Skagway

This morning we got up early, watched the ship pull into the dock at Skagway, ate breakfast, and Ron went out to get the rental car from 'Sourdough Rentals'. Today is an adventure into the Canadian Yukon Territory.

I feel much better today. I ate breakfast twice, so that is a good sign.

Our first goal of the day is to go up into the mountains, across the Canadian border to 'Emerald Lake' . It's like driving the winding roads up the mountains toward Park City or a ski resort in Utah. The side of the road is dry dirt & rock mixed with packed snow. It is May. At the start of our drive we could see the train track across the ravine. That is where the tourists pay $109. one way to go only part way up the mountain. ( We pain $125. for all 6 of us to go twice as far). The mountains are very jagged and high. In several places we could the stunted trees had been covered with snowpack most of the year, or had shallow root systems.

A tiny visitor center in Carcross, short for Caribou crossing, was open. it was freshly painted, and very clean and nice inside. It looked like it was part Visitor Center, part post office, and part museum/eating area. Across the street was a general store/gift shop/antique shop. They sold beautiful fur jackets, walking stick tags, t-shirts, candy and chips. There was and old mini train they were getting ready for tourist season, but since May = January, tourist season has a while to wait. We donated $1 to get a Yukon Territory passport stamp. The border guards don't do 'cute' stamps. They are hired to be serious. Both directions they asked us if we were carrying anything we souldn't and if we bought anything. (Not that there was much to buy out there in the middle of nowhere.

Emerald Lake was amazingly green. The color comes from little things that feed off the limestone under the water. It is a blue-green of varing degrees depending on the depth of the water. Very beautiful.

We passed the 'worlds smallest desert'.