A gem that's close to home.

We spent the weekend at the Williwaw Campground in Portage Valley, about an hour south of Anchorage, in the Chugach National Forest. We haven’t been there in many years, and forgot what a great place it is. The scenery is fantastic and the mountain biking and hiking on the trails is first rate. It’s also nice staying at a campground where you’re not packed in side by side. We got lucky with gorgeous weather.

Denali. What a difference 3 weeks can make.

Devany was in Wisconsin judging the YMCA Nationals gymnastics meet, so I managed to score a last minute reservation at the Teklanika campground for 4 nights. We were here three weeks ago and wow, what an amazing difference. It had been a very late spring, with very little green growth yet. Not this trip. The tundra was a lush blanket of green, the wildflowers were blazing all around. Didn’t get any close bears this time, but still saw plenty of critters, including a very rare one that we haven’t seen in many years. Come along for another biking with bears journey. Click on images for full-screen and the captions will tell the story.

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.