Spring in Denali, June 2025

We made our first trip of the year to Denali National Park and Preserve and spent a full week mountain biking the park road from our base at the Teklanika campground. It felt like a very late spring this year. Sable Pass in particular felt like it was just barely emerging from the grip of winter. Our first three days of biking were crazy windy! A couple of time pedaling up the Sable ramp a gust of wind would stop us in our tracks. Ice pellets in the face, snow, rain and beautiful sunny days gave us the full range of weather this trip.

Lots of caribou near the road this trip, and we got to see a couple different sow bears with one and two year old cubs. Come along for the ride. Click on the images for full-screen and captions will tell the story.

Shooting aurora in 50mph winds = not fun.

We had a pretty decent display around 3am this morning, but the winds were howling with gusts near 50mph. Some of the shots you can see the blurry treetops caused by the wind. Even with a heavy tripod it was hard to keep the stars in good focus because of the vibration. Click on images for full-screen.

Aurora has been rare here in Anchorage this winter.

It’s only the second time I’ve been able to shoot aurora this winter. We had a short display right around midnight that didn’t last very long, and wasn’t terribly vibrant, but it’s still wonderful to see the lights dancing in the night sky. Click on images for full-screen.