We spent our last day in Alaska in the old mining town of Skagway. While the gold rush in Alaska was short lived, this town remains true to its history.

Our first stop was a cemetery, dating back to the late 1800’s when the gold rush was in full swing. There were, sadly, a lot of children’s graves – evidence of the hard life of an Alaskan gold mining family.

A short 200 yard walk behind the cemetery there was a beautiful waterfall  (this is becoming a theme – waterfalls everywhere!).

A cave!

We next headed back into the town before heading out on a hike. You cannot see in this picture, but that truck has a bumper sticker that says “Buck Ofama”. Not nice.

Skagway (and the whole region of Southeast Alaska) closely borders both British Columbia and the Yukon Territory. Many of the commercial vehicles had both license plates.

Last, we went for a hike up and around Lower Dewey Lake in the Tongass National Forest. All of Southeast Alaska is part of the Tongass National Forest. The forest stretches over 16.9 million acres – Pretty amazing!

Lower Dewey Lake

After the hike we did some last minute shopping before getting back on the boat. The first rain of the whole trip started to set in. It rained most of the next day – but we were at sea  – so the weather was no matter.