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From Little Atlin Lake, we dead-headed down to Skagway, Alaska. Not bringing the trailer along was a good thing, since the road was all hills and sharp corners. The scenery, however, was absolutely stunning. Most of what you see is sharp mountains and exposed bedrock. Many small lakes are visible from the highway, all bright green, and very cold. The road winds down from a thousand meters' altitude to sea level within the hour-long drive.

The U.S. Customs officer gave me the usual interrogation at the border checkpoint. If there's anyone out there from U.S. Customs and Immigration who's reading this, get your customs officers some customer service training. Seriously, I've entered the U.S. twice in the last two years, both times to spend money in your country, and each time I've felt as though I'm entering a prison. And just like entering a prison, I can't wait to get the hell out.

Skagway itself, however, was a different story altogether. At one time the town was a major transshipment point for goods moving into and out of the Yukon. Goods were brought in by sea and loaded onto trains of the White Pass and Yukon Railroad, which would carry them as far as Whitehorse. From there goods were loaded onto the river steamers and shipped north to Dawson City. Nowadays, however, the town serves as little more than a tourist trap intended to seperate rich Alaska Cruise Ship tourists from their hard-earned dollars. There is one restaurant of consequence, a small pub/burger joint. Nearly all the rest of the stores sell jewellery or curios. The fact that the town's major industry is bilking cruise-ship tourists is plainly evident: many stores have signs in the window welcoming the cruise ships by name.

If you book in advance, like a year in advance, you can take the White Pass and Yukon Railway as far as Carcross. The WP&YR used to run as far as Whitehorse, but the narrow-gauge operator went bankrupt in the '80s, and has since reinvented itself as a tourist passenger service. The rail line runs along much of the same terrain as the road, so you don't see much that is different from the drive in.

There are also a number of light aircraft running aerial tours of the surrounding area, including overflights of nearby glaciers. Unfortunately, we didn't think about that until after we got to Skagway, and by then we were so disgusted by the blatant commercialism of the community that the thought of taking a plane ride completely slipped our minds.

The U.S. National Parks service does have a presence in the area. They have restored the Moore house, which was the first cabin to be built in Skagway. The year after that cabin was built, the town boasted a population in the thousands, as "stampeders" came in from the U.S. to head into the Klondike in search of gold. Today, the cabin is a U.S. National Historic Monument, and one can tour the place and see it as it was at the end of the 19th century. There is also a couple of museums there, which do their best to keep alive the history of this once great community. A good thing too, because it looks like the rest of the residents of Skagway have completely forotten.

We found ourselves with much time on our hands as we left Skagway, so we stopped at nearly every opportunity to take photos of the scenery. As usual, Canada Customs welcomed me back with a smile and a, "Have a nice day."

I guess the moral of the story is, if you're ever in the Yukon, it's worth it to drive toward Skagway. As far as Frasier, where the Canada Customs checkpoint is. Then you can turn around. You're not missing much. If you're on an Alaska cruise and your boat stops in Skagway, take the White Pass trip or an aerial tour. If you don't want to do those things, stay on the boat. You'll have more fun.