Maybe Heaven IS a Place on Earth

If you're wondering what kept me, I've been in a state of stunned awe for the last 24 hours. A day of superlatives, where the scenery could only be described as God's own country, the likes of which I've not seen before. Think the Lake District on steroids! If the Norwegian fiords were beautiful, and they certainly were, the mountainous terrain of the Yukon is the Big Daddy to those 'teenagers'. 

We docked early on Tuesday into Skagway. After Juneau, albeit our experience there had been coloured by rain, our expectations of Skagway were not very high. How wrong we were. As the starting point for our day's trip it was completely charming and set the tone for 8 hours of non-stop joy. 

This small town grew out of the early gold-rush. When news of the discovery of gold reached the public in 1897, a veritable stampede of hopefuls made their way to Skagway (in those days Skagua, meaning 'windy place' in the local native Tlingit Indian language), this being the farthest point that could be reached by sea before it was necessary to head inland to the Klondike. Skagway soon transformed from a few tents to a bustling staging post, from where two options presented themselves to prospectors: the 33 mile Chilkoot Trail out of Dyea a short distance away involving a tortuous 1000 foot climb, or the longer but equally treacherous 45 mile White Pass, sometimes known as Dead Horse Valley.  It is said that a reporter set out to determine which was the preferable route by heading up one, and down the other. On arrival back in Skagway he wrote: "There ain't no choice - one's hell, the other damnation". Nevertheless many tried, some even succeeded but few made their fortune. After a few years and in an attempt to control the numbers, the Canadian Mounted Police made it a condition of crossing the border from US controlled Alaska into the Yukon by requiring that everyone wishing to enter carry all the supplies and equipment they would need to survive for a year. This 'ton of goods' often required multiple trips to meet the criteria and certainly sorted the enthusiastic from the determined (or desperate!) 

HRH, as always one of the enthusiastic. 

Thankfully we were not following their steps on foot. Within a couple of years of gold mania arriving in the area, the combined forces of an engineer, a financier and a railway contractor gave rise to the White Pass and Yukon Railroad, a permanent transportation system from Skagway up to Bennett Lake. A trip on this narrow gauge railway through the most incredible scenery was to be our adventure of the day. And that was when awe, and word atrophy, set in!

Carcross (the more recent name for the tiny hamlet formerly known as Caribou Crossing) where, after a coach journey to the head of the valley, we boarded the train. 

Beautiful Bennett Lake

A brief stop in Bennett where HRH had designs on joining the driver up front ....

Deep, deep valleys to be crossed - thankfully this now abandoned construction ran parallel to our cliff-hugging alternative.

Where the heavens meet earth and water. 

We finished the day in the Red Onion 'Saloon' (aka former brothel!) back in Skagway before rejoining the ship. It's clear the endless photographs we took will take some sorting through - once we've picked jaws off the floor. Surely Glacier Bay, Wednesday's destination, couldn't surpass ... Could it?