Top of the World

As my last official Alaska adventure, I’m heading up to the Top of the World highway in search of big aurora. Was I successful? Did I have the awesome Northern lights experience? Read on!

Leaving Tok, the road heads for Chicken, Alaska. The road will soon be paved all the way to Chicken, thanks to recent and ongoing construction, which I encountered. On the way up, every roadside pullout is packed with hunters. yes, hunting season is open and the Alaskans turn out in force!

  

The town of Chicken is just this neat little funky place, and is just about the last bit of Alaska I’ll see. I pull off at Beautiful Downtown Chicken and park for the night.

  

Ain’t no aurora till after dark, but it’s looking pretty good. The sky is mostly clear. To kill some time, I get a beer (or two) at the saloon, then sit out on the porch with some local hunting folks and chew the fat. Feels very homey here, nice folks. The tourists think I’m some of the “local color” haha.

  

That night, I’m standing outside, the sky is clear, the stars are out in profusion, but no aurora. Damn! I stick it out till about 0130, but there's not even a hint of activity. so far, not good!

The next day, I leave Chicken and head for some currently-unknown high place to camp along the top of the world highway. The rod runs along the ridgelines, and should offer outstanding views. No pavement anymore, the road is dirt and gravel, but in very good condition. The fall colors are amazing!

  

I find a truly high place: it’s a graded area way up on the hillside above the road. This should be a great place to watch the sky tonite!

By 10pm, it’s getting dark, but unfortunately, it’s getting cloudy too…. Damn! By 11, it’s totally socked in, not a star in sight. No aurora for me tonite…. Worst of all, I’m just positive that the most amazing display is going on up there above the clouds, and I can’t see it. I go to bed a bit dispirited.

The next morning I continue on the road to Dawson City, and the amazing fall colors along the way really cheer me up! I know, you’re probably getting tired of all these leaf pix, but maybe just a few more….

     

The road ends at the Yukon river, and to get across to Dawson, you have to take the ferry. It’s free, and no problem for even a large RV. Here it comes!

  

A 5 minute ride later, I’m in Dawson. I stayed here in 2014, and it’s a great little town, very historic and original, from the gold rush days and all. This time, I’m not going to stop, I need someplace darker, maybe I’ll get lucky tonite So it’s on down the road. The town is surrounded by huge piles of tailings from the mining days, and there’s still a lot of active gold and silver mining in the area.

  

At this point, I’m just cruising down the road, looking for a likely place to stop for the night. Coming into Pelly Crossing ( a tiny town with a bridge across the Yukon) I spot this sign. It leads to a very nice, deserted, free campground. Hey, this’ll do!

  

Best yet, the evening is warm, the sky is clear, hey, you never know….. I’m sitting out with a beer and a cigar, enjoying the beautiful fall evening, and I’m looking at this bridge. Hey, there’s a pedestrian walkway along the bridge. Oh, Hell yes! I’m going to walk across it…. Might be photogenic.

  

The walkway is one of those steel grate affairs, so that’s pretty cool, looking down at the treetops beneath my feet. Got a nice shot of the RV across the river. Fun! Just something RVers do, I guess.

     

As the sun sinks, the sky is 100% clear. Hey, this could be the night!

It is.

I am treated to a truly spectacular aurora display, the best and brightest I’ve seen, and it goes on for hours. The aurora is trippy, it changes in intensity and shape constantly, it ebbs and flows like an ocean in the sky. I spend several hours just watching it. Sometimes it’s so bright you could read by it, other times, it’s real dim and subtle. Hard to put across in words, guess it’s just something you have to experience for yourself. Finally, I get some good photos.

     

Aurora quest: successful!

Now it’s truly time to put Alaska in my rear view mirror and head south to friends and home. It’s a long road, guess I better get to it! I’ve decided to keep the blog open a few more weeks as I travel home, so stop by occasionally. Never know what you might see.

Bye, Alaska, see you again sometime!

More Colors

Just a quick blog to bring you up to date. I’m parked in Tok right now, which means I’m on my way out of Alaska. *sob*! Hey, what a wonderful trip it’s been, and it ain’t over yet!

I’ve been wowed by the fall spectacle up here! I headed back to Cheena Hot Springs, north of Fairbanks for one more dip in the springs. The road out to Cheena was super bright with fall colors. On the way, I stopped off for a night at the lake and shooting range where Dennis, Carol, Sue, Jon and I camped back in July. It sure looks different now!

  

That night, the sky cleared, and I got my second look at the Northern Lights. It wasn’t a perfect night, in that the almost full moon came up and washed out the display, but I managed to snap a couple of pictures I’m not embarrassed by LOL

  

I’m starting to get the hang of this camera thing, but the 2 cameras I have with me aren’t the best for this sort of subject. That, and the aurora display was a pale imitation of the first experience. Still, gives you some idea of what it’s like…

The next day, I arrived at Cheena, and man, is it beautiful.

  

I take a hike on one of the nature trails, and get dazzled by the scenery! The fall in Alaska is mostly yellows and oranges, with just a bit of red thrown in. While it may not impress folks from Vermont, for this Californian transplanted to Texas, it’s all breathtaking and glorious.

     

Driving is a sequence of awesome views, with something new just around the next bend.

     

For all those of you Loosey-Goosey folks who left early….. Neener-Neener! (grin!)

The nights of the 13th thru the 16th are predicted to have very active aurora displays, the moon is late in the last quarter (dark skies!), and glory be, the weather is predicted to be mostly clear all the way through. I’m hoping to get my socks knocked off by the “real” Alaskan aurora experience! To maximize my chances, I’m heading up to the Top of the World Highway for those nights. From there, I’ll start the long journey back. I plan to travel the Cassiar highway, and hope to be crossing the border into Washington State around the 25th. Shortly after that, I hope to be able to post some really great aurora pix… wish me clear skies!

The Colors of Fall

Hi folks! Yes, Fall is definitely falling here in Alaska. I finally got tired of the rain in Valdez, and decided to head back North to Fairbanks. My main goals are to see the fall colors on the tundra, and to try and get a glimpse of the northern lights. It’s actually getting dark at night again, what a concept! As I roll out of Valdez, signs of the lateness of the season are all around. Is that a dusting of fresh snow on those peaks?

I stop at a large gravel area along the Gulkana river, north of Glennallen. It’s a sunny and breezy, afternoon, and it feels so good! I open everything up on the RV and start the drying out process. As the sun starts to sink, it’s very clear, hardly a cloud in the sky… could this be “the night”? I have internet, so I jump on the aurora forecast page at http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast/Alaska . Glory be, it looks like there is very good activity forecast for tonight. I start to get excited. The best time to view the aurora is when the sky is as dark as possible. Looks like that’s going to be about 1am to 3am. OK, I’m staying up for the chance of seeing the northern lights for the first time. Damn straight!

It’s getting pretty chilly out, and there’s still a breeze, so starting about 11pm, I pop outside, look around, and go back in where its warm. At first, I don’t see anything, but then I start to notice something that looks like very high thin clouds overhead. It’s just a haze, but it’s moving! The sky is still clear, man, I’m getting excited. From that point on, the glow in the sky starts to get more obvious. I start seeing what looks like searchlight beams on the horizon, and they are moving from side to side. By 1 am, it’s definitely active out there, but not the big show I was hoping for.

At 2am, things start to get interesting! A big band of light stretches from horizon to horizon overhead, and I’m seeing very bright swirls and bands of color. This is what I was hoping for. For the next 20 minutes, I stand outside and giggle like a child. It is so amazing! Parts of the display are pretty static, but other parts are moving, and moving fast. A huge green swirl forms directly above me and spins. It reminds me of time lapse video of cloud movements. Almost the entire visible sky is aurora!

I wish I had some stunning pictures to show you…. . I did the best I could with the cameras and skills I had, but the pictures don’t begin to do it justice. It was so bright!

     

By 2:30 it was over. What a cool experience! Unforgettable! Now, I want to see it AGAIN!

I should have a few more chances, the forecast looks fairly active for September 7th, and very active for September 13-17. The big problem is, the sky needs to be clear. That’s something that doesn’t happen a lot during the fall up here, but I remain hopeful. I did some manual reading and experimenting with my cameras, so if I get another chance, I should be able to get better pictures. My plan is to be up on the Top of the World highway Sep. 13-15. If I get a clear night, it should be spectacular! 

The next “morning”, I head north. Yeah, getting a slow start today, late night last night! By late afternoon, I turn onto the old Denali highway. This road used to be the main access to the national park, today, it’s a lightly travelled tourist route. The road is mostly all above the tree line, and that means tundra. They say it’s beautiful in the fall…. and you know what? They’re right!

              

I spend a night parked on a hilltop, surrounded by splendor. In the morning, a heavy frost lays on everything, it’s the first night so far that’s dropped below freezing. I come down off the heights and get back on the Richardson highway north to Fairbanks.

  

I plan to spend a few days in Fairbanks, mostly to get supplies and fuel, and maybe cruise the tourist shops. Then, I’m going to head back up to Cheena Hot Springs, with several stops at Silver Gulch brewery in between. I should be in Tok on the 12th, and will head up towards Chicken and the Top of the World on the 13th. Wish me luck!

Once I start up towards Chicken, I’ll be off the air for about 2 weeks unless I can find some WiFi along the way. I will be travelling from Dawson Creek down to Whitehorse, then I’ll pick up the Cassiar highway south. I expect to cross into the lower 48 in late September somewhere near Spokane, WA