April 17, 2026 – johnboystravelblog

October 10, 2025

This is my last stop in Alaska. Skagway (and Haines) are located at the top of the panhandle of Alaska, which then proceeds southeast to Juneau and Ketchikan. There will be a map below which will show the area.

Skagway is about half the size of Haines, with a permanent population of around 1,200 people. It was a “Gold Rush” town, and some of the buildings here date back to that timeframe. It is a popular cruise shop port and consists mainly of retail and gift shops, restaurants, museums and jewelry stores. Summer activities include a steam railroad ride up into the mountains, which is apparently very scenic.

(Photo credit: Unknown. This is a photo I took of a map through the window of a gift shop, and it already had the notations on it.)

This visitor center was closed for the season.

After my walk around the shopping district I had lunch and then headed north towards Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory. The drive covers 110 miles and is supposed to take about 2 1/4 hours (without stops).

Here are some of the things I saw during the drive.

This was a place the woman at the Radio Shack store in Haines told me about. It is in the tiny town of Carcross in the Yukon Territory and she said her dog loves it.

The photo below was taken as I was driving west on the Alaska Highway, approaching the Whitehorse airport. It was partially overcast and the sun was about to set. Evidently the sun’s rays were reflecting off the clouds onto a snow covered mountain, creating a vivid pink coloration on the snow. Unfortunately, I saw it while I was driving and by the time I got to a safe place with a view where I could stop the color had diminished significantly. Believe me – it was much more vivid when I first saw it.

October 10, 2025

I was VERY pleased when I discovered that I could take a ferry from Haines up to Skagway. I had planned to visit both, thinking I would have to drive all the way north to the Alaska Highway in the Yukon, go east on that highway to Whitehorse, then back south to Skagway – a total of 350 miles! It would have taken a considerable amount of time, plus the expense of gas. The only downside was that it only sailed two days a week this time of year, so while I had thought I would spend two nights in Haines I could only stay one. The ferry ride took about an hour, which left me some time to explore the town and have lunch before driving up to Whitehorse.

This was the ship arriving in Haines:

This is the sign welcoming passengers who are getting off the ship here in Haines. Keep in mind – this dock is not for cruise ships. There is a dock in town just south of the harbor for cruise ships.

I was the first car in line to board, and the process was very efficient. There wasn’t much to see as we headed south a short ways before turning left to take another inlet up to Skagway.

As we got closer to Skagway I could see a few mountains in the distance with snow on them. I was inside the passenger area but could walk up to the front windows to take photos.