Skagway

Oh Skagway, my favorite of the Alaskan towns. We had a lot more time here than in the other cities--nearly a whole day--which may have had something to do with it. The town itself is so adorably picturesque, so we spent several hours wandering the streets, popping in and out of shops. Early on, in a souvenir shop, I noticed that the store sold magnets, keychains, etc., for all of our Alaskan ports (Skagway, Ketchikan, and Juneau) and no other towns. I thought that was a little bit too weird to be just a coincidence, so I did some quick research. It turns out that the cruise lines own a lot of the shops in their ports (or they act like some kind of mobster and charge them crazy amounts to be included in their "recommended" shops) which really rubbed me the wrong way. (Here is a pretty easy to read article that summarizes it nicely,) I think it's so easy to not really think about where you spend money on vacation, so I'm really glad I noticed that something seemed off, because after that we were really intentional about seeking out local shops to support, and as a bonus we met some really incredible shop owners!

(I am literally dodging a bee in this photo. Tyler didn't even notice.)

After we explored the town, we still had a few hours before our ship left, so we decided to hike a couple miles to the Gold Rush Cemetery, an old mining cemetery outside the town. We put a lot of trust in Google Maps, because that dirt road really looked like we were heading out in the middle of nowhere. The history of the cemetery was really cool and we spent quite a bit of time wandering around looking at headstones. (Maybe it's morbid, but I really like cemeteries!) While we were there, I noticed a sign at the far end of the cemetery that said, "Lower Reid Falls" with an arrow . We had no idea how far it was, but apparently we were feeling adventurous, because we set out to find out. It turned out to be the best decision we could have made. 

You can barely see it in this picture, but my brother actually found gold flecks in the creek bed at the base of the waterfall!