Alaska Part 4: Skagway

Skagway is about 250 miles E of Anchorage and about 80 miles SSE of Juneau.  It quite a ways in from the Gulf of Alaska.  You take a backwards L shaped inlet and actually are only about 20 miles from Juneau at one point (didn't realize that until I was working on this post). Skagway is a popular stop for cruise ships.  For a town with a population of just over 900, it gets close to a million visitors a year.
Even though it's a quaint little town, the fact that it gets so many tourist also means that the local stores will have the same old stuff to buy.  It even has several tacky tourist shops that 'follow' the cruise ships, such as Diamonds International and Del Sol. Not really anything to buy to help the local economy.
One thing my son wanted to visit while we were here was the dog sledding excursion.   These are the dogs they use on the Iditarod Great Sled Race from Anchorage to Nome.  We got to see one of the training camps for these dogs.  It was a good experience.

Downtown Skagway looking NE.

  Looking SW.

  We went for a walk where the local folks live.

  This huge rhubarb plant was growing along the street. 

Mother and son bonding in Skagway.

The cruise ships dock at the end of town.

  The dog sled camp we visited. This is where they keep the dogs.

The funky vehicle that transported us to where the dogs train.  It seemed to have one gear - slow and very noisy.

The gravel road they took us on.

Looks like one of us is not having fun - as you can see, it was cold and wet.

There are 16 dogs to a sled.

The team of dogs for our sled.  The young lady who trains this team took our picture.

And this one. This is the type of 'sled' they use when there is no snow.

Forgot his name, but he is showing us his sled and what it takes to participate in the Iditarod. Yes, he has done quite a few races. 

The dogs playground.

A mama sled dog a some of her future sled pups.  They are 2 weeks old.

I guess the cold and dreary are worth it !! (sorry it came out blurry)

Is this better ?

Our excursion ended with nice fire and hot chocolate.

  This photo and the next one were taken where the cruise ship shuttle dropped us off.

  

  This photo and the next two were taken on the way to the dog sled camp.

  

  Three happy tourist at one of the overlooks.

Looking out at Smugglers Cove from the cruise ship.

Skagway from the cruise ship.