We arrived in Skagway, Alaska on the fourth day of the cruise. This was the first of four stops our boat made before we returned to Seattle. Having never taken a cruise before, I booked excursions for all four stops to keep us busy; this also allowed us to experience some of the surrounding landscape at each location. What we saw during our excursion in Skagway was worth the price of our entire cruise. The snow-covered forests and mountainous terrain were absolutely breathtaking. Skagway is located in the Alaska Panhandle (or Southeastern Alaska). The small city of Skagway (pop: just over 1,200) was an important saltwater port during the Klondike Gold Rush of the late 1890s. Our excursion included a bus ride into the Yukon region along the South Klondike Highway. We drove through the Tormented Valley and Pitchfork Falls and stopped numerous times to take in the frozen lakes and mountain scenery. We had lunch in Carcross, a small unincorporated community, home to the Carcross/Tagish First Nation, the indigenous peoples native to the Canadian territory of the Yukon. While there, we visited their wildlife and Canadian Royal Mounted Police museums and petted their sled dogs. We returned to Skagway by taking the Yukon & White Pass Railroad, a 90-minute ride through the mountainous passes of the Yukon, at times climbing up to 3,000 feet through snow-filled forested valleys.