Yesterday, I woke up to find a friend had messaged me on Facebook. "The lights are out!" she said. My reply was "Why on earth didn't you call me???" She promised to call, and as I watched NOAA's aurora report, the call came. The Husband and I hopped in the car and started driving to find a place away from the lights.
Nearby, we could see it but just as a dull band of light, nothing different from what I'd seen in the north east on occasion. So we kept driving. Eventually, we made it out to the Knick where I pulled over for the first time to watch.
It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. Ribbons, just dancing in the sky over the valley.
Unfortunately, the highway was between us and the lights, so it was difficult to get a good shot - note the truck at the bottom right of the picture! So we hopped in the car to find a better spot.
Next, we pulled off at the Hayflats. The lights were dimming a bit, but I grabbed the tripod and we hiked 50 yards off the highway where I took the following shot. Better, but I wanted to make some adjustments to the settings. Unfortunately, they were nearly gone!
This is a cropped version of the second shot - if you enlarge it, you can see the mountains at the bottom, which is why I like it so much!
We still held out hopes that if we continued north, they might brighten up. Unfortunately, this didn't happen. A bit north of Wasilla I snapped this shot, braced on the car, and we turned around and headed home. It was an amazing experience.
Next time, I will stop as soon as I see a good show and I will take as many pictures as I can in the hopes of getting some better shots!
