I think Skagway was probably my favorite town. Which is odd, because the town normally has about 475 year round residents, and when we got there, we were cruise ship #4. Which means that the town's population momentarily surged by at least 8000. I think it was because there were a heck of a lot fewer jewelry stores (I swear I'm not anti-jewelry, but in some spots in the first towns, every store on the block was a jewelry store), there was a park and some walking trails, and just a general town feel, not a tourist trap feel. We all met at the biggest, most visible store after our respective shore excursions and walked to get Brandon's last coin, get some lunch for Rick and Brandon and then walked the park and down the walking trails to the river to watch the salmon try and swim upstream. It was definitely the town we enjoyed most.
Skagway was the gateway to the Yukon during the gold rush (prospectors started here and made 40-60 pack trips up the mountain the 21 miles to the border, since Canadian officials wouldn't let them enter the Yukon without 2000 pounds of supplies {enough to last a year}. The trail is about 2 feet wide in most spots. Fewer than 100 people found enough gold to pay for their intial stake in supplies). Skagway is also where the White Pass and Yukon Railway is based. In the park area Jacob really enjoyed checking out the snow plow engine and climbing around in a little engine cab. We had a tough time convincing Brandon to stay out of the water and let the fish do their thing.
