White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad. A narrow-gauge marvel built in 1898, this heritage railway climbs 2,888 feet through sheer gorges, past Bridal Veil Falls and Dead Horse Gulch, to the White Pass Summit — a 40-mile round trip that is the most popular excursion in Skagway. Extended journeys run all the way to Bennett, British Columbia, following the…
Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park. Alaska's most-visited national park (roughly 850,000 visitors a year) preserves a six-block historic district of restored 1898 saloons, hotels, and warehouses, along with the ghost town of Dyea and the Chilkoot Trail. The free visitor center, housed in the original White Pass & Yukon Route depot, runs ranger programs…
Chilkoot Trail. Often called 'the world's longest museum,' this 33-mile backcountry trail from Dyea to Bennett, British Columbia, follows the exact boot-worn path of the 1898 gold rush stampede — passing rusting boilers, discarded sleds, and evocative alpine scenery. Most hikers allow three to four days; a permit from Parks Canada…
Arctic Brotherhood Hall. The most photographed facade on Broadway is encrusted with 8,883 pieces of driftwood pressed into its front in 1899 by members of a gold-rush fraternal order — a genuinely eccentric piece of frontier folk architecture and one of Skagway's most enduring icons.
Red Onion Saloon & Brothel Museum. Operating since 1898 first as a bordello and now as a working saloon and Alaska's only preserved brothel museum, the Red Onion offers guided tours of its ten original upstairs rooms led by costumed madams, alongside craft cocktails and live music downstairs. The evening walking tours weave in the stories of Soapy…
Gold Rush Cemetery & Reid Falls. A 1.5-mile flat walk from downtown brings you to the 1898 cemetery where con artist 'Soapy' Smith and his nemesis Frank Reid — who killed each other in a notorious wharf shootout — lie buried a short distance apart. A short spur trail beyond Reid's grave leads to a 300-foot cascade tumbling through a moss-draped…
Grizzly Falls Ziplining Expedition. An off-road Unimog truck hauls guests 11 miles to historic Dyea where a 10-line zipline course soars over glacial waterfalls and old-growth Tongass National Forest canopy, with the longest run stretching 750 feet at up to 45 mph. Four suspension bridges add dramatic pauses for photography between lines.
Dyea Ghost Town & Slide Cemetery. Ten miles northwest of Skagway, Dyea was once a rival boomtown of equal size — then the railroad bypassed it in 1900 and it vanished within months. Today crumbling cabin foundations, wharf pilings, and the sobering Slide Cemetery (where 47 avalanche victims from April 1898 are buried) make for one of the most…