Category: Alaska Activities

• Day Eleven Travel to Alaska Spring 2025

  

  We have driven over 3200 miles and now are sitting back and relaxing while traveling the Alaska Marine Highway.  We saw a whale spouting within the first hour. We splurged on a cabin rather than camping out in a tent (duct taped to the deck), or rolling a sleeping bag onto a deck chair or…

  Melissa Rudacille

  April 11, 2025

  Alaska Activities, travel, Travel to and from Alaska

  Alaska Ferry, Alaska Marine Highway, spring road trip, travel, Wood Bison

• Alaska Travel

  

  As we are packing to return to Alaska, I am also planning our 2025 budget.  It is much easier to anticipate what we might spend now that we are on our fourth season!  Last year, I tracked the cost of all our mini-vacations, from 3 to 10 days. It cost us $2630 to drive our…

  Melissa Rudacille

  March 29, 2025

  Alaska Activities, Alaska Wildlife, Camping in Alaska, Fishing in Alaska, travel, Travel to and from Alaska

  alaska, Alaska Wildlife, Arctic, aurora borealis, Copper River Highway, Cordova, cost per day, Dalton Highway, Denali Highway, Denali National Park, fishing, Grizzly Bear, Hatcher Pass, Russian River, Tangle Lakes, travel

• Whittier, Alaska

  

  We stayed in Whittier September 10 and 11, 2024.  While the tiny city gets mixed reviews, we thoroughly enjoyed it and would like to stay there again.  It IS different. In order to get to or from the city by road or train, you travel through a narrow,  one-way tunnel.  There is only room for…

  Melissa Rudacille

  December 15, 2024

  Alaska Activities, Alaska Wildlife, Fishing in Alaska

  alaska, Alaska Ferry, Alaska Marine Highway, Alaska weather, coho salmon, fishing, Whittier

• Lanigan, SK to Steinbach, MB (plus piece of Alaska)

  

  Day Six: we have now traveled 2800 miles from Healy, Alaska and have 1600 to go.  We will cross into the United States tomorrow at the Warroad, Minnesota border crossing.  Our fun stop for the day was Portage Spillway Provincal Park, which surprised us by having thousands of birds.  We saw a White Pelican, a…

  Melissa Rudacille

  September 27, 2024

  Alaska Activities, Birds, Travel to and from Alaska

  alaska, Bird Watching, fall road trip, glacier, Migration

• Healy, AK to Destruction Bay, YT

  

  Day One of our 4400 mile trip to VA.  We started the day seeing a wolf and ended the drive seeing a grizzly bear.   In between, there were many pretty snow-capped mountains with fresh snow. It was snowing as we packed yesterday,  then turned to rain, then dropped to 21 degrees overnight.   Two of the…

  Melissa Rudacille

  September 22, 2024

  Alaska Activities, Alaska Wildlife, Birds, Travel to and from Alaska, Wildlife

  Alcan Highway, Bird Watching, fall road trip, Grizzly Bear, Wolf

• Whittier and Cordova, a few highlights

  

  This ten day trip deserves several posts.  We loved both Alaskan towns and definitely want to go back.  However,  packing isn’t leaving me much time to write. With snow arriving in Healy, we want to head south soon!  On day three, we left Whittier on the M/V Aurora (Alaska Ferry), for a 12 hour boat…

  Melissa Rudacille

  September 20, 2024

  Alaska Activities, Alaska Wildlife, Camping in Alaska, Fishing in Alaska, Garden/Plants

  Alaska Ferry, Alaska Marine Highway, Alaska weather, Alaska Wildlife, aurora borealis, coho salmon, Copper River Highway, Cordova, fishing, foraging, Northern lights, Whittier

• Labor Day Weekend, Coho IV, 2024

  

  Fall is here with fresh snow on the mountains and fall color everywhere.   We spent 4 nights fishing for chum and camping at Sheep Creek Slough.  Four co-workers joined us, and all caught at least one fish. We got on the road early on Saturday to pick up a friend at the airport.   Thanks to…

  Melissa Rudacille

  September 6, 2024

  Alaska Activities, Alaska Wildlife, Birds, Camping in Alaska, Fishing in Alaska

  Alaska weather, Alaska Wildlife, Bird Watching, coho salmon, Denali National Park, fishing, Grizzly Bear, Sandhill Cranes

• Bore Tide, Puffins, and Coho III

  

  Seven nights:  Seward,  Swanson River,  and Sheep Creek Slough Our second attempt to see the Turnagain Arm bore tide was spectacularly successful.   The August 21 wave was much bigger than July 25 (https://roaming-nature.com/2024/07/27/bore-tide-and-bears-sockeye-ii-2024/) This time we could see the wave even before Beluga Point!  As we were pulling the trailer we didn’t have the flexibility…

  Melissa Rudacille

  August 30, 2024

  Alaska Activities, Alaska Wildlife, Birds, Camping in Alaska, Fishing in Alaska, Wildlife

  Alaska Sealife Center, Alaska Wildlife, bore tide, fishing, running water, Trumpeter Swans

• 8 Days Coho Count and Talkeetna

  

  We spent 6 days camping, canoeing, and fishing in the rain. We saw 6 moose, a river otter, a beaver, and 3 Sandhill Cranes.  We watched a Merganser mother with her 11 (!) ducklings scavenging and fishing around us.  We also watched the Olympics on C’s phone during a break in the rain. On our last…

  Melissa Rudacille

  August 15, 2024

  Alaska Activities, Alaska Wildlife, Birds, Camping in Alaska, Fishing in Alaska

  Alaska weather, Alaska Wildlife, Bird Watching, coho salmon, Denali National Park, fishing, Sandhill Cranes

• Sockeye II Part 2 AND Coho Count I

  During the latter half of our 6-day “Sockeye II, 2024” I finally caught my first sockeye salmon by flossing.   Three of the four in the photo below are mine.  It was a lot of work and in a crowd, so I am still not a fan of this type of fishing.  July 29 we fished…

  Melissa Rudacille

  July 30, 2024

  Alaska Activities, Camping in Alaska, dry cabin, Fishing in Alaska, Life in Alaska

  coho salmon, fishing, running water