Dyea Townsite -a Ghost Town near Skagway

I had thought about staying at Dyea Campground until I read about the road there. While at Skagway, we decided to check it out , the road, the campground and the ghost town. The road is a scenic 9 mile drive. However, what I read about the road is true. It has numerous hairpin turns and down to one lane only in some spots. If two motorhomes were to meet, not sure what would happen if in a spot where you couldn't pull over. We checked out the campground and it had spots that we might fit but the campground road is narrow as well. Before we started up the road, we first stopped at a view point to see Skagway from above.

An airport strip is right near the town.

Below are a couple of the marathon racers coming down from Dyea Road. The full marathon is 26 miles and there is a half one as well. It has the reputation of being one of the hardest in North American. We saw some tired looking racers as we made our way on Dyea Road.

It might be tough but it is a beautiful course.

We got to the Dyea Townsite,

In 1898 Skagway’s rival city, Dyea (die-yee), at the foot of the Chilkoot Trail, was the trailhead for the shortest route to Lake Bennett, where stampeders began their float to Dawson City. After the White Pass & Yukon Route was completed in 1900, Dyea quickly died. Today it's a few old crumbling cabins, the pilings of Dyea Wharf and Slide Cemetery, where 47 men and women were buried after perishing in an avalanche on the Chilkoot Trail in April 1898.
From article in Lonely Plant
We took a walk through some of the former town. Not a lot to see but a nice and scenic trail.

I took a few more pictures on the way back.

We was nice that are campground was within walking distance of the town. There were also three restaurants right at the Boat Harbor. We went to Skagway Fish Company. It was a little too cold to sit outside which would have been nice as it is right on the water. However, the food was really good. We originally were going to have their fish taco special but they were out. It is weird but we have been going out a little more lately and this is the fifth restaurant in a row where they didn't have at least one of our first choices. We even went to a Tim Horton's and they were out of the Philly Steak sandwich Joe ordered. When is a fast food restaurant out of anything? Our second choice was Halibut stuffed with cream cheese and shrimp with vegetables. It was really good and maybe the better choice anyway.

Skagway Fish House

We really enjoyed our 4 days at Skagway. We next headed back north, again, on the Klondike Hwy crossing the border into Canada on our way to Tok, and the beginning of 5 or 6 straight weeks of being in Alaska.
More beautiful scenery on the way.

We stopped at the Yukon Suspension Bridge in BC. It is a pedestrian cable bridge that is 200 feet long and is high over the Tutshi River. There is a charge to walk across and 14 dollars a person seemed to be a little high. We probably would have done it another day but you know sometimes you just have one of those days where you don't feel like paying for something that seems a lttle overboard in prcing.

We stopped at another overlook for more awesome views.

Wow, it never gets old. Such wonderful scenery. Then we had to stop at the the Yukon's Carcross Desert. The Guinness World's Record proclaimed it the World's smallest desert. It is only 642 acres and 10,000 years ago was at the bottom of a glacier lake. Its sand dunes butt up to Lake Bennett.

We did an overnight in Whitehorse at Hi Country RV, where we stayed before. Then another long day driving which included another bear sighting.

There is construction everywhere as they have a short window to get roads fixed. Most of the roads aren't too bad. We did have a stretch that caused all the hangers with clothes on them to jump off the clothes rod and end up on the floor. This happen last time too. Below is one of the few places we had to wait around 15 minutes and follow a pilot car until we were out of the construction zone.

We hadAt another overnight stay in Tok(Back in ALASKA) at the Sourdough RV Park, another park we stayed at before. They have a pancake toss where the winner gets a free breakfast the next morning. We tried last time we were here but not this time. We did have pancakes for breakfast. I had pancakes that were filled with blueberries. YUMMY!! We also got on their WiFi for a short while. Another reason to go here is they have a high pressure rv/car washer. We needed to wash off some of the Alaska cement.
Again we headed out with a short stop at Delta Junction, which is the end of the Alcan Highway.

Next stop is the Fairbanks area with a stay in a little town called the North Pole.

The Road to Skagway

We left Liard, driving through Watson Lake, famous for the Signpost Forest and is the gateway to the Yukon. We stayed there on our last trip up here and walked around the Forest looking at all the signs people have left. It is pretty interesting. I just took a picture this time as we drove though. We certainly haven't seen the wildlife we saw last time from Muncho Lake upto Watson Lake. We saw the most we saw on our whole trip. We saw a few buffalo but didn't get any pictures. We saw three bears, two of which I got pictures of including the one below taken on the way to Watson Lake.

We stayed one night at the Yukon Motel and Lakeside RV Park, which is in Teslin on the Nisutlin Bay. They had a dump and water fill up which we needed after spending time at a few no hook up spots. We also ate the restaurant there which was okay. The next time we made our way to Skagway. We first continued on the Alaska Hwy to Jake's Corner where we turned southwest on Tagish Road to Carcross and then down the South Klondike Hwy. Both Haines and Skagway are located at the north end of Southeast Alaska and the Inside Passage. Last time we went to Haines. We thought about taking a Ferry on the one hour ride to Skagway for the day but never did. So we decided to drive down to Skagway and spending a few days there. The drive down to highway, which goes through the Yukon, BC and then Alaska, is beautiful. We finally were seeing a lot of snow on the mountains.

The closer we got to Skagway the colder it got with some snow on ground near the summit. The last part we drove down hill to sealevel at Skagway but it was still cold and windy.

Savannah taking a little rest on the long drive after she got off my lap.

We had called ahead to make sure we could get a spot at Pullen Creek RV Park. It is a city owned campground located right at the Boat Harbor. There is a campground set among trees but we stayed at the oceanside spots. There are just 12 backin sites set in a parking lot but with views of the harbor where the cruise ships come in and the mountains in the background..

The cruise ships really keep this town of 900 people busy. We are within walking distance of the town. The town has a number of restaurants and many tourist type shops. It seemed there was a jewelry store on every corner.

Nice park right next to the Campground

Much of downtown Skagway is now part of the Klondike Gold Rush Historical Park with its restored buildings. The historic White Pass and Yukon Route narrow gauge railroad was completed in 1902 and was considered an engineering wonder as it climbed the precipitous White Pass and continued to Whitehorse. On days when cruise ships are in you can take a train ride from Skagway to Frazer.

They have a nice little museum we checked out.

We had a drink and appetizer at the Red Onion Saloon, a restaurant, bar, and museum which was once a bordello during the Klondike Gold Rush days. The waitresses and bar keeps dress up in corsets and petticoats. They even have a tour of the upstairs with some history of the place. We were there during the day when the area was crowded with cruise people. Interestingly we went back one night to have a drink and listen to a live band and no one was dressed up in period costumes. In fact it was mostly local people there. When we walked in town, there was almost no one on the street. All the cruise people were back on their boats for the night.

Stay tuned for another blog on Skagway and the drive back through the Yukon, BC and finally to Tok, Alaska, We will then be in Alaska for the next 6 weeks or so.