Northern Lights

Preparation

2025 is solar maximum, peak of a 11-year solar activity cycle, which means best chance to see northern lights (aurora). One cannot see norther lights in the summer due to the constant daylight. I wanted to see it in the Spring. Here is how I chose the travel dates and place to see northern lights:

• New moon. Strong moonlight may reduce the chance to see northern lights. 
• Jan 29 is new moon.
• 27-day northern light forecast  It is not accurate, but I thought it was better than nothing. 
• I saw two red bars (Kp=5) on Jan 30 and 31. 
• Clear weather. Clouds will block northern lights. I searched Accuweather weather forecast for Fairbanks (Alaska, USA), Whitehorse (Canada), and Yellowknife (Canada) to see which place would have clear weather on these days. 
• Yellowknife was in favor of good weather.

That made me to book a trip to Yellowknife on Jan 29 - Feb 5.

Before the trip, I upgraded my phone plan so that my SIM card would work in Canada. Google Map worked well and was helpful in Yellowknife. 

Itinerary

Day 1 Jan 29. Flew from San Francisco to Yellowknife via Air Canada, with a stop at Vancouver.  I got some Canadian dollars in cash from an ATM at the Vancouver airport. It turned out later that I never needed any cash in the trip. I arrived at Yellowknife near midnight, and took a taxi to my hotel, the explorer hotel. 

Day 2 Jan 30. I saw aurora forecast indicating low activities and did not go out at night. It turned out to be a wrong decision. There was some really good aurora showing. Lessons learned here is that once you arrive, just go on an aurora viewing tour without using any aurora forecast. 

During daytime, I walked to a grocery store, Inder's Your Independent Grocer Yellowknife, and bought fruits, cereal, milk, disposable spoons and bowls. 

Day 3 Jan 31. I booked a three-night northern lights tour package with Northern Lights Tours. I chose this company because it was the lowest price. The tour bus picked me up at 8:35pm. We arrived at the first spot and saw northern lights at around 9:00. Then we went to another spot, had a cup of hot chocolate. I returned at 11pm.

The first photo was from my phone, the other two were from the tour guide's profession camera.

Day 4 Feb 1. I took a taxi to have lunch at Bullock's Bistro, had arctic char fish for the first time. Bullock's Bistro serves fresh fish only. There are many Asian tourists in Yellowknife, I heard that this restaurant is famous in Korea and Japan. I then walked up to the Bush Pilots Monument, where I had a good view of the whole town. 

At night, the tour bus picked me up at 8:05pm. We went to the first stop and saw northern lights. Then we went to a second spot and waited in cold for over half an hour. Then suddenly the northern lights were really bright and dancing. It looked amazing. I returned after midnight.

Day 5 Feb 2. I visited a free museum, Prince of Wales North Heritage Center. At night, I went on my third northern lights tour. This time we just drove around and did not see anything. 

Day 6-7 Feb 3-4. Did not do much.

Day 8 Feb 5. Took the free hotel to airport shuttle to the airport. Flew from Yellowknife to Edmonton, then Vancouver, then San Francisco. 

Lodging

Yellowknife is a tiny town. The Explorer hotel is the best hotel in town. I booked my stay using their website. The cost was about $200/night.

The room was nice, with a fridge and microwave. The hotel has good wifi, and a clean gym that I walked on the treadmill everyday to get my steps. It has a nice lobby where you can sit and wait for the tour buses. 

The location is also good, within walking distance to many restaurants, and one block away from a grocery store. The hotel has its own restaurant, but the online reviews were not so great and the menu looked expensive, so I did not try.

Transportation

Air Canada  The flights were smooth. I also liked the cookies served on flight. The round-trip cost for me was $474.78. The connection at Edmonton was 40 minutes, a bit tight. But I made it. I did not have any check-in luggage, for fear that the check-in luggage would not make it at that connection.  

Taxis in Yellowknife I did not rent a car in Yellowknife because I don't like driving on snow. I used taxis. They were very convenient. There is no uber or lyft.

My flight arrived at midnight, and there were taxis lined up outside of the airport, so I took a taxi to the Explorer hotel, cost was $14 (USD). If you arrive earlier you can catch the free airport to hotel shuttle. 

The hotel front desk can call a taxi for you. A few times I just walked to a taxi. I once called Yellowknife Cab 867-873-6666 to get a taxi. All trips within town was less than $10.

Northern Lights tour

There were many tours. I used Norther Lights Tour https://www.northernlightstours.co/, because they had the lowest price. They used profession cameras to take photos for each visitor. They also provide rental clothes and boots for a fee. The not so good side is that they were not very responsive to text/call/email. On my second tour, they said that they would send out a video that they took, but they never did.

There are a few other companies:

• https://auroravillage.com/ 
• https://northstaradventures.ca/ My friend used this one. They helped her to use her phone to take really nice photos.  

Weather

During my stay it was about -35C during daytime and lower than -40C at night. My glasses would frost over and become useless. I also got frost on my eyelashes and eyebrows. I had plenty of clothes so I was not cold. There were tour companies in Yellowknife renting winter clothes and boots. Some would deliver them to the airport upon your arrival.  

On the first night of the tour, I held my phone outside and the coldness drained the battery within half an hour. Luckily I brought a power bank. Later I would only use the phone a little bit, then put it in my pocket to warm it up. That made the battery last longer.

Other activities

This website has a list of activities and tours: https://spectacularnwt.com/. There were dog sledding, snow mobile, ice fishing etc. I did not do anything. Here are a few examples recommended by others:

• Dog sledding: http://www.beckskennels.com/tours.html
• Fishing: https://bluefishoutfitting.ca/Summary
• Make glass art at Old Town Glassworks.

Summary

The northern lights were not very colorful to my eyes, looked more like white clouds. However, cameras (even cheap ones on my phone) can capture really beautiful colors. 

It was super amazing to see the northern lights dancing on the second tour. (Dancing means fast moving and changing shapes here, which I learned from this trip). The tour guide said that they saw northern lights almost every night that month, but only 3 nights did they see bright dancing lights.

I am glad that I did this trip. However, once is enough.