Along the
The Road to Alaska
It was February of 2013. I was headed to the Alpine Creek Lodge in Alaska with a small group. Why Alaska? To photograph the Northern Lights, of course!
Winter at the Lodge promised long nights, dark skies and proximity to an ideal location to view the Northern Lights, also known as the Aurora Borealis. And 2013 was a year of maximum solar activity, meaning the Aurora was more frequent and intense.
After flying to Anchorage, we met and drove five hours north on Highway 3 to Cantwell. Cantwell is the western terminus of the Old Denali Highway, with the Lodge at mile 68.
In Cantwell, we stopped to transfer vehicles at the beginning of the Old Denali Highway. I texted this snapshot to my wife, Christine.
Proceed at Your Own Risk
You’re going where!?!
It didn’t take long to get the reply above. I must admit to having second thoughts, especially when I saw few, if any, signs of vehicular traffic beyond the barricade. I wondered how we would get there.
A special kind of cat
Things got even more interesting when our transportation arrived. It was a snow cat guided by skies on the front and driven by caterpillar tracks on the rear. The driver reassured us that although it was a new design, it should work fine.
Snow Cat
The journey
As you can see from the photo, we had the road to ourselves. Well, not entirely to ourselves. We were passed once by a dogsled team. It was slow going at 15mph, but we finally arrived at the Lodge, excited at the prospect of finally seeing the Northern Lights.
The shot
You may be wondering why the Friday Photo is a random shot of an Alaskan mountain at sunset rather than a Northern Lights photograph. As they say, “It’s the journey and not the destination.”
All five nights in Alaska were totally overcast. We never saw the night sky, let alone the Northern Lights. So, I went to Iceland a few years later and all 11 nights were overcast.
Thinking that the third time’s the charm, I returned to Iceland. It rained for 11 straight days and nights. No Northern Lights for a third time.
It wasn’t until a trip to the Canadian Yukon six years later in September of 2019 that I finally saw and photographed the Northern Lights. I think the challenge of finally realizing my dream made it much more rewarding.
Thanks for looking,
Chuck