RoxReels

Most people book an excursion on the scenic White Pass train to the Yukon on their day in Skagway. We decided against an organized tour for this port and opted instead to hike the Dewey Lakes Trail System. All of the trails begin at a common trailhead which is an easy walking distance from the cruise terminal. You’ll see a sign marking the trailhead to your right as you walk from the cruise terminal toward downtown Skagway.

 Many of Skagway’s hikes in the Dewey Lakes Trail System boast pretty serious elevation gain. We tried to choose the easier ones as we had just hiked a glacial mountain the day before, but the first route required to access other routes is still pretty steep. The hike to Lower Dewey Lake covers about 500 feet of elevation gain and is a pretty constant and relentless uphill climb. At Lower Dewey Lake, you can choose to hike to Icy Lake (850 foot elevation gain) or go the other way toward Upper Dewey Lake (3000 foot elevation gain). Our chosen route was the trail to Lower Dewey Lake, followed by the trail to Icy Lake and Upper Reid Falls. This was a pretty chill trek, with good view-to-effort ratio at the falls. I would have enjoyed a picnic by the rushing waters.

 

After the hike, we explored downtown Skagway. Everything is in easy walking distance in this small town. I was hoping to try Alaskan fry bread (a large piece of fried dough covered in sugar and cinnamon, similar to the Canadian beaver tail snack) but the shop was closed. Instead, we snacked on a reindeer hot dog from The Sittin’ Sasquatch and visited the two breweries in town: Klondike Brewing Company and Skagway Brewing Company. Both breweries offer the Skagway-famous spruce tip beers. I preferred Klondike Brewing Company’s spruce tip ale over Skagway Brewing Company’s spruce tip blonde for its slightly sweet and surprisingly smooth creaminess. Skagway Brewing Company also offered a free “tour” which was more of a short informative talk recounting the history of Skagway Brewing Company, open since 1897. We also saw their aeroponic gardens which supply the greens for all of the restaurant’s salads.

After leisurely wandering the town of Skagway, we returned aboard our watery home for the week to continue our journey aboard the Carnival Spirit Alaska cruise.