The following morning we arrived in Skagway around 7:00 AM. This time the ship was "docked" instead of being "tendered" This made the exit of the ship less formal and much easier. We didn't get going until around 10:00 AM since we got up late, had breakfast and packed some extra food from the dining room for our day trip to Skagway.
Skagway Shore Tours and Excursions
This trip, I signed up for the Helicopter trip. I had always wanted to go on a helicopter ride, but for some reason (maybe the price) I never got around to it. So this time I signed up ahead of time, the cost was $249 for 40 minutes. 20 minutes in the air and 20 minutes on a glacier. I thought, well, If I was going on a helicopter ride, Alaska would be the place to do it. I was not disappointed.
Skagway Shore Tour - Helicopter Ride to a Glacier
The company that did the tour is called "Temesco", if you are thinking about a helicopter ride this is the place to do it with. They were very "together" in all areas, they had at lease 5 or 6 helicopters coming and going to the glacier and the pilot gave a great narrative to and from the glacier. I can't say enough good things about the helicopter ride, the glacier and the Temesco organization, well worth the $249.
After this trip through stunning scenery we ended up landing on a glacier, once on the glacier, the crew from Temesco explained various facts about the glacier. We were given spiked boots so we wouldn't slip and we were kept close to the Temesco staff so we wouldn't wander off and fall into one of the cracks in the glacier.
Skagway Activities
I could go on about the helicopter ride for pages but maybe you want to know about the other things to do in Skagway? Well there's the usual tourist stuff with souvenir stores along with a historical cemetery, the Skagway museum, fishing, and the Klondike bicycle tour. There is also the White Pass Scenic Railway and historical walking tours.
We ended up renting a car after the helicopter ride and drove into Yukon for about 2 hours until we reached the town of Carcross in Canada. Unfortunately by the time we got there everything was closing up and there wasn't much to do. If you like scenery there's plenty to see on the way, in fact that's all you will see most of the ride!
There's a bunch of history throughout Skagway, most of the history revolves around the Gold Rush in Alaska and the characters that were prominent in the Alaska in the 1800's.
