Hallelujah - We Saw The Light!!!

All day we were concerned that the overcast skies in Yellowknife would ruin our chances of seeing Mother Nature's light show that night. However, the silver lining was that the cloud cover was keeping the temperature at around 9 degrees C, so even if we were wasting our time, at least we wouldn't be freezing.

Julian, our tour guide and Aurora hunter, picked us up at 9:00 PM sharp and we set off with six other hopefuls in search of some magic.

Julian drove us about thirty kilometers outside Yellowknife city limits to an area untouched by the city light. At our first stop, the sky had cleared and
was full of stars, but, alas, there was only a small glowing strip of pale green just above the northern horizon. Julian explained that when the Aurora is immobile in the north, chances are the spectacle won't be very good. We want to see it move overhead towards the south and then back towards north if we hope to see a high activity show.

Julian then drove us to a very secluded spot in the woods where he has a tent set up that's equipped with a firepit to keep us warm, not that we needed it at the time. Again, there was very little excitement in the sky, although the bands appeared to be slowly moving south. Julian rated the Aurora at about a three out of ten. The clouds started moving in, obstructing our view so, after figuring out which way the clouds were moving, Julian took us to a new site about thirty minutes away.

There were very positive signs that the Aurora was getting itself pumped up to put on a good show, but it was becoming a constant race against the clouds.

After driving east for a while, Julian realized we were going the wrong way and headed back west and, when he saw clear skies, pulled us off to the side of the road and things got interesting.

At about 1:30 AM, long ribbons of Aurora crossed the entire sky and began swirling, dipping, dancing and merging, all the while changing color from pale to deep green with flares of pink running through them. And just when we though the spectacle was over, a dim overhead band would brighten, spread out, and start the show all over again. The ooohs and aaaahs from our fellow watchers (and us) said it all. There are truly no words to describe the awe and beauty of a full on Aurora display. What a way to begin our anniversary celebration!

Amazingly, as good as we found the show to be, Julian graded it as only a 7 out of 10!!

We have one more outing tonight with Julian before we fly back to Vancouver tomorrow. The temperature is supposed to drop to below zero tonight, which will make our experience less comfortable, but will hopefully move Julians rating of the display to 8 or 9 out of ten.Read more