Mid-Winter in Skagway, Alaska
I drove down to Skagway on Monday, but I’m so busy that I haven’t had a chance to post the photos until now, 4 days later (and this is being posted at 02:00 am). The weather forecast wasn’t great but I needed to pick up some stuff that’s been sitting in my post office box for far too long and my schedule was full for the upcoming good-weather days. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that Monday was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day so the post office was closed. DOH! But, any excuse to make this drive is a good excuse, and I really needed to “get outa Dodge”.
This photo of Gray Ridge was shot a few minutes after starting down the South Klondike Highway. For a few miles it looked like the day might turn out reasonably nice, but just south of Carcross the mountains disappeared into low clouds.
After dozens of miles of not being able to see much of anything, it was very nice to see this view as I started the descent to sea level.
The Highways camp on the Alaska side of the summit.
The William Moore Bridge.
The main roads in Skagway were salted and in good condition but the side roads were deadly. The glare ice made driving difficult and walking nearly impossible. Watching a couple of guys trying to walk to the ferry terminal made me think of the Kia ad on TV where a man salts his way to the car because the sidewalk is too slippery to walk on, but then drives away easily in his little SUV.
This would be a nice day for a ferry ride down to Juneau or beyond. Well, nice in a winter way at least, with calm seas.
Loading the Malaspina.
There’s not much moving at Shops – the hard ice covers most of the tracks.
I wasn’t sure whether I should drive a hundred yards off the highway to get this photo or not. The sloped glare ice was certainly not walkable. I love my Outback 🙂
Heading home, this was the best visibility I had through the pass. It was one of the days when those poles at the side of the highway were invaluable, because without them the shoulder of the road was invisible at any more than a crawl.
A half-mile north of the border crossing at Fraser. Seeing 2 vehicles at the same time is unusual in the winter, and a few minutes after taking this shot I saw 3 together – a South Klondike traffic jam! It’s possible that they were travelling together for safety.
Starting down the hill to Windy Arm. You’d never know it from this photo, but this is a particularly scenic location in good weather.
A look at one of the avalanches that closed the highway for about 3 days in the past week. It’s not nearly as large as I had expected. This is the number 1 spot for avalanches – a narrow chute just above the road focuses slides from a very large bowl. Some day someone is going to get hurt or killed here.
I’m almost finished a few large projects (Web site updates and travel bookings), so hope to take it much easier in a week or so. While I enjoy both types of projects in moderation, there are times that working for a living sucks. It’s now 02:37 – maybe if I go for a soak in the hot tub I can get a bit more sleep before this day really gets going.
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