Skagway/Haines Travel Information
Skagway, Alaska, is the end of the Alaska Marine Highway for ferry passengers up from the south and a destination for tourists down from Whitehorse in the Yukon. Skagway can have as many as 5,000 visitors through a day in summer. Attractions in Skagway include a street car tour of the well-kept downtown and a variety of buildings, parks and museums evocative of gold rush days. If you want to see more than second-hand gold rush history, the Chilkoot Trail, once the setting for the less scenic rush of gold hunters north to the Yukon River and thence on to gold country, starts a short way out of Skagway. A strenuous hike today with modern equipment, those crossing the trail in 1897-1899 were required to bring one year's worth of supplies to the other side. In addition to the Chilkoot Trail, there are numerous hiking paths around Skagway. Float trips out of Skagway down the Taiya River are mellow and there is some charter fishing offered off the coast but this is not the best place in Alaska to explore the marine environs by kayak or canoe. Instead of paddling, peddle some of the nearby roads on bike, or saddle up for a horse-back tour in nearby historic Dyea Valley. Day-trips are available to Juneau. Haines, only a high-speed catamaran trip away from Skagway, is nonetheless a very long way away by paved highway though less touristy in consequence. There are a number of hikes around Haines and campsites slightly out of town designed to accommodate hikers or bikers. Skagway is south of Whitehorse in the Yukon by road, east of Haines and north of Juneau along the Alaska Marine Highway.
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