So here we are in Fairbanks and we are Aurora Hunting !
The Road to Fairbanks
Rain again greeted us as we setoff to our next stop in Fairbanks. Quite chilly also with the temperatures in single figures.
Optimistically we stopped at both the south and north Denali “viewpoint” overlooks however we had to rely on the information board as to what the mountain and range was supposed to look like – seems actually viewing Denali can be as much a lottery as seeing the Aurora !
We stopped at the Alaska Veterans Memorial. The site was chosen as it is the mid point between Alaska’s 2 largest cities and “there is a wonderful view of Denali from the entrance” – but not on a wet, overcast day !
Without any distance views to be seen most of the drive was through road surrounded by low scrub and trees. At one point we did come across “Igloo City”, one of those “seemed like a good idea” ideas which failed miserably. Despite building a weird igloo-ish looking structure and supposed to be a “hotel, restaurant, gift shop and service centre” when first built in 1973, it seems at best it was a fuel stop for a while and has been abandoned since 2005.
We reached the area of Broad Pass, a mountain valley which separates the drainage of rivers and streams wither west toward anchorage or east to the Yukon. The mountains were spectacular even given the poor weather.
We passed the entrance to Denali National Park – where we will be staying for a couple of days on the way back – and then headed on to Fairbanks, arriving about 3pm.
A bit early for arrival at our hotel, we stopped at the Fairbanks Cultural Centre. It has exhibits of the evolution of the area, from the indigenous inhabitants, through the pioneering days and to the present – well worth a visit.
We are staying at Pikes Waterfront Lodge for our 2 nights, just out of the main town of Fairbanks on the banks of the Chena River – even scored one of Miss Kay’s Homemade Pie’s as a special treat at check-in !
To add to our Iditarod story, the lodge has been the location of the “race re-start” on 3 occasions – 2003, 2015 and 2017. The race has a “ceremonial start” in Anchorage and then the “real start” is in Willow, north of Anchorage the next day. On a few occasions due to a lack of snow, it has restarted in Fairbanks and the Lodge has been the location for this.
After check-in we drove out of town to see a section of the Alyeska Pipeline. This pipeline moves the oil from the northern oilfields to the southern port at Valdez. It is specially designed to ensure the flow of oil remains constant through the temperature extremes during the year.
Fairbanks is also the “aurora viewing hub” in Alaska and part of the reason we are here is to do our “Aurora Chasers” tour. The Lodge also has a swanky new setup called the “Aurora Discovery Institute ” which showcases viewing the aurora and its aura !
After settling in, we headed next door to “Pikes Landing” for dinner – blackened halibut for Adrienne and a for me, the “Alaskan Ragin’ Cajun” – reindeer sausage, italian and andouille sausage, chicken & shrimp mixed with fettucine and spicy cajun sauce.
After dinner it was time for a nap – waiting for our 10.15pm your pick up !
Aurora Chasing
We were lucky to get an unexpected glimpse of the aurora on our cruise however some time ago Adrienne had booked us on a tour with the “Aurora Chasers” in the hopes that we would see it whilst in Alaska.
We do some wacky things on holidays – this tour started at 10.15pm with an expected return to our hotel of 4.00am !
The Aurora Chasers do just that – they have a sophisticated system of weather and aurora monitoring data and will drive their group (max 12) around in a specially fitted out and insulated Mercedes van until they find a good spot for viewing. They are also photographers so provide a specialised photography crash course on photographing the aurora.
With the overcast and patchy rain weather, we had fairly low expectations of an outcome but at 10.15pm they arrived and loaded 10 of us into the van (the 2 of us, another group of 2 and another group of 6 photographers) and Ronn and his partner Marketa whisked us away to a predetermined spot about 20 minutes out of town where their initial scouting had indicated could be good.
Whilst Marketa monitored the data, we sat in the van as Ronn gave an intro and set about getting all of us sorted with our various photography gear. Some had come fully prepared, however we had decided to hire their recommended lenses as we had nothing really suitable. He then set about working through the various camera setting required, giving an explanation behind each and making sure everyone was organised before moving to the next.
As the “stars weren’t aligning” so to speak, we then watched a video on a large screen in the van about the aurora and how and when it forms. We, as many I suspect would be, were surprised to find out that with the naked eye, you rarely actually see the “stunning aurora” you see in pictures. This was highlighted to us with what we had seen on the cruise.
Except in “perfect conditions”, your eyes cant see the colors other than the green and it is the camera that “amplifies” what you are actually looking at. On most occasions you see the green in varying degrees of quality but there can be instances of purples, red and even blue depending on the conditions.
Still no aligning stars, so Ronn and Marketa decided to drive to another location where the weather conditions looked a bit better – so off we went. We probably drove for 30 to 45 minutes, I’d worked out we were heading out in the direction we had driven into Fairbanks yesterday and then we basically drove off the highway into a rough fire trail road. These guys over time had scoured various “off road” areas that provided a good spot to set up but this was actually a new one – essentially just driving into the unknown !
We stopped in an open area we came across and Marketa set about monitoring all her data again trying to find an opening in the sky where the aurora would be exposed. Meanwhile we sat in the van with various chitchat whilst Ronn & Marketa discussed the options and served some coffee and hot chocolate.
2.00 am came and went and we still had no success. They setup a webcam on the roof of the van so we could all see what they were looking at. We could see there was intermittent fog and cloud, a star shining here and there and then disappearing. About 2.40 am they were starting to indicate we were running out of time before the aurora would disappear with the approaching dawn.
Suddenly there was a bit of a break in the cloud and we all agreed we might as well get out of the van and have a look – having sat there for over 4 hours ! Remarkably things did improve to some extent and we set up our cameras and Marketa did her best to do some portraits of us as the aurora moved in and out of the cloudy sky – again, not overly visible to the naked eye however the clicking cameras were producing some reasonable results.
We snapped away till about 3.30 am when the aurora pretty much disappeared, and we packed up and headed back to Fairbanks – where it was well after 4.00 am when we arrived.
The whole thing had been an amazing experience and whilst we certainly didn’t get a great night, just seeing the aurora is quite amazing !
Here are our results –
Fairbanks – The Aurora Aftermath
No prizes for guessing we slept in somewhat before being roused by the noises in the hotel just after 9.00am. We had a slow start and then a fairly relaxed day.
We had arrived back last night and just dropped everything so we spent sometime unpacking and reorganising our bits and pieces.
We then decided to visit North Pole.
North Pole is a town just out of Fairbanks and of course it is the location of Santa Claus House. Santa was obviously selling off all his leftovers from last year as the “gift shop” was brimming with shoppers and full of merchandise up for grabs. We managed to leave unscathed !
After we left North Pole, we drove back to Fairbanks and have a look around downtown. It is not much of a downtown and a drive up and down a couple of streets seemed to cover that. We found a new shopping experience – an Alaska version of Walmart called Fred Meyer. We picked up a couple of things and some sandwiches for lunch and headed back to our hotel to relax for a while after our late night last night.
We went back to Pikes Landing for another nice dinner – Adrienne had a chicken fettucine and I had blackened salmon – and then back to our hotel for an early night.
Tomorrow we start back to Denali National Park