NORTH TO ALASKA 2025 - DAYS 17 & 18 - SKAGWAY AND DYEA CAMPGROUND

We are waking up in Skagway, our second morning at the Garden City RV Park.  The weather was going to hopefully straighten up for a couple days, so we decided to go off into the woods. 

We drove over and took care of the dump station and refilling our fresh water tank. It's best to do that anytime you have a chance, because a lot of the remote campsites do not have such facilities.  

But before we left the town, we wanted to stop at one spot for sure. 

See, years ago Steve took a cruise with his dad and his brother up to Alaska. It was an inline passage cruise on a small boat. It wasn't one of those big mega cruising vessels. They had stopped off in Skagway to take a train ride up to a glacier. In the meantime, they had just a few minutes to do a little shopping. Steve had spied this store, and the name of it he knew would appeal to his wife who was patiently waiting at home back in Wisconsin!

We found it! 

Back then, he had purchased me a beautiful hand-woven wallet with wool inlaid patterns. I just love that wallet. So I thought maybe I would walk around and see if there was something else that might appeal to me. 

We walked around the store, there were some beautiful things, but nothing that really needed to jump into my hand and come home with me. But it was nice to see the store. This time it was more imports and leather goods rather than woven items. Perhaps they've changed ownership and suppliers since then. 

Now it was time to head out of town. We had researched and found the original town where the Klondike Gold Rush prospectors came off ships and headed up the hills to get to the Yukon. This first town was called Dyea. It is now deserted but there is a campground nearby.

It was only 8.4 miles,

but it was comprised of 

the most beautiful views!!

I kept the camera going as best I could, clicking along and taking video. It was getting misty and foggy and dark. But it certainly had a rich rugged beauty all of its own.

Once we got to the campground, we were surprised to see that there was only one other camper in there. So it was very easy to choose a site. We read all the information on the kiosk as we were coming in and we were preparing to pay. The sites are normally $10, and only $5 with our half price Senior Access Golden Age passport. That sounded good to us.

Imagine our surprise when we went to actually pay at the post and found it was taped off and said that the campground was free up until memorial Day! Even better.  Free is good.

It was a beautiful site that just had a short walk over to the Dyea River, flowing past and out into the ocean.

These are rustic sites, pretty level, and each one has a fire pit as well as a picnic table. Later on, one or two others came into the campground before dinner time.

Before we started grilling out, we decided to take a walk down by the river. It was really flowing fast. I'm sure some of it's from winter snow melting, and some of it's from the rain we've had the last few days.

While we were walking around, we noticed some beautiful arrangements in the woods.  Mother Nature does a great job balancing out the colors and the textures. What a floral arrangement!??

It was located at the base of this tree next to our campsite. Well, this is such a rainforest area of Alaska. Plants grow in abundance in the moist air. We even noticed some moss hanging down, similar to the Spanish moss we have seen in Georgia and Florida.

We are feeling like such "tourists", and enjoying each and every minute of it. So we took the time to pose for a little bit with the selfie stick.

After our walk, Steve grilled up some chicken and I steamed some vegetables inside on the stove. He then came in and made his own special mashed potatoes for us.  We sure appreciate home cooked meals while traveling. That's another bonus of having a motorhome with your own kitchen.

We relaxed here for two lovely nights. It was so peaceful and quiet. After all the days of go go go and the noise of Skagway, it was good to settle down. 

If you would like to see the YouTube that goes along with this blog, here is the link: 

We only drove 11 miles today 

2,914 miles so far