Emerald Lake can be viewed from the Klondike Highway 2 South leading from WhiteHorse YT, to Skagway, Alaska. Emerald Lake is situated in the Watson River Valley and is famous for its turquoise blue and green waters, The amazingly vivid blue-green color of this lake is not caused by glacial silt, rather it is caused by sunlight reflecting off the white layer of “Marl” – Calcium Carbonate clay – which is on the bottom of the lake.
The drive from Whitehorse, YT to Skagway, AK in May has to be one of the most awesome sights we have witnessed to date. I just keep running out of adjectives to describe everything. It’s like sensory overload. See and judge for yourself.
Photos of Drive from Whitehorse, YT to Skagway, Alaska
Crossing back into the good old US of A was easy. Kind of strange that these guys know things about you that they should have no clue. We were asked if we parked our 5th wheel in Whitehorse. Had my lid on the back of the GMC covering things up and there was no way he could see that I had a hitch in the back of the truck. We think the US and Canadian border agencies share info.
A place exists in Alaska where the past lives on, where the cries of “gold in the Yukon” still echo from steep canyon walls, where the sounds of barroom pianos and boomtown crowds ring out in the night. A place where the romance and excitement of yesteryear linger around every street corner, every bend in the trail. That place is Skagway! Cruise ships dock right downtown within easy walking distance. The deep channels cut by glaciers allow this to happen.
White Pass Railroad Summit excursion
Built in 1898 during the Klondike Gold Rush, this narrow gauge railroad is an International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, a designation shared with the Panama Canal, the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty. The WP&YR railway was considered an impossible task but it was literally blasted through coastal mountains in only 26 months.
The $10 million project was the product of British financing, American engineering and Canadian contracting. Tens of thousands of men and 450 tons of explosives overcame harsh and challenging climate and geography to create “the railway built of gold. The WP&YR climbs almost 3000 feet in just 20 miles and features steep grades of up to 3.9%, cliff-hanging turns of 16 degrees, two tunnels and numerous bridges and trestles. The steel cantilever bridge was the tallest of its kind in the world when it was constructed in 1901.
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