In 2025, Alaskans again bore witness to history — a devastating storm, a presidential summit, the canonization of a saint. We also danced and competed, prayed and protested, and showed up for work, school and our communities. Through every season, we savored the state’s wilderness and the wildlife that lives there.

Daily News journalists photographed Alaska and Alaskans through it all. Below is a collection of our 2025 favorites.

A UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter is silhouetted by a full moon as it climbed above the Chugach Mountains east of Anchorage on Nov. 5. (Bill Roth / ADN) A person moves their possessions as structures are engulfed in flames during the abatement of the homeless camp at Davis Park in Anchorage’s Mountain View on June 17. (Bill Roth / ADN) Bertha Emelia Preciado, 86, second from left, and Micaela Arellano, 90, dance during a social group meeting for native Spanish speakers on Feb. 12 at the Anchorage Senior Activity Center. Both women are originally from Mexico. (Loren Holmes / ADN) Senior Adella Judge (Eurydice), left, and junior Azra Brand (Hermes) rehearse with the rest of the cast of Hadestown on Feb. 24 at West High School in Anchorage. (Loren Holmes / ADN) A bat, likely a little brown bat, flies close to the surface of a stream near the Eagle River Nature Center on Feb. 20. (Marc Lester / ADN) A Tesla Cybertruck passes a line of protesters on Feb. 17. At the time, Tesla CEO Elon Musk led the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Hundreds of people lined Sixth Avenue that day in downtown Anchorage to protest various actions taken by President Donald Trump and his administration. (Marc Lester / ADN) Thousands gather for a “No Kings” protest on June 14 in downtown Anchorage, coalescing around frustration and anger with Trump administration actions. (Loren Holmes / ADN) Travis Beals departs the Iditarod checkpoint in Nenana on March 3. (Marc Lester / ADN) A dog in Gabe Dunham’s team howls before the Iditarod begins. Thirty-three mushers and dog teams began the 2025 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race from Fairbanks on March 3. (Marc Lester / ADN) Paige Drobny is escorted by Nome police vehicles as she mushes down Front Street to finish the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on March 14 in Nome. Drobny finished in third place. (Loren Holmes / ADN) Jessie Holmes hugs his wheel dogs after winning the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in the early morning of March 14. (Loren Holmes / ADN) Bethany Glathar, 15, and Eben Drebert, 16, talk on the edge of the dance floor at the Pink Cadillac Country Bar & Dance Hall on March 10 in Muldoon. The Pink Cadillac hosts a regular “Buckaroos” night, which turns the country bar into an all-ages, alcohol-free space. (Loren Holmes / ADN) A group removes meat and blubber from a dead fin whale that washed up near the mouth of Fish Creek in late 2024, in preparation for removing the skeleton for eventual display in a museum, on March 27 in Anchorage. (Loren Holmes / ADN) West High School track and field team runner J.T. Gurney, a sophomore, does an interval workout on a slushy track during a snowfall on April 9. (Marc Lester / ADN) Finola Borgese, left, and Keegan Canida, both of Girdwood, feel strong wind on a brief stop at Beluga Point along Turnagain Arm on April 16. That day, the National Weather Service issued a high wind warning for the Anchorage Hillside and Eagle River. By the afternoon, wind gusts reached 91 miles per hour in Bear Valley, 71 miles per hour at Glen Alps and 58 miles per hour in Rabbit Creek, according to the National Weather Service. (Marc Lester / ADN) Liubov and Oleksandr Chemeresyuk, at right, attend a Sunday service at Word of Life Church in Delta Junction on May 4. The couple, who came to Alaska from the Odesa, Ukraine, region, are among roughly 150 people who had come to Delta Junction since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. (Marc Lester / ADN) Agnesa Butenko helps her cousin Vitalii Korbutiak, 13, with English language instruction at Delta High School on May 5. (Marc Lester / ADN) Social work navigator Tanya Vandenbos and Officer Ruth Adolf, both of Anchorage Police Department’s HOPE Team, check on a person at Davis Park in Anchorage on May 8. (Marc Lester / ADN) Dimond’s Anayah Sila, center, reacts with her teammates to a call from the referee in favor of Colony High School during the ASAA 4A high school volleyball state championship game at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage on Nov. 15. (Photo by Emily Mesner for ADN) Fifth-grade teacher David Baldwin, at left with a black hat, leads fourth and fifth graders in a volcano exercise as the rest of the student body watches on the last day of school, May 21, at Lake Hood Elementary in Anchorage. Lake Hood closed after the school year, and most of the students went to either Turnagain Elementary or Northwood Elementary. (Loren Holmes / ADN) Skiers climb on the course groomed on Eagle Glacier for Alaska Pacific University’s Thomas Training Cente on Aug. 5. Coach Erik Flora said the natural slopes of the area allows for groomed courses to mimic World Cup races. (Marc Lester / ADN) A procession follows the casket containing the remains of Saint Olga from the gravesite to St. Nicholas Church on June 19. Hundreds of people gathered in Kwethluk for the Orthodox Church in America’s canonization ceremonies for St. Olga. (Marc Lester / ADN) James Michael, son of St. Olga, attends a service to glorify her in Kwethluk on June 20. (Marc Lester / ADN) Fisherman Chad Tessier has an early morning smoke at the start of his day aboard the halibut longliner Oracle on June 4 in waters near Unalaska Island. (Loren Holmes / ADN) Fishermen Chad Tessier, left, and Chase Oleyer take a break between sets aboard the Oracle on June 4. (Loren Holmes / ADN) National Transportation Safety Board investigator Mark Ward examines the wreckage of a PA-32R-300 that crashed at the Big Lake airport on June 24. The pilot and passenger were hospitalized with serious injuries. Next to Ward is Jeff Helmericks with Northern Aviation, LLC. (Loren Holmes / ADN) Mason Phillips, of Sacramento, California, bounds over rocks during Crow Pass Crossing trail race. About 150 racers competed in the 2025 race, which follows a 23-mile course from Girdwood to Eagle River, July 19. (Marc Lester / ADN) Several hundred students walked out of Bettye Davis East Anchorage High School on April 11 as part of a coordinated effort with other high school students in the Anchorage School District to call for an increase in state education funding. (Marc Lester / ADN) Sen. Löki Tobin, D-Anchorage, takes a breath after the results of the education funding veto override vote are displayed during the joint session of the Legislature at the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau on Aug. 2. At left is Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, and at right is Sen. Forrest Dunbar, D-Anchorage. (Marc Lester / ADN) Mike Mason, staff member for Sen. Löki Tobin, pumps his arms after a news conference with Senate members after the override vote. A joint session of the Alaska House and Senate voted to override Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s education bill veto at the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau on May 20. (Marc Lester / ADN) Gov. Mike Dunleavy speaks to reporters during a news conference at the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau on May 19. (Marc Lester / ADN) After the House adjourned for the legislative session, Nellie Unangiq Jimmie, D-Toksook Bay, posed for photos with colleagues and danced outside the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau on May 20. (Marc Lester / ADN) Commencement speaker Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, looks over her to father Frank Murkowski, 92, a former Alaska Governor and U.S. Senator, who was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws during the University of Alaska Anchorage spring commencement at the Alaska Airlines Center on May 4. (Bill Roth / ADN) President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin give a joint news conference at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson on Aug. 15. (Marc Lester / ADN) Several hundred protesters gathered along the Seward Highway near Northern Lights Boulevard in Anchorage on Aug. 14, to protest President Donald Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Marc Lester / ADN) Claire Lubke holds a peace sign in front of a large banner that reads “Alaska stands with Ukraine,” on Aug. 14, to protest President Donald Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Marc Lester / ADN) Alaska resident Mark Warren received a new Ural motorcycle as a “personal gift” from Russian President Vladimir Putin the day after his meeting with President Donald Trump. Photographed on Aug. 18. (Bill Roth / ADN) Winona Fletcher, center, takes a breath at the conclusion of the resentencing on Sept. 8 in Anchorage Superior Court. The new sentence made Fletcher immediately eligible for release after 40 years in prison for a notorious 1985 triple murder, committed when she was 14. (Marc Lester / ADN) Friends of Amelia Nowak and Derek Duerr pack a courtroom during a sentencing hearing for Matthew Davis, a former JBER soldier who killed two people while driving drunk in 2022, on Jan. 3 at the Nesbett Courthouse in Anchorage. Judge Peter Ramgren accepted a plea deal that gives Davis 30 years in prison for the incident, which killed 18-year-old Nowak and 20-year-old Duerr. (Loren Holmes / ADN) Cindy Berger, owner of Spenard’s iconic palm tree sign and the property it’s displayed on, celebrates the reinstallation on Oct. 1. (Marc Lester / ADN) A pink sky and the full moon are visible from the Elliott Highway north of Fairbanks on the morning of Feb. 12. (Marc Lester / ADN) Sand blows across the surface of dunes at Kincaid Park in Anchorage on a windy afternoon on Oct. 8. (Marc Lester / ADN) The Alaska National Guard transported 205 people displaced by Typhoon Halong from Bethel to Anchorage in a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft on Oct. 16. It was the second of multiple flights to transport people who evacuated Kipnuk and other affected villages in the region. (Marc Lester / ADN) Zacharias John, 19, looks at the devastation left by Typhoon Halong in Kipnuk on Oct. 17. John decided not to evacuate yet, but stay and help the few people who remain in the village. Officials from the Alaska National Guard and Sen. Lisa Murkowski toured Kipnuk days after Typhoon Halong devastated the village on the Western Alaska coast. (Marc Lester / ADN) People from Tuntutuliak arrive in Bethel on an Alaska Army National Guard CH-47 Chinook helicopter on Oct. 17. Alaska Army and Air National Guard personnel continued work to evacuate people from several Western Alaska villages, including Tuntutuliak and Kwigillingok, to Bethel, several days after Typhoon Halong caused widespread damage in the coastal region. (Marc Lester / ADN) Charlie Charlie enters his home, which was left damaged by water and mud, knocked off its foundation and tilting toward a riverbank by Typhoon Halong, in Tuntutuliak on Oct. 24. (Marc Lester / ADN) A dog from Kwigillingok looks out at AmeriCorps worker Elena Hamann at the Bethel Friends of Canines facility on Oct. 23. (Marc Lester / ADN) Napakiak resident Tony Larson said all the food stored in freezers inside and outbuilding near his home was spoiled by floodwater caused by Typhoon Halong. Photographed Oct. 23. (Marc Lester / ADN) Lower Kuskokwim School District fourth and fifth grade students displaced by the storm in Western Alaska attend class in College Gate Elementary School in Anchorage on Nov. 13. (Bill Roth / ADN) Irene Thomas serves up a bowl of moose soup during a Native food potluck at Saint Innocent Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Anchorage on Oct. 24. (Bill Roth / ADN) South Anchorage senior Arne Nedwick (13) pours Gatorade over the team’s head coach, John Lewis, after they defeated Bartlett High School in the ASAA Division I state championship football game at Colony High School in Palmer on Oct. 24. (Photo by Emily Mesner for ADN) Brandon Morris attempts to wrestle a steer to the ground while competing in the Chute Dogging event on the second day of the Rodeo Alaska “Tough Enough To Wear Pink” rodeo at the Alaska State Fair in Palmer on Aug. 24. (Bill Roth / ADN) Teammates gather on top of a culvert and cheer on the boys varsity runners during the Chugiak Mustang Smokin’ Stampede cross country meet at Beach Lake Trails in Chugiak on Sept. 20. (Photo by Emily Mesner for Anchorage Daily News) Megan Hutchinson ice skates on a small clearing at Westchester Lagoon on Nov. 20. Plowing and mopping had not yet begun at Westchester, which has some snow on most of its surface. (Marc Lester / ADN) A five-year-old Chinese Crested dog named Vidr who won best of breed gives owner and handler Mallory Wetherington a kiss while competing at the Alaska Kennel Club dog show at the Dena’ina Center on March 23. (Bill Roth / ADN) Gordon Severson, 95, works as a bailiff at the Nesbett Courthouse in Anchorage on June 23. (Bill Roth / ADN) A bull moose browses after a light covering of new snow near South Fork Campbell Creek in Chugach State Park on Oct. 27. (Marc Lester / ADN)
A sandhill crane walks along a pond on the Anchorage Coastal Wildlife Refuge near Point Woronzof on May 15. (Marc Lester / ADN) A brown bear sow surveys a traffic jam while tending to her two cubs in Denali National Park and Preserve on Sept. 15. (Bill Roth / ADN) A black bear eats grass and dandelions on the forest floor of Anchorage’s Kincaid Park near Little Campbell Lake on May 29. (Marc Lester / ADN) A lesser yellowlegs strides through a small pond near the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail in West Anchorage as rain falls on June 9. (Marc Lester / ADN) A ptarmigan sprints across the road in Denali National Park and Preserve on Sept. 14. (Bill Roth / ADN) A pair of this year’s calves accompany their mother around an East Anchorage neighborhood on June 30. (Anne Raup / ADN) A days old Mew Gull chick leaps from its nest on top of a totem pole along Fourth Avenue in downtown Anchorage on June 10, just minutes after having been placed back in the nest by a business owner. (Bill Roth / ADN) Ghost, a snowy owl at Bird TLC, swallows a rat on Feb. 4. As part of Bird Treatment and Learning Center’s “Love Hurts” fundraiser, staff fed a rat named after an ex-partner to one of its raptors for a $100 donation. (Marc Lester / ADN) A juvenile bald eagle launches from ice on the mudflats along the Anchorage coast on March 31. The carcass of a fin whale, which came to rest in November 2024, drew many ravens and several eagles to the area. (Marc Lester / ADN) The setting sun casts a warm glow on Mt. Hunter, left, and 20,310-foot Denali as a hiker takes in the views from the Glen Alps overlook in the Chugach State Park on Nov. 9. (Bill Roth / ADN) Anchorage firefighters used foam to battle a blaze at a law office being renovated at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Ingra Street in Anchorage on July 10. (Bill Roth / ADN) Monica Morterud kissed the headstone of her late husband William Morterud, a Navy SEAL during Vietnam, after placing flowers in his honor on Memorial Day at the Fort Richardson National Cemetery on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson on May 26. (Bill Roth / ADN) Jack Dugoni of Burlingame, California swam between icebergs in Portage Lake near the Begich, Boggs Visitor Center in the Chugach National Forest during a 70-degree day on July 27. “I love a cold swim,” said Dugoni. (Bill Roth / ADN) Ron Passarella reacts to his pumpkin weigh-off result of 71 pounds during the 19th annual Alaska Midnight Sun Great Pumpkin Weigh-off at the Alaska State Fair in Palmer on Aug. 25. Passarella said, “It’s the first time I’ve grown a seed in my life.” (Bill Roth / ADN) Reindeer weaved through humans as they sprinted down Anchorage’s Fourth Avenue during the 17th annual Running of the Reindeer on the last weekend of the Fur Rendezvous winter festival on March 1. (Bill Roth / ADN) Joseph Vallie and his 7-year-old daughter Lyla slide down a hill at Anchorage’s Russian Jack Springs Park after snowfall on March 16. “We were planning to go bike riding today, but it snowed and now we are sledding,” said Vallie. (Bill Roth / ADN) Victoria Lytle takes a photo on Nov. 25, with three Anchorage firefighters who responded after she was mauled by a bear in July. From left are Ben Schultz, Sean McMillan, Lytle, and Stefan Isaly-Johns. Lytle thanked the firefighters, dispatchers, pilots and others involved in her rescue. (Marc Lester / ADN) Family and friends celebrate as Star Hunt crossed the stage during the University of Alaska Anchorage spring commencement at the Alaska Airlines Center on May 4. (Bill Roth / ADN) University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Aidan Hay catches his breath after crossing the finish line. The first day of the U.S. Cross Country Ski Championships featured men’s and women’s 10-kilometer freestyle races at Kincaid Park in Anchorage on Jan. 2. (Marc Lester / ADN) A layer of fog covers much of South Anchorage, including O’Malley Road, in this view west from the Anchorage Hillside on Dec. 1. (Marc Lester / ADN)