We thought we were cursed to have another night of Auroras hidden behind clouds again last night, but the snow finally stopped, and around 11:30pm the skies started to clear and the lights were shining above us, giving us a good show until the clouds returned and we finally collapsed into bed at 1am. The “KPI index” hit a max of 4 (out of 8) during our eight nights in Alaska; it’s tough to imagine how amazing it must be during a huge solar storm when the number goes higher.
This morning we got up at 6:45 and carefully made our way through the falling snow and back to Fairbanks. Audrey spotted a mother moose and her year-old calf next to the road as we were getting ready to drop our car, which made for a nice ending to an excellent trip. It’s unlikely that we’ll do another Northern Lights trip any time soon – the typical cycle of solar activity lasts 11 years, and the current cycle peaked last year – but this trip was a great chance to see the lights near the cycle’s maximum, and we were lucky that the universe gave us a few nights that we’ll remember forever.
