The 1997 State Street departure point sits two blocks from where stampeders once crowded the docks, bound for Klondike goldfields over the White Pass. Modern Skagway Yukon custom van tours follow the same corridor, climbing from sea level to alpine tundra in forty minutes — a vertical transition the stampeders measured in weeks of frozen agony. Today's travelers cross the same international boundary in climate-controlled Mercedes Sprinters, pausing at pullouts where pack horses once collapsed under impossible loads. The White Pass summit sits at 873 meters, where the Canadian border cleaves the Coast Mountains. On clear mornings, wind carves snow plumes off granite peaks that rise another thousand meters overhead. Below, the Dead Horse Gulch drops into shadow, its name memorializing the three thousand horses that perished during the 1897-98 rush. Van excursions depart daily from Skagway's compact grid, where cruise ships unload passengers for six-hour loops into Yukon Territory. The suspension bridge spans the Tutshi River canyon, a recent addition that offers views the stampeders never paused to consider. Yukon husky kennels operate year-round at kilometer markers beyond Carcross, where mushers train teams for the Yukon Quest. Summer visits replace sled runs with wheel-cart demonstrations, and tourists crouch beside blue-eyed athletes bred for endurance, not speed. The territory's boreal forest transitions abruptly at treeline — spruce gives way to dwarf willow, then lichen-covered rock. Tour operators based in Skagway hold both U.S. and Canadian commercial permits, a dual licensing requirement that limits the field to a handful of established companies. The White Pass & Yukon Route railway parallels the van corridor, its narrow-gauge tracks clinging to cliffs the highway tunnels through. Rail passengers ride vintage coaches at fixed schedules; van tours adjust departure times for border queues and wildlife sightings. Lynx, caribou, and black bears appear with enough frequency that guides carry telephoto cameras as standard equipment. The return descent into Skagway reveals the port from above — a sliver of civilization wedged between Taiya Inlet and the mountains that forced every route inland.