White Pass & Yukon Route

The Klondike Gold Rush railway, climbing from the Alaskan port of Skagway over White Pass into Canada, past Lake Bennett to Carcross in the Yukon.

The route

The White Pass & Yukon Route was born in the Klondike Gold Rush. Tens of thousands of prospectors landed at Skagway and hauled their supplies over White Pass toward the Yukon goldfields, and in May 1898 work began on a 3 ft narrow-gauge railway to do the job for them. The last spike was driven at Carcross on 29 July 1900, and trains soon ran all the way to Whitehorse, 172 km from the coast.

The engineering challenge is the climb. From sea level at Skagway the line gains 879 m in roughly 32 km to reach the summit of White Pass, with grades close to 4 percent, cut into granite cliffs and carried over gorges on trestles and bridges. Building it took barely two years, a remarkable pace for such terrain. The international border between Alaska and British Columbia lies at the summit, so a railway built for one country's port serves the other's goldfields.

The railway carried ore and freight until 1982, when it closed. It reopened for tourists in 1988, first to the summit and then step by step to Fraser, Bennett and Carcross, about 109 km from Skagway. Whitehorse is no longer served. Today it is run from Skagway mainly for summer visitors, many of them arriving on cruise ships The railway closed again in 2020 during the pandemic and resumed in May 2023.

What you will see

The film starts among the wooden buildings of Skagway and almost at once begins to climb up the valley of the Skagway River. The track soon becomes a shelf on the mountainside, with the valley falling away and the sea behind. Look for Bridal Veil Falls across the valley, the short tunnels near Tunnel Mountain, and Dead Horse Gulch, named after the pack animals that died there in 1898. The tall steel cantilever bridge there was bypassed by a tunnel and new bridge in 1969, but it still stands.

At White Pass summit the forest gives way to bare rock, small lakes and low, wind-bent trees, and the train crosses into Canada. Fraser, a little further on, is the Canadian customs stop. From there the line runs through open subalpine country of lakes and scattered spruce, a very different world from the steep coastal side.

At Bennett the gold rush stampeders once built boats to float down to Dawson City, and the line follows the shore of long Lake Bennett, with mountains rising straight out of the water. The last stretch leads to Carcross, a small Yukon community where the railway's last spike was driven in 1900.

Riding it for real

White Pass & Yukon Route trains run from Skagway between late May and September. The most common trip is an out-and-back excursion to the summit, while longer journeys continue to Fraser, Bennett or Carcross, often combined with a coach connection by road. The trains are made up of restored and replica heritage coaches.

Any trip past the summit crosses an international border, so carry a valid passport and check entry rules for Canada and the United States. Check White Pass & Yukon Route for current timetables, routes and fares.

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