Ever since we caught a rare glimpse of the northern lights in summer on our Great Alaskan Road Trip, Kevin has been wanting to head north to see the Aurora Borealis properly. Auroras are created when charged particles from the Earth's magnetosphere interact with the gases in the Earth's upper atmosphere. The aurora are enhanced by "space weather" from the sun during times of high solar activity, when the sun can send either High-Speed streams of solar wind (HSSs) or Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) that can further activate the particles in the magnetosphere.
This year is the perfect time for the trip since we are at the solar maximum - the peak phase of the 11-year cycle of solar activity. Kevin opted to go to Fairbanks during the last week of March for several reasons. Firstly, March has the clearest skies of the winter months -- clear skies are great for seeing the actual ribbons instead of just dispersed light filtered through cloud cover. Secondly, the last week of March this year there would be no moon out -- along with light pollution from cities, the glow of the moon can decrease the visibility of the northern lights (you want dark, clear skies). And finally, the spring equinox occurs on March 20th and the Russell-McPherron effect occurs -- this means that the magnetic fields of the earth and the sun are in better alignment for the earth's magnetosphere to intercept the charged particles from the solar wind. Basically, Kevin tried to choose the best possible time to give us the best odds of seeing aurora. It worked.
We arrived on Friday night, just as a large-scale CME was arriving from the sun. Even though our cabin was well within the light pollution of Fairbanks, we had no problem seeing the strong aurora from the porch facing the Chena River. Notice how much ice is still on the river - we could hear it groaning and crackling; by the end of the week it had completely cleared. It's definitely springtime!
The next night was another spectacular night for aurora. We had purchased a great e-book by a Fairbanks local nicknamed "The Aurora Guy". For $12 he described sixteen aurora-viewing locations around Fairbanks in detail - explaining the pros and cons of each. It included a Google map list which was very helpful. Kevin and I spent some time during the daylight hours driving to a few of the locations to be sure of the road conditions and where to park. Some locations had proper parking lots; others were pull-offs on the side of a road. The guidebook also advised that we could get better photos if we were able to walk a half mile or so away from the parking areas. That was another benefit of these daytime recon missions -- we could take note of the existing snowmobile tracks and trails where there was packed snow for easy walking. When we arrived in the dark around 11pm we parked, switched on our red light headlamps, and trudged off along the path to darker skies away from people and lights. For the photo below you can see the effect of headlights on the snow during a long exposure -- we ended up having to move even further away to avoid light interference like this.
Because many tourists are coming from warmer locations and might not have good winter clothes (ahem, Phoenix!), there are several gear outfitters that will rent you a set of waterproof boots and sub-zero bibs and coat. We were glad we splurged on this (renting two sets for a week cost more than our rental car, yikes!). This allowed us to feel confident going out into the snow and standing around for 2-3 hours. We also rented some Yaktrax Diamond Grip cleats that attached to our boots and helped grip the icy snow so we wouldn't slip. The final touch was some disposable HotHands hand and toe warmer packets and we were actually pretty cozy out in the snow. Here's a shot where we used passing headlights to our advantage to light up our faces. Kevin is using his watch to trigger the camera (thanks, Apple!)
Kevin brought a good sturdy tripod which was really handy (even though it raised some eyebrows going through airport security). Over a 30-second exposure the aurora does move around a bit creating softly blurred edges. But you can tell that the tripod is doing its job because the trees in the foreground are crisply in focus. Kevin spent a little bit of time beforehand learning the best settings to use on our phones. We didn't bring any fancy cameras, just used our phones with the tripod.
Even though we stayed up late to see the Northern Lights, we also found a few fun daytime winter activities to do in Fairbanks. We had just missed the World Ice Carving Championships, which were held at the fairgrounds in February and early March this year. Teams came from all over the world and carved ice sculptures in three categories -- single block, double block, and multi-block -- depending on how many massive blocks of ice get used in the design. We were surprised to see teams from places like the Philippines and Thailand, two countries not particularly known for having icy terrain.
Even though the sculptures had been exposed to the elements for weeks, it really was only just getting warm enough to cause melt damage. The organizers specifically hold the competition in a wooded area of the fairgrounds, to maximize shade protection and help the sculptures last longer. Quite a few sculptures showed minimal cracks and damage. The huge blocks of ice used in these sculptures are locally-harvested and weigh 2000 lbs apiece.
In addition to the ice sculptures, the event has a fun area with a skating rink, exhilarating sled ramps, and some interactive games made out of ice like checkers, ping-pong, cornhole, and mini-golf.
We also made a brief stop at the North Pole over the weekend. Not the literal North Pole, but the town of North Pole, Alaska. There's a roadside attraction called the Santa Claus House. It's actually more a glorified Christmas decor store than a true "attraction". But you can get your photo taken with Santa here almost 365 days a year (except holidays, including - ironically - Christmas). We didn't take photos with him this time around but there was no line and Santa honestly looked a little bit bored, poor guy. It's going to be a long wait 'til December for the jolly old elf. But in the meantime, if you are looking for themed Christmas decorations this is definitely the place to be. Even if you are a grinch.
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