Expeditions Alaska Backpacking Blog, hiking gear and photo tours

Whale Photography in Alaska

February 19th, 2026 by Carl D

Tips From Five Seasons Shooting Humpback Whales

Humpback whale bubblenet feeding. — The feast for all!

Whale photography is humbling. You can have 30 years behind a lens, a camera body that costs more than your truck, and the fastest autofocus system money can buy, and a humpback whale will still make you look like an amateur.

They’re fast. They’re unpredictable. They surface where you’re not looking, breach when you’ve just put your camera down, and vanish when you’ve finally got your settings right. The ocean is moving, the boat is moving, you’re moving, and the whale is doing whatever it wants.

I’ve been running our Hungry Whales Photo Tour in Southeast Alaska for five seasons now. Here’s what I’ve figured out so far. Emphasis on “so far” because the whales keep teaching me things.

Why Southeast Alaska Is Different

A humpback whale fluke looks about the same whether you photograph it in Alaska, Cape Cod, or Antarctica. What sets Southeast Alaska apart is the context around the whale.

The backdrop matters. Moss-draped old-growth Sitka spruce, dark water, cloud layers sitting on the ridgelines. When a whale flukes against that shoreline, there’s no ambiguity about where the photo was made. Place changes everything in a wildlife photograph.

Then there’s the behavior. Spring here coincides with the Pacific herring spawn, which draws hundreds of humpbacks into concentrated feeding. The bubble-net feeding that results is among the most visually dramatic wildlife events on the planet. Groups of whales lunging through the surface together, mouths wide, herring flying. That’s a fundamentally different subject than a lone whale fluking on the horizon somewhere.

Pumas, Penguins, and the Rewilding Paradox

February 17th, 2026 by Carl D

Patagonia puma roaming the tundra near Torres del Paine, Chile. — She walked and walked looking for some Guanacos. Hungry cubs.

In the mid-2000s I spent four months living in Futaleufu, Chile, working with a rafting and kayaking company, guiding, and doing photography; eating a LOT of carne asada.

I spent a lot of time in the Andes backcountry around there. Never saw any pumas then. Not a track, not a kill, not a flash of tawny fur disappearing into the trees. That’s normal. Pumas are ghosts. You can live in their backyard for months and never know they’re there.

So when I started reading about what’s happening at Monte Leon National Park on Argentina’s Atlantic coast, it stopped me cold. Pumas aren’t just present there. They’re walking through a colony of 80,000 penguins in broad daylight, tolerating each other at close range, and hunting at the highest density ever recorded for the species anywhere on earth. These are not ghost cats. They’re something else entirely.

Three studies published between 2023 and February 2026 have documented a predator-prey interaction that didn’t exist a generation ago.

Three studies published between 2023 and February 2026 have documented a predator-prey interaction that didn’t exist a generation ago. Pumas at Monte Leon National Park on Argentina’s Atlantic coast are systematically hunting Magellanic penguins. Not scavenging. Not opportunistic snacking. Organized, sustained predation, with individual cats restructuring their entire lives around the penguin breeding season.

Bubble-Net Feeding: How Humpback Whales Hunt Together in Alaska

February 13th, 2026 by Carl D

Humpback whales bubble-net feeding out of Sitka, Alaska — The feeding frenzy; spawning herring are a mouthful for this post of humnpbacks.

You hear it before you see it. A hiss of air breaking the surface, then a ring of bubbles appears, 25 yards across, expanding outward in a near-perfect circle. The water inside the ring goes dark. Shadows rise.

Boom.

The surface explodes. Mouths the size of pickup trucks burst upward through the center of the ring, wide open, pleated throats ballooning with seawater and herring. Five, six, seven whales at once. Tiny fish leap in every direction. The sound is part freight train, part waterfall.

The gulls go crazy.

And then it’s over. The whales slide back under. They blow a few times, the stench of half-digested herring drifting across the boat, and one by one they arch their backs and dive. The whole thing lasted maybe eight seconds.

Now we wait.

Again.

I’ve watched this happen hundreds of times across five seasons running our Hungry Whales Photo Tour in Southeast Alaska, and it still stops me cold. Bubble-net feeding is, without exaggeration, one of the most sophisticated cooperative hunting strategies in the animal kingdom. And it happens right here, in the cold green water off Sitka, every spring.

Pumas of Patagonia Photography Tour

February 10th, 2026 by Carl D

Expeditions BEYOND Alaska

Wild female puma in Patagonia, Chile. — Wild puma near Torres del Paine, Patagonia, Chile.

In Patagonia I sat on the ground in open tundra, somewhere on a private ranch bordering Torres del Paine, and a female puma named Escarcha walked past me at five yards. Not past the vehicle. Past me. I was sitting in the grass with a 400mm pointed at her and she couldn’t have cared less.

That was Day 5 of what was supposed to be a scouting trip for a new photography tour – Pumas of Patagonia. By Day 3, I already knew we’d be coming back.

Back to Patagonia for Pumas

I first went to Patagonia in 2006. Spent four months on the Futaleufu River in central Chile, working with an international crew of guides. Rafting, kayaking, and photographing some of the most dramatic river landscape on the planet. It was one of those stretches that stays with you. Patagonia gets into your head. The scale of it, the light, the wind. It doesn’t feel like anywhere else.

The River From Deep Within: History and Ecology of the Noatak

February 3rd, 2026 by Carl D

Floating the Noatak River, Gates of the Arctic National Park, Alaska.

Understanding one of the last great wild rivers in North America

The Noatak River begins on the north flank of Mt. Igikpak, the highest peak in the Brooks Range, and flows 425 miles to the Chukchi Sea. Its entire course lies above the Arctic Circle. Its entire watershed lies within protected wilderness. No other major river in North America can make both claims.

In Inupiaq, the river’s name is Nuataam Kuuŋa. Early translations rendered it as “passage to the interior” or “the river from deep within“. Both fit. For at least 10,000 years, the Noatak River has been a corridor for human movement through the western Brooks Range, connecting coastal communities with the interior. The people who named it understood what the river was: a path into a vast and wild country.

Largest Undisturbed Watershed in North America

The statistics are staggering. The Noatak drains 12,600 square miles. The Noatak National Preserve alone encompasses 6.5 million acres. Combined with Gates of the Arctic National Park, the protected area exceeds 13 million acres of contiguous, roadless wilderness.

More importantly, the watershed remains essentially unaltered by human activity. No dams. No roads. No significant development. The only permanent settlement along the river’s 400-mile length is the Inupiaq village of Noatak, population 400, located near the coast. Upstream, the country looks the same as it did when the glaciers retreated.

Backpacking the Brooks Range; Arctic Camping Trips

February 3rd, 2026 by Carl D

Backpacking the Brooks Range, in Alaska's Gates of the Arctic National Park. — Backpacking the Brooks Range in Fall can be gorgeous. Gates of the Arctic National Park.

The Philosophy of Trailless Travel in Gates and ANWR

Backpacking in the Brooks Range is not about following a line on a map. It is about learning to read the language of the landscape.

In the Brooks Range, there are no cairns, no signs, and no footprints that last more than a season. You are engaged in a constant, 24-hour-a-day exercise in micro-navigation. As John McPhee observed, the scale of this place is so vast that it can be disorienting. You’re operating in a world where the nearest road is hundreds of miles away and self-reliance and judgement is the only currency that matters.

Where is the Brooks Range?

The Brooks Range stretches 700 miles across northern Alaska, from the Chukchi Sea near the Canadian border to the western coast above the Arctic Circle. It is the northernmost extension of the Rocky Mountains. The Brooks Range forms the continental divide between rivers flowing south to the Yukon and north to the Arctic Ocean. The range rises abruptly from the boreal forest, crests at elevations between 4,000 and 9,000 feet, and drops onto the treeless coastal plain that runs to the Beaufort Sea.

Two of America’s largest and wildest protected areas occupy the Brooks Range. Gates of the Arctic National Park covers 8.4 million acres of the central range, including the granite spires of the Arrigetch Peaks and the headwaters of six designated Wild Rivers.

Chitistone River, Backpacking the Goat Trail, Wrangell-St. Elias

January 24th, 2026 by Carl D

View across Chitistone Canyon and University Range, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park backpacking trip, Alaska. — Sunset over the Chitistone Valley and University Peaks. Mount Bona stands in the background.

A trip report from one of my favorite guided backpacking trips: The Goat Trail and a hike down Chitistone River.

One gorgeous evening, involving a 2 mile hike (one-way) from camp and I was able to capture some more photos that I had been hoping for some time now to make. Lucky me!

The group I was guiding were backpacking from Skolai Pass, in Wrangell St. Elias National Park and Preserve, to ‘Wolverine‘, a landing strip high above the Chitistone Valley, over the relatively popular ‘Goat Trail‘. That route is the first backpacking trip I ever took in the park, and one we’ve been guiding now for 25 years. I love this route.

This is a classic hike, and one we try to make every summer. Before I talk about it further, I’ll qualify what I mean by ‘popular’ here.

Probably not 50 people hike this route each year. More likely 40, at most. Consider, for example, that nearly TWO THOUSAND people venture to hike the entire Appalachian Trail each year, and one starts to see that the word ‘popular‘ is entirely contextual. I only say ‘popular‘ here because so few people hike anywhere else in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.

Six Days on the Upper Noatak: A Packraft Trip Through Gates of the Arctic

January 19th, 2026 by Carl D

Alaska Noatak River Packrafting trip, Gates of the Arctic National Park.

Float the largest undisturbed watershed in North America, where the Brooks Range opens into a treeless arctic valley unchanged for millennia.

The floatplane banks hard over a granite ridge and the valley opens below us. A ribbon of turquoise water winds through green tundra, flanked by mountains streaked with late snow. The pilot points out the window toward a blue lake tucked against the edge of the valley. That’s Pingo Lake. That’s where we’re going.

Two hours ago we were drinking coffee in Bettles, a village of maybe 50 people accessible only by air. Now we’re threading through the Endicott Mountains, past the spires of the Arrigetch Peaks, with 8,510-foot Mt. Igikpak filling the horizon. The flight into the Noatak headwaters is worth the trip alone. When the pontoons touch down and the engine cuts, the silence is immediate and total.

This is Gates of the Arctic National Park. No roads. No trails. No cell service. Just the largest undisturbed watershed in North America and a week to explore it.

Do You Need Rain Pants for Alaska Backpacking? (Yes, Here’s Why)

December 3rd, 2025 by Carl D

Backpacking in the Rain, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska. — Well-dressed group backpacking in the rain, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

hey Folks,

When you’re packing for a backpacking trip in Alaska’s wet climate it’s important to think beyond just a rain jacket. It can rain a lot. You need to carry rain pants as well.

Does it Really Rain That Much in Alaska?

Travelers planning a trip to Alaska often wonder: Does it really rain that much in Alaska?

The short answer?

Well, I asked Trevor, our backpacking guide extraordinaire, who’s had more than his fair share of wet Alaska backcountry time. Trevor spends most of the summer walking around in the mountains guiding folks who wonder why he’s drier than they are.

“Yes, it rains. But not always in the way you might expect. Duration matters more than volume (typically).”

So how much rain are we talking about?

When it rains in coastal Alaska, it’s usually a lighter, steadier rain rather than a sudden downpour like the Rocky Mountain afternoon thunderstorms or the heavy East Coast rain events you may be used to. Think the Pacific northwest weather patterns.

Cold Weather Photography Clothing

November 21st, 2025 by Carl D

Cold weather photography tips - from Snowshoeing, McCarthy, Alaska. — Snowshoeing on snow machine trail on Kennicott River, winter, McCarthy, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Click on the image above to view a larger version of this photo.

Key Takeaways: Staying Warm While Photographing

Three L’s rule: Loft, Loose, Lots – puffy layers that fit loose, and lots of them
Size up everything: Boots and gloves need to be bigger than you think for blood circulation
Solve the hand problem: 3-layer glove system + chemical warmers + pockets as warming stations
Act before you’re cold: Mitts on early, warming breaks every 30-45 minutes, movement generates heat
Know your temperature range: Different cold needs different gear (-10°F vs -35°F is completely different)

Winter Photography Demands Different Gear

The cold in Alaska, in the winter, is incredible.

Its stillness, its silence, its depth, and the intimacy of really feeling alone in the frozen north woods is an experience like no other. It’s almost as if the cold is some thing, some being itself, a tangible reality rather than a temperature. It’s a unique experience, and it’s not at all entirely bad – in fact, I love it.

But I don’t love freezing my tail off. My friend Patrick, longtime Alaska resident and a fantastic photographer says it best, “I like being in the cold, but I don’t like being cold”. #Truth

It’s really an extraordinary experience, and I do look forward to the winter. But I don’t want to be cold; I want to be bundled up and cozy, and enjoy the cold from inside my insulation.