So, now I'm on the road to Skagway. It starts out innocently enough and then BAM! The scenery literally assaults my senses. I'm being mugged by emerald lakes and high mountain passes. Deadhorse Pass and White Pass provide the most spectacular scenery of the trip. No words or pictures can prepare you for the sheer beauty of the place. I can only drive a mile at a time before I have to pull over and soak it all in.

With the advent of the gold rush, prospectors would take a boat to Skagway. From there they would make the trip north with a slight hitch in their plans. Canadian customs required that the prospectors carry at least 1,000 pounds of freight with them when they crossed the border. This meant several trips over the pass. The men and women would travel a short distance and go back for more freight. They would repeat this process until all the freight was moved forward.

The original pass could not handle the traffic and turned into a quagmire. This was particularly hard on the horses whose merciless, money hungry owners literally drove them to death. Over 3,000 horses died making this crossing and their carcasses littered the pass, hence the name. Without pack animals the trip north, which still required 400-500 miles, was over. Later, the Chilikat Pass was discovered and was much easier. It now appears as part of the Alaskan license plate.