Skagway

July 23rd: Since we were stuck for a while, we figured we would make the best of it and explore the area. We had planned on going to Skagway toward the end of our trip through Alaska, so we switched plans around since we were already nearby. 

Sean had been excited to see the Carcross Desert, which is considered the "smallest desert in the world," but it is actually a humid area with large sand dunes...dunes that you can drive on. You can imagine Sean was excited about that fact!

There are many beautiful sites on the drive there, with lots of mountains, glaciers/ice fields, lakes, waterfalls, and trees.

We finely made it to Alaska!!! (Although it was in the Jeep)

By the way, when you come up to the US Border, be sure to STOP AT THE STOP SIGN until the agent signals you to come forward, or you will get a stern talking to from the border crossing agent...oops!

Skagway is a quaint little town with an extremely large port for cruise ships and ferries. Since the town thrives on tourism, when the cruise ships are gone basically the whole town shuts down. With us not being interested in tourist shopping, we were most excited to see the cruise ships and Dyea Road.

There were 5-6 cruise ships docked during our visit.

Dyea Road is a dirt road that takes you to a campground and recreational area.

 They have companies that offer rafting tours and have kayaks you can rent to explore the Lynn Canal area next to Dyea. Well, we also found a 4x4 trail through the mud flats and found a view that not many people have seen, hehe!

The real treat came just as we were about to leave Skagway. On our way out from Dyea Road there is a lookout point of the Lynn Canal. I wanted to get a picture of the scenery from that spot on the way up the road, but it had a few people occupying the pull-off, so we decided to stop on the way out. Little did we know this is where we would see our first whales of the trip. Just as we were about to leave, we heard a blowing sound and saw a puff of water...