Our Story

Thanks for visiting My Alaskan Adventure. I bet you’re wondering how my company came about.. well here I am to tell you from a lifelong Alaskan.

It all started back in 2016 when the company I work for had a winter planned for 140 arctic circle tours, driving Motorcoaches up and down the Dalton highway. I figured I wanted to get in on the fun so I talked to my boss about getting on those tours. I had traveled the Dalton highway once before at this point with another company that I worked for years previous. But I had never actually driven the road.

Now the dalton highway can be very dangerous. You need to have proper training to drive up the road. Usually the company I work for would send you up on a ride along (which means You sit passenger learning the road). Well they decided to put me in a bus of my own and had me follow another driver up the road. This was to learn the call outs and everything, and to help familiarize me with the road.
My boss calls me into his office a couple days before so we could talk about the up coming trip. He informed me that I would be following another driver up the Dalton highway to the Arctic Circle. He told me the drivers name "Steve". Now I had kinda met Steve in passing a couple times over the summer but we had never spoken, I did not know anything about the man. When I was told that Steve knew the highway very well and that I needed to listen and pretty much do exactly what he needed me to do, I decided thats what I needed to do.

The first time I drove up the highway we met in the yard early to go over some things. On the Dalton highway you need to be very prepared for everything. We check the coaches over from head to foot before departure. We check to see if we have both spare tires for the bus. We check for all the spare equipment and for safe measure we top the coaches off before we leave the yard. First stop from the yard is to pick up our tours and then after lunch at a local restaurant we head up the highway. After a long day of driving and making several stops and learning the road we get to the Arctic Circle. When we arrived at the Arctic Circle, Steve jumps out of the other bus and kinda starts organizing things for people helping them get photos in front of the sign (key tourist attraction) and helps arrange cameras to make sure people can get the Northern Lights when they appear.

While we are getting photos in front of the sign and all of a sudden Steven Vosberg (the other bus driver) comes out of his bus with his camera gear and starts looking at the sky kinda studying it for a minute. Then sets his camera up in front of the sign and then comes over to me and tells me to shut the lights off on the bus. So I do so, and step back outside the bus. As my eyes are starting to adjust to the absence of light from the coaches, he starts explaining a few things to everybody in attendance. We give it a couple minutes and the northern lights pop out over the top of the sign. Steve starts taking travelers pictures and he turns around and asks me if I want one and I said, “sure”.

We stayed there for a little bit longer and then we load back up into the coaches and start heading south towards Fairbanks. As we were driving back we would stop along the side of the road where it was safe. He would get out and start helping guests get photos of the northern lights and I figured I wanted to learn and I had also at one point in my life wanted to learn photography.

Well about a month had gone by and we had done a few more tours and had done some things together so that I could learn a little photography. Well eventually I made him a deal (which is part of another story) I said, “you teach me how to do photography, I will teach you how to ride a snowmachine”. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a camera and I had no money to get one… I was severely in debt and trying to climb out of a hole so to speak. Well, December comes around and it’s pretty cold outside and Steve is in the Walmart parking lot and blew a power steering hose on his truck. He is able to get it home but wanted some help on fixing it
Steve is pretty nocturnal during the winter cause he is a "Aurora Chaser" and he needed it fixed, so I offered to fix it. While he was sleeping during the day I went out and got all the stuff needed to fix it. Then I began working on the truck. So the truck had blown a power steering hose I replaced the hose at about 20 below zero. In fact it was such a complicated hose to change out it took me about 4 hours until Steve woke up and then it took another 4 hours after that working outside in the cold.

Steve is the kinda person who doesn’t like to let a good deed go undone and I didn’t do this for any particular reward, but at the end of all this he says, “I have something for you” and he hands me a used camera. It doesn’t have a lens, but he gives me a camera so that I can start learning photography. I save up to get a lens and with in a couple weeks I am able to start learning photography, which I picked up pretty quick and i started to enjoy it and started to see the world in a little bit different way.

A couple of years went by and during that time I learned more about photography and the Northern lights. I started to gain a real passion for chasing the Northern Lights. I found a passion for teaching people about the northern lights and photography. I already knew Steve had a side business taking people out to see the Aurora and teaching them photography. And I was interested in doing the same thing. I approached Steve and we had a long conversation about how to make it work so that we could both benefit and not hurt each others business but help each other out. We came up with a plan. We both own our own businesses and we work in partnership with each other.

Part of the reason I started my business was I saw a need for a different type of tour. I wanted to offer a tour that fits to whatever people want to do. Yes, I do have some tours that are not really changeable. But for the most part, I want to offer people the chance to do what they want at a fairly affordable price. I want to do whatever I can to help my guests see the Northern Lights for the first time, or check the “Alaskan Adventure” off of the bucket list. My goal will always remain the same, to offer a good tour full of lots of useful information and good times. With lasting memories and photos to go with it.

Thanks for reading my story!

~ Craig S.