Bye-bye, cruisers! The end of the 2009 Alaska cruise season
I try to get down to Skagway to see the last ships each year, and yesterday turned out to be an excellent one. Lousy weather (as expected), excellent day. I always wonder whether people know the kind of weather to expect when they book these very late (or very early) cruises – some day I’ll do a poll.
I stopped at Emerald Lake for a minute, of course 🙂
Carcross is very quiet now – Matthew Watson’s Store is boarded up for the winter. Our cabin always looks cozy this time of year, though.
“Welcome to the Yukon” – brrrrrr!
At the south end of Tutshi I had a Moose Moment of note – see yesterday’s post for details.
There is a lot of water running through the pass – the usual waterfalls are much bigger and there are a lot of waterfalls that are only seen during heavy rains. Some day I’m going to spend a whole day taking pictures of waterfalls here – you know, set up the tripod and be serious about it 🙂
There wasn’t much traffic on the road, and most of the buses had few people on them. The 3 people on this Chilkoot Charters bus were certainly getting a personalized tour 🙂
People pay a lot of money to cycle down the White Pass – go figure. With traffic roaring by inches away, I wouldn’t do it even in the warm sunshine, even for free.
My impression is that a lot of people didn’t even get off the ship – it certainly didn’t look like there were 6,000 extra people in town!
Over to the Railway Dock to see my railfan friend Gil before he and his wife head south. He drives one of the shuttle golf carts during the summer.
There were lots of Avis rental cars lined up at the ferry dock, probably on their way to Juneau (Avis Skagway is now closed until May). On the way home I saw an empty car carrier headed for Skagway, perhaps to take others to Anchorage or Fairbanks.
The Fairweather Express heads for Haines, with Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas behind.
Big red bags from the Alaska Shirt Company were being carried by a lot of people.
The diamond shops were all quiet despite the SALE signs.
I could spend hours taking photos like this. The world will be all white soon enough.
Although I’ve occasionally wondered over the years about the location of the cemetery for people who died between the dates seen at the Gold Rush Cemetery and the modern one (ca 1920-1960), I’d never looked for it. Thanks, Kathleen, for telling me where the Pioneer Cemetery is – it’s a wonderful place!
I came home so buzzed last night. I love Falls colours, I love the running water, I love the ships – and I sure love moose! 🙂
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