Day 4: I Spent An Epic Day On The Amazing White Pass & Yukon Route Railway

Day 4 (Part I): Skagway, Alaska / White Pass & Yukon Route Railway

I had spent Day 3 in Juneau, the capital of Alaska. Now, we were entering Skagway, a town just north of Juneau, and the definition of the gold-rush-era vibe. Another excursion was waiting for us, and I this is the one I was the most excited about. Everyone online would say that this is the excursion you cannot miss in the entire cruise. And we were about to find out why this was the case.

The excursion was the first one in the morning, so we woke up very early, got ready, and went to get breakfast at the Windjammer Marketplace.

No gym this morning, unfortunately, and later was kind of going to be difficult.

On the days before this trip, there were news about rockslides on the Skagway cruise port, and everyone on the cruise’s Facebook group were scared that they would cancel this port, cancelling probably the best experience of the trip. But thankfully, they did the proper repairs, and the cruise right before us was able to dock, so why not us.

We went downstairs to the gangway and exited the cruise quickly. There was a walk that had to be done on the port, through some containers I guess to protect from the rain. After this, a shuttle would pick us up to take us to the very front of the port, and from here there was a long walk into the town, passing by the train tracks. Only the people with Royal Caribbean excursions would be able to board the trains directly in front of the cruise port. If you got it independently, then you would have to go by yourself to the White Pass & Yukon Route Railway offices, and take the train from there.

The buildings in this town were screaming gold-rush-era. It is funny how something you usually see in period movies is still standing on 2023. We were going to walk it later, fortunately.

We got to the station, and it is a cute building, with a coffee place, a store, bathrooms and a waiting area. With the reservation, we got the tickets in the Ticket Booth. We got some coffee and waited for our call to board the train.

We were quickly called to board the train, and walked to the cars.

After checking out tickets, we boarded on the train. The excursion was going to be a 3 hrs roundtrip to the White Pass, just north of the border with Canada, and then back down. We would not be able to get off the train, but the excursion provided free water, and there was a bathroom on each car.

On the way up

After the ALL ABOARD call, the train started moving, and we were being taken north, parallel to the river. The train was going to take a lot of twists and turns, and would give us views like this one:

Or this one:

The train was climbing the mountain at a good speed, and while doing that, someone would be narrating what we were seeing and the history of how the gold rush came to be. At some point up here we were able to see Skagway and the cruise port. Unfortunately, Ovation of the Seas was hidden by the mountain.

But the views from up here were mesmerizing. I did not know where to look at, everything was so beautiful. If you want to have a good view on the way up, sit on the left of the car. You will be able to look into the valley, regardless of where you sit either at the way up or down.

We were going to reach the height of 2,888-foot of the White Pass, and about to pass this bridge:

“No platforms hogs”. That was one of the first rules of this ride. Yet, some people decided to stay on them for long periods of time. We were able to go out on both sides of the car, to the platforms and see the beautiful landscape.

Mesmerizing views.

A beautiful rainbow was shaping on the horizon.

The valley seemed so far now.

Suddendly, snow started appearing right next to us.

Once again, the driver would tell us that way down there, Skagway was still visible, with some of the cruise ships.

The fogginess of the exterior made the ride even more magical and misterious.

We passed by a couple of tunnels on the way up.

We finally reach the White Pass, a literal white pass. And got to Canada.

Time to come back down

All was white around us.

The flags of Canada, Yukon, Alaska and the United States. We were in Canada just for a few minutes while the train started the way back down.

Not after too long, we started the descend. The second half was longer since the train was using brakes all the time to work with gravity.

There were the cruises once again. Glad the weather was in our favor.

Different to Juneau, Skagway had a road that connected them to the rest of the world.

Hi cruises

And just like that we were back down in Skagway. Now it was time to explore the town after this amazing experience. You can red all about that HERE.