggler’s Cove, a short trek just beyond Yakutania Point along the edge of Taiya Inlet. After pausing for a few quiet moments along the shoreline, we retraced our steps through the forest and followed the trail back toward town.

Klondike Brewing Company

By mid-afternoon, we had made our way back into town and began looking for a quiet place to sit and relax for a while. The streets of Skagway were again even more noticeably busier than when we had left earlier in the day, with excursion groups moving between shops, docks, and tour buses.

Fortunately, we were able to find a table at Klondike Brewing Company, a welcome place to pause after several hours of walking. We ordered two flights of local beers reflecting our usual preferences. One featured lighter lagers and red ales, while the other leaned toward darker selections, dominated by rich stouts.

Both flights proved excellent, and we spent an unrushed hour of the afternoon here, enjoying the beer and watching the steady flow of visitors pass along the streets outside.

Return to Queen Elizabeth

It was beginning to grow dark by the time we returned to the pier and boarded Queen Elizabeth. Before heading inside, we paused briefly to take a few photographs of the ship resting against the dramatic mountain backdrop of the region.

By this point, we were among the last vessels still in port. The streets that had been crowded earlier in the day now appeared quiet and nearly empty - a striking contrast to the bustle that had filled Skagway only hours before.

Around us, bands of fog and low clouds continued to slide across the mountain slopes, occasionally revealing forested ridges before covering them again. Soon after departure, we settled in to watch the scenery of Upper Lynn Canal, which the ship’s naturalists noted is considered one of the longest fjord systems in the world.

Low clouds clung to the mountain tops while the dark silhouettes of trees occasionally emerged from the fog along the shoreline as the ship made its slow passage south.

Evening on Queen Elizabeth

Our time in Skagway had been a full and wonderful day. The experience served as a reminder that Alaska is not only a landscape of forests, mountains, and extraordinary natural beauty, but also is a region shaped by a long and woven history - one defined by perseverance, ambition, and at times immense hardship for those who ventured north in search of opportunity.

Like many such places, Alaska is a place that takes time to absorb and understand.

After a short dinner in the Lido, we made our way up to the Commodore Club, settling into comfortable chairs near the windows while the evening’s piano music drifted through the room. Outside, the last of the daylight faded over the water as the ship continued its journey south.

Tonight Queen Elizabeth will travel through the Taiya Inlet and down the length of Upper Lynn Canal, retracing roughly half the distance we had covered the previous evening on our way north back toward Juneau.

Had we taken this journey earlier in the season, we might have had greater chances of spotting Steller sea lions, bears, moose, or whales along these waters. Travelling so late in the year meant shorter daylight hours, and by the time we departed Skagway, the darkening skies made wildlife sightings increasingly unlikely. Perhaps that’s just an excuse to come back…

See you on board!

Nautical Term of the Day - Give a Wide Berth - Ships anchored with enough room to swing safely at anchor, giving one another a “wide berth.” We now use it to mean keeping a comfortable distance.