alaska

Last weekend my son and I headed down to the Denali Hwy to see if we could reach the top of Paxson Mountain. I tried to hike it a few weeks ago but this was likely our new-ish dog June's first hike and she lacked the confidence to complete a stream crossing so we turned around. The water was...

I and 4 friends from the lesser 48 had booked 1-way flights to Anaktuvuk Pass in the Brooks Range so we could backpack from there to the Haul Road (that serves the oil fields on Alaska's north coast). After spending part of the morning, and an hour or so in the afternoon at the terminal, it was...

Short hike on the Savage River loop in Denali NP. Sun and clouds, temps in the mid 60s. Brought back memories of my hike into the Savage River patrol cabin 15 years ago.

Got offered a last-minute spot to go King Salmon fishing on the Togiak River in SW Alaska....... wasnt doing anything so I went for the week... After getting to Dillingham, we were picked up by float plane, a cool Havilland Beaver. I have always loved the radial engine sound. A hour later we...

We're just back from a trip to Alaska. We started with a couple of sunny days in Vancouver...and then on to the Inside Passage: On the second day, we were in Ketchikan, where we kayaked out to the Tatoosh Islands amid glorious sunny weather. Bald eagles were everywhere out here, and we...

I'm continuing my effort to document some previous trips here and I figure I'll keep working backwards on my yearly trips w/ my brother to get started. (He's better about taking pictures than me, so it makes for a better trip report.) This trip took place in Denali National Park in mid-August...

Our original summer vacation plans got shot down when the virus hit. So we pivoted and decided Iceland was still safe to go to but shortly thereafter that country stopped allowing visitors from the US. So we had to look for a domestic destination. Fortunately, Alaska had just implemented a...

My son and I took off Saturday afternoon for a 1-nighter on a local river, the Chatanika, east of Fairbanks. We loaded the cataraft, grabbed some groceries and made the 50-mile drive to our put-in. The trip was mostly uneventful on the beautiful river. Unfortunately, I neglected to take any...

We were supposed to do the Southern Traverse (and a partial one at that, from Iceberg Lake to Tebay Lake) but after getting into some truly demoralizing bushwhacking, we called it at Bremner. The plan was to do a shorter backpack at Denali to take up the rest of the time we had in Alaska, but...

A few years ago I had the opportunity to spend a week in Denali NP as a Backcountry Observer during the hunting season in late September. I was paired up with another volunteer from Texas & we were "stationed" at the Savage River backcountry cabin on the northern border of the park ... our...

At the trail head ... getting ready to head up the trail this is the trail early on ... muggy and damp ... remains of an old sawmill along the trail boardwalk through some wet area grave stone along the trail ... could no longer read the inscription old debris along the trail...

In June 2016, my wife and I and our kids, along with her brother, went to Seward AK to spend a few nights in one of the State Park cabins. These cabins are in high demand and my wife made the reservation back in February or so. The plan was for her and the kids to take a chartered skiff with the...

Chilkoot Trail family trip. 33 miles over 5 days, Dyea to Bennett with a train ride back to Skagway. Epic trip with our 10 and 8 year olds. Starting at Dyea. Lots of bridge crossings. Sheep Camp-6am departure tomorrow. Bottom of infamous scales. My daughter was none to happy...

There are a lot of pictures in this post, especially for a short three day trip, but frankly, this is probably the most beautiful place i've ever been. The route was very straight forward. Up one river, over a pass, and down an other river. I brought my packraft for the second river Denali...

In July i spent six days doing a packraft trip in Gates of the Arctic National Park. I parked my bike on a pullout from the Dalton Highway, crossed the Dietrich River, spent two days hiking over a pass to the North Fork Koyukuk River, two and a half days floating the river, and then an extremely...

It's about 500 miles from Fairbanks to Deadhorse at the Prudhoe Bay oil fields. The Dalton Highway makes up the last 414 miles of that. Some sections are paved, but it is primarily a gravel road, often treated with calcium chloride to harden the road surface. Traffic on the highway is primarily...

This was a very short over night out and back that i did near Kenai Fjords National Park. I don't recall exactly what i was thinking when i did this. I left late in the evening, hiked until it was dark in July in Alaska, got up in the morning and walked back. On Caines Head there are remains of...

The summer of 2013 i had the opportunity to go up to Alaska with my family. My Mom's grandpa had had a homestead on the Kenai Peninsula. Any way, we went up to Denali National Park, and two of my brothers and i did a slightly rushed two night backpack. One of my brothers ended up throwing up...

Two summers ago i was able to go up to Alaska with my family. We went down to Seward one day, and did a half day boat tour from there. Here are some pictures. Looking down the shore before we got on the boat. Across Resurrection Bay. Looking south. An island. On the boat. Some...

Here are some pictures from the hike up to the top of Exit Glacier via the Harding Icefield Trail. It's either three or four miles, and gains about 3,000'. Some of these pictures have very bad exposures, but they're all i have, so you know, we'll deal with it. Initially the trail works it's...