Aurora Borealis 10.5.24

So we were in the Coldfoot Trucker’s Café on Monday evening. LCR had bought gas at the pump and was paying inside.  He was offered a menu and we proceeded to order, figuring we’d move the car later. 

A skinny, scruffy bearded man wearing the requisite flannel shirt and open jacket came in and paid for his gas, and complained loudly that someone was parked by pump 1 so he had to use pump 2.  The server smoothed it over, saying he had his gas so it was okay, but he was still irritated.  LCR admitted it was our car and offered to move it.  I talked to the man a bit and explained that we’d had a stressful day, been in a bit of a crash.  He was sympathetic and offered to look at the damage.

His name was Steve.  Steve looked at the damage to the hitch and admitted that he had nothing that would improve the bootleg fix that had been done by the roadside.  He recommended asking at the tire shop next door, which was really the only place anywhere around.  He and LCR somehow got talking about photography and it came out that Steve is a local photographer, living in Fairbanks but frequently working near Coldfoot.  He said he could show us where to see and photograph the aurora borealis, the Northern Lights.

After eating, we went to the first pull-out outside of Coldfoot.  Steve had said that was a good place to see the lights, and would make for better pictures, because there were no buildings or vehicles in sight.  He said you have to wait for it to get dark, that they usually appear around 10-10:15 pm.  We were there much earlier and LCR pulled out his tripod and began setting up equipment inside the trailer.  Steve had said he would meet us there and would sound his horn when it looked like the lights were starting.

He arrived around 8 pm, waiting in his car and monitoring solar data to see when the lights would come, and sounded his horn at 9:30.  We went out there, with camera and tripod.  People have asked me if we made it to the Arctic Circle.  Coldfoot is actually about 60 miles north of the Arctic Circle.  (We did not get a photo of the sign because in both directions, we were concentrating on the roads.)  Steve showed us that we had to look south, not north, near Coldfoot, to see the aurora.  He pointed out a band of pale green light in the sky. 

We could see it, but the cameras could see even more, with clearer edges and brighter colors.  Steve knows a lot about this phenomenon; in fact, he calls himself an “aurora chaser.”  He admitted that he spends all his money on camera equipment and fuel for his truck.  He posts his work on his Youtube channel, AK Dalton Aurora.  He explained that the lights are a result of sun activity on a magnetic field in the earth’s atmosphere.  The cameras use an 8-second exposure, which is one reason they can see the colors more clearly and show them up brighter than we could see with the naked eye.  The other reason simply has to do with the structure of our eyes.  He said the lights sometimes are a lot brighter.  I asked if he had ever heard them, and he said yes!  Sometimes they sound like Rice Krispies crackling and popping, sometimes like crystal chimes or bells. 

Eventually the lights got brighter.  We could see them undulating (called “curtaining”) and changing as we watched.  There was a faint band of red above the green and even a little shaft of purple toward one end.  Those were difficult for us to see, very faint, but Steve is an expert.  Steve got a photo of the Milky Way and the aurora both, crossing each other in an “X” formation.  That photo also had a streak of light which represented a communications satellite, and he admitted that was sort of a neat effect, though in general he is not in favor of artificial light sources in the night sky.  He also got a photo of our own rig with the lights overhead.

It seemed cold to us (temps around freezing) so we put on more clothes, but Steve just laughed and said he’d been out in 40-below and lower temperatures, and had broken equipment just from the cold.  From time to time he moved his camera to get a different angle, and he showed LCR how to set the camera for both photos and videos. 

At one point a trucker moved onto the pull-out with a huge vehicle, blocking our view.  Steve went and talked to the driver and explained that we were photographing the lights and he had people here who had never seen them.  The driver said he was just making a cup of coffee and would move along soon.  Steve showed him a photo he had taken of the trucker’s own vehicle with the lights and offered to text it to him.  The driver was delighted and said yes, and agreed to dim his lights some.  True to his word, he did move along fairly soon after. 

Seeing the magical lights and watching them shift and change almost made us not feel the cold.  Almost.  Eventually I went inside the trailer, and LCR took a break as well.  The lights started to dim after about an hour or so, and once again Steve researched the solar data and said they would probably continue to fade, but he would watch a while longer.  He was planning to stay around and sleep in his truck anyway.  He said, imagine, none of this would have happened if I hadn’t gotten snippy about the gas pump!

Steve was gone in the morning when we awoke, but we stayed at the pull-out for two days.  We had good internet and cell service and as you can see below, fantastic mountain scenery.  It was nice to have a break from the past days of difficult driving.

On Thursday morning, we went south on the Dalton.  Driving this iconic road was an unbeatable experience, all right.  Its reputation is well-deserved, both as to the difficulty of driving the road and the beauty of the mountain scenery.  The drive back was just as difficult, especially now that we knew what damage those potholes and ruts could inflict.  I’d have to say that, on balance, my experience is that the Dalton Highway is like a gambling casino.  The house always wins!