The Northern Lights are just one of those things. I’d love to know how many people have them on their bucket list.

They were certainly on mine...

 
Back in March 2016, I was lucky enough to visit Yellowknife in Northwest Territories (Northern Canada). My brother Rob was visiting from Australia, so the 3 of us decided to meet Lady Aurora.

Before leaving Kelowna, I knew I had to buy a camera. My phone just wasn’t going to cut it for this trip. I ended up finding an Olympus E-M10 at London Drugs. It was more than I wanted to spend (little did I know) but I knew it would be nice to have on our travels. After that, we raced to the airport with like no minutes to spare. We pretty much boarded straight away and then we were off. The flight over the Rockies was awesome! We even flew over our home, Big White.

We landed in Calgary and waited there for a little while. Only enough time to grab something to eat and then we boarded again. We were hoping to see the aurora from the plane so I booked everyone a window seat. No luck there but it was all good. I knew we’d see them in good time.

We landed at around midnight in Yellowknife and waited for a cab. While we were waiting, we looked up and could see something in the sky. It was quite faint but we all knew it was the lights. It had to be. We jumped in a cab and we could see them dancing the whole way. A cab ride I will never forget.

Once we got to our accommodation, the lights were swirling right on top of us. It was incredible. We quietly made our way into our suite, dropped off our stuff and put on some warm clothes.

We walked out onto Great Slave Lake and watched the aurora dance all night. The lake was completely frozen. It was such a great experience. And I got to enjoy it with two of my favourite humans. So so so good. We must have been out there till about 4 or 5am. Once the lights had died down, we headed back inside and crashed.

We slept in the next day, but only till around 11ish. We took a walk into town because it was a beautiful day and the Long John Jamboree was on. We walked to the top of a look-out which overlooks the old town area. The lake was huge and completely frozen so everyone was getting around on snowmobiles and dog sleds. So cool. We wandered down to the Jamboree and checked out some food, a couple of stalls and the ice sculptures.

For dinner we went to Bullocks. It was a crazy long wait. Something like 2 hours standing outside. Thankfully the sun was out so we didn't get too cold, except for our toes. We finally got in and the atmosphere was awesome. It was jam packed full of rowdy people and straight up waitresses. Rob had the reindeer, I had the beef and Ben had the cod. The servings were humongous and the food was tasty, but it's the feel of the place that really makes it.

We got back home at around 9pm and decided to have a sleep. Rob woke us at 10pm and said that the lights were going crazy. And they were. Ben & I jumped out of bed and walked over to the lake. Incredible. The lights were moving so fast. They were green and purple and there were even little bits of yellow. It was amazing!! I got a few good shots on my camera but lost the focus a little in some. It was annoying because I was more focused on the camera at one point than the aurora. Thinking back, I can’t believe my introduction to photography was trying to shoot the aurora. With no tripod! Tough stuff when you don’t know what the heck you’re doing.

The next day, we decided to head to the airport so we could pick up a rental car. We drove back to our place, packed our bags and got ready for a great night under the lights. We took the advice of the waitress who worked at Bullocks. She suggested that we get out of town and drive across the lake to Dettah. As an Australian, driving across an ice road seemed like a crazy idea but it was actually fine. There were huge cracks everywhere in the ice and it looked dangerous to even step on, but it was solid as a rock.

Once we made it across the lake, we kept driving for at least half an hour. We found a couple of good spots to set up camp for the night but we didn't stop. Then we stumbled across Prosperous Lake. It was huge! We felt like we were in the middle of nowhere.

Once we found a spot on the lake that we liked the look of, we pulled to the side of the cleared ice road and hopped out. Rob dug out some seats in the snow for us to sit in. We relaxed in our snow seats, drinking wine and watching the sun go down. The sunset seemed to last for hours.

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At one point we heard a very loud, unnerving sound in the ice. And then another. And another. The ice below us was cracking. We moved from where we were standing and waited to see if it would happen again. It did. And it freaked us out. All I could think was that our car was too heavy for the ice and we were for sure going to die.

Thankfully a couple of locals drove by on their snowmobile and told us it was normal. He said it was just the ice settling for the night. It happens when the temperature changes. Phew! The whole night we could hear AND FEEL the ice cracking below us. It was pretty freaky but cool at the same time.

As soon as it was dark, it was on. The lights started straight away. They started in the darkest area and then stretched across the entire sky. The movement and the colours were unreal. Dude! Man! Holy shit! Just to name a few of the words we kept saying all night.

It started to get pretty cold but we pushed on. It was good to have the car there because if we felt too cold, we just jumped in for a bit and warmed our toes up.

At around 1am we decided to call it a night. The lights were still going but we felt like we had enjoyed enough goodness so we drove home. After a quick bite to eat, we fell into bed ecstatic that we got to enjoy such a wonder. And again, so early in the night. An amazing day that sits really warm in my heart.

Yellowknife is one of the best places on Earth to see the Aurora Borealis. But I’ve been lucky enough to see her a few times since I’ve been in Canada. Last Spring she made a couple of appearances (that I saw anyway) while we were living in Canmore, Alberta. I’ve also caught a glimpse of her in Northern Quebec.

I am forever checking my aurora forecast app to make sure I’m not missing her. My biggest problem is sleep. Here in southern BC, there needs to be a pretty decent show in order to see her. And it generally happens in the early hours of the morning, when I'm getting my beauty sleep.

If you're interested in learning more about the Northern Lights, check out the Alberta Aurora Chasers on Facebook. The members there are incredibly helpful and knowledgeable. And the photos on the page are a huge bonus.

The app I use to track aurora activity is called My Aurora Forecast. It shows you things like your viewing probability, cloud coverage and KP potential.

Happy Chasing!

My INTRO