Trip Reports & Stories

Brown bear (Ursus arctos), at Hallo Bay, Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska.
Brown bear (Ursus arctos), at Hallo Bay, Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska.

Reports, accounts, lies, mistruths and ramblings about ambling and rambling.

Trip Reports & Stories offers a look into real adventures from the Alaska backcountry. Told to you through guest experiences, guide insights, and detailed accounts from the field. These stories highlight what our trips actually feel like, from challenging terrain to the quiet moments that make wilderness travel unforgettable.

You’ll find firsthand perspectives, lessons learned, and the small details that don’t always make it into trip descriptions.

This category is here to inspire your next adventure and provide genuine social proof from people who’ve traveled with us. If you’re curious what an Expeditions Alaska trip is really like, this is the place to start.

Canning River rafting trips ANWR Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Alaska.

Alaska’s Brooks Range Backpacking, ANWR

A Brooks Range backpacking trip (and rafting trip) through the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Camping on alluvial fans, hiking ridgelines at 2am, chasing light that never quite dies.

Photography in arctic summer means shifting your clock to the wee hours. They don’t call this the land of the midnight sun for nothing.

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ANWR rafting trips Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Canning River Tundra swan Alaska.

Pacific Loon photo, ANWR

Photo of a Pacific loon (Gavia pacifica) from the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, near the Canning River.

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Canning River ANWR trips Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Alaska.

Horseplay on Aufeis

Hikers on Aufeis, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, ANWR, Alaska.

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Glaciated peaks of Hole in the Wall, Skolai Pass, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Hiking at Skolai Pass

Photo of the Month for June, 2010, is this photo of some folks hiking up at Hole in the Wall, near Skolai Pass, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. I love the sense of scale this photo gives for the peak in the background. This is one of the peaks known as the 7 fingers, glacier-capped outcroppings towering above the tundra. Hole in the Wall is a classic old glacial formation, and a great place to walk and explore; I’ve spend many a day wandering around on the moraine, awestruck at the magnificent jagged cliff faces soaring above me.

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The eastern Chugach Mountains backpacking trip Wrangell-St. Elias National Park

Backpacker Magazine!

Wildflowers, Mountain Avens and Dwarf Fireweed, Hole in the Wall, Skolai Pass, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska.

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Alaska russell Glacier Mt Bona Photo.

Alaska Landscapes & Russell Glacier

Video of Russell Glacier, near Chitistone Pass, Wrangell St. Elias National Park. The glacier is accessed from Skolai Pass, popular hiking and backpacking destination for the Goat Trail.

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Arctic National Wildlife Refuge trips ANWR Canning River Alaska.

Camping by the Arctic Ocean

Campsite on the Arctic Ocean, tent camping at the mouth of the Canning river on the beach of the Beaufort Sea, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, ANWR, Alaska.

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Mount Sanford Wrangell Mountains alpenglow Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Backpacking in Alaska: The Sanford Plateau

Natalie had never been backpacking anywhere. Her first trip was a fly-in to the Sanford Plateau in Wrangell-St. Elias. She crushed it.

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Denali National Park and Preserve backpacking adventure.

Bull and cow moose, Denali National Park

A favorite moment from Denali: after days of brutal weather and little to show for it, a distant bull moose sighting turned into hours of tracking, photographing, and finally capturing a tender moment between a bull and cow. A hard-earned image from one of my most memorable days in the park.

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Arctic Skies, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, ANWR, Alaska.

Grizzly bears on caribou carcass, Denali National Park, Alaska

A rare encounter in Denali National Park led to hours photographing a grizzly sow and her two cubs feeding on a caribou carcass. After a missed wolf sighting and a lucky break from the bus driver, the experience became one of my most memorable wildlife photography days in Alaska.

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