Day 7 Scagway

Scagway is on my list of places I want to spend more time in some day.  Not sure how I'll get there (43 hours to drive from here--not bad, right?).  It reminded us a lot of Colorado mining towns--especially Silverton, Ouray, Lake City--those southwestern towns.  Same kind of mining--in fact, we found many "Alaska goods" again with "made in Colorado" stickers or manufacturers that we know to be Colorado (only) companies.  I think it was here that we had a conversation with the nice couple working in the "Shirt off my Back" store...who spend their winters working in Breckenridge Colorado!


Our day started with The Girl announcing that she didn't want to wear her perfectly good raincoat, but would rather wear a $3 poncho.  Here she is buying said poncho, while the creepy Bigfoot dude lurks in the background...

Our plans in Scagway were to explore. Before we left, I ordered a book from Amazon called "Scagway Gold Rush Cemetery and Town History"  My family was thrilled for me to read to them as we wandered around town.

Here is a train with some equipment that we recognized right away as a snowplow.  We deliberated for a couple minutes as we listened to a gentleman explaining to his adult son that it was a drill to drill through the mountain to make tunnels for the road.  We didn't say anything...but hoped they'd look at the descriptive sign before telling too many other people that theory.

Scagway is in the Gold Rush National Park and there are some great little "interpretive centers/museums" right in town.  We visited a couple--including this one, set up to look like an old time bar, complete with stuffed wildlife (notice the poncho...)

Some more shopping, of course...(Mr IM bought the top shirt...again, almost exactly the same as one we admire in Breckenridge...)

Some interesting architecture...

Another view of the gorgeous poncho as we walked through town to the Gold Rush Cemetery.


















No clue why stuff that looks like it is from a Mediterranean archaeological dig was by the road in Scagway, but it was interesting....There were train tracks near this area as well, where train cars not in use were stored.  Also this is next door to the town hall and town museum (they share a building)

Ok, these are out of order, sort of, but these are the Lower Reid Falls, which are reached after a short hike/walk beyond the Cemetery (which is a short 1 mile-ish walk from town, which was about a mile long from boat to edge...Its no wonder I had a couple 25,000 + step days)

According to the guidebook, this is a bear cave.  We believe that a bear (and/or other wildlife) probably live there--however, to us, it appears to be an abandoned test mine.

This is another view of the poncho, as the family read the sign about the Cemetery and town history.  It rained on and off all day in Scagway, but it was more of a gentle, warm, mist so we shed layers and just enjoyed it.

This is the road from town to the cemetery (well, walking back).  The sign was interesting "crumbling hill", perhaps?

This is the Scagway School--grades K-12--nice building, cool signs recognizing long serving staff.

We also had lunch at the Pizza Depot, where the locals hang out apparently, before doing our shopping and heading back to the boat.

Ooh, a red carpet welcome!  (As you can see, the rain picked up a bit...)

Where we were welcomed by this, um, eskimo?  Koala?

....