Jayleen Bydlon

Name: Jayleen Bydlon
Age: 29
Residence: Juneau, Alaska

Occupation: Whale Watching Captain for “Jayleen’s Alaska”

Years lived in Alaska: 29

Current Location: Auke Bay, Alaska

Date of Photo: June 30, 2022
Temperature: 57 F/Outdoors
Current Weather: Foggy and Cloudy

What brought you to live in Alaska: 
I first came to Alaska because I was born here, but my great-great-great-grandparents came over from Scotland originally to work as a support in the gold mine, which started the population growth around Juneau. It was mostly- it was the next big gold rush after California kind of died out. And so people were moving here, immigrants from all over the world, and mine came from Scotland.How has Alaska captured your heart?

How has Alaska captured your heart? Alaska has captured my heart because it’s different every single day. So like, Alaska’s weather, the people, the wildlife, everything is just incredibly different. The beautiful Alaska National Geographic that everyone wants to see coming to visit Alaska isn’t necessarily what you’re gonna see on the day to day, but if you open your mind and you kinda look around you, and you take in what the land is willing to show you and you leave your mind open, you’ll be amazed. But it’s not necessarily gonna be what you expected it to be.

Describe just one of your favorite “Best Days” or  “Most memorable experiences”  in Alaska. 

My most memorable experiences I think were growing up, actually, as a kid. So I grew up on Shelter Island, which is just outside of Juneau. So my family home was an eight mile run in a boat from Auke Bay, Alaska, out to our- our family home. I a grew up in a boat. I was always in a boat. My parents had a small boating company, and then, to get to and from our family home, we were in a boat. And then after work, my dad and I, after getting off a boat, would get in our personal boat and then we’d go out whale watching or taking photos.


That time in a boat with my dad was really heartfelt. It really made me comfortable in a boat, and a lot of my experiences and when I need to know something or need to learn something, I go back to that time with my dad in a boat, and- and relive a lot of it, and what would he do? And just so much time out there, really just made me really comfortable with the land and what I do today as a whale watching captain. It all kinda came together, all those experiences.

But man, the things you can see in southeast Alaska if you spend a lot of time in a boat is just pretty- pretty remarkable.

What in Life do you know for sure?

What I know for sure in life is that if you are bound and determined to have a bad experience, then you will. And if you are bound and determined to make the best out of the situation, then that will happen, as well.