trip to view the Northern Lights

[Diane Pinkers]

For those of you that live in the Northern climes, any suggestions for a trip to view the Northern Lights?  My boyfriend has mentioned this as a “bucket list” sort of trip, he really wants to see them.  However, he doesn’t like to snow camp at all, and we really don’t have the skills for a winter hiking trip where the lights might be visible.  The idea of just going to an urban setting and trying to see the lights just doesn’t quite make sense to me, it seems like you’d want to be outside the glow of city lights to really view them well.  Any suggestions?  We live in Western Washington, so Alaska/Yukon area would probably be the “closest”.

[Brad Rogers]

You might look into Bettles Lodge in Alaska.  Its a fly in only lodge, nothing fancy, mostly for hunters/backpackers but they also get quite a few aurora viewers/photographers.

The town of Bettles has a year round population of 12.

http://www.bettleslodge.com/new/

If you are looking for professional help in getting your aurora shots contact Carl Donahue.  He does aurora photo trips every year in Alaska:

http://www.skolaiimages.com/alaska-photos/aurora-borealis-photos/

 

 

 

[Dale Wambaugh]

Google “northern lights tours” and you’ll get dozens of hits.

We flew from Seattle to Copenhagen in 1986 and had HOURS of northern lights. I had a window seat and my forehead got really cold from staring out the window. Mind blowing show of nature.

I’ve seen them in Seattle once. Thay say the magnetic field is changing and we should see them more often farther south.

[Diane Pinkers]

Thanks, guys!  I was seeing a lot of tours for Norway, Iceland, and European destination, and that wasn’t what I was looking for.  The Bettles Lodge looks like an intriguing location, will have to figure out how to get there.

[Brad Rogers]

They will handle the logistics if you can get to Fairbanks.  There is at least one small commercial flight to Bettles per day in the summer by Wright Air but I don’t know if they fly in the winter.  The lodge has two planes but their pilot spends his winters as a flight instructor in Colorado.  There is another small airline in Bettles but they may not fly in the winter.

 

It it may be possible to drive there after the rivers freeze over.   I know they do truck some things in on the “ice roads”.

 

If you call or email them, they can help you figure out the logistics.   I stayed there for one night this summer after I got out of the Brooks Range and they seemed like nice folks.

[Author]

Posts