Thursday, July 10

We have been camping in the woods nine miles from Skagway at the lovely NPS Dyea campground, and this morning we crossed the Taiya River to visit the historic Dyea town site and join another NPS walking tour . This town had a very short life. It began with the gold rush and attracted residents fleeing the lawlessness of Skagway, but it suffered from the lack of a harbor, and the stampeders had to carry their gear considerable distances over tidal flats. They tried building a long wharf, but by the time it neared completion the railroad had been built through the White Pass from Skagway, and the gold rush was over. So the town was abandoned, and all that remains of it now are the wharf pilings and the front of one building. The glacial river has brought down more gravel, glacial rebound has raised the land, and the river has changed course, so where once there was a town, there are now lots of spruce trees. And in a clearing, Siberian irises growing wild.

We drove onto the tidal flats for a picnic lunch and then explored the beginning of the Chilkoot trail. That was enough! At the campground we met several people who had either just completed the four-to-five-day backpacking trip or were about to begin. All much younger than we are. Apart from its natural beauties, the trail also offers a museum experience, because many items that the stampeders discarded along the way remain in place.

Did I write in Jasper that we expected no more fine restaurants along the way? Wrong! We had a wonderful halibut dinner at the Stowaway in Skagway. We had left Dyea to spend our last night at the ferry terminal prior to a 6-AM check-in for our first sailing on the Marine Highway.