Seeing the Aurora Borealis (or Northern Lights) had long been on our travel wish list, and we finally had the chance to tick this one off last December. It was only a chance, as making the special trip with the sole purpose of seeing the Lights did not necessarily mean we would see them for sure. That is not even in Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories of Canada, one of the most popular locations for seeing the Aurora. At a latitude of 62 degree and just south of the Arctic Circle, Yellowknife boasts a high chance of aurora visibility in well over 200 days within a year. Apart from the level of solar activity, one of the main factors not in the visitor's control is of course the weather. In order to boost the chance of seeing the Aurora in what might well be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, we planned to stay in Yellowknife for three nights.
There are quite a number of operators in Yellowknife offering Aurora viewing tours. While these tours generally take visitors to some open space away from the lights of the city centre, they may be broadly divided into two types. One type of tour takes visitors to some private grounds, where they may stay inside cabins or teepees (aboriginal tents) while waiting for the Aurora to appear. The other type is an aurora hunting tour, with experienced locals driving visitors around to maximize the chance of seeing the Aurora, such as by finding spots with less cloud cover. In order to get an experience of both types of tours, we booked the "cabin" type for the first two nights, and an aurora hunting tour for the third night.
We arrived in the early afternoon in Yellowknife from Vancouver, with a brief stop at Edmonton. Yellowknife Airport has a sole baggage carousel for arriving flights. So, even though our plane was not a big one, the arrival area was fairly crowded with passengers waiting for their luggage. Somehow our luggage came out last, so that we happened just to miss the free shuttle that took passengers to several hotels in the city.
As we waited for the next shuttle in the next hour, we took the time to finish eating the sandwiches which we bought at Vancouver Airport. With the arrival area becoming emptied of passengers, we were free to take photos in the now quiet airport lobby as well as on the outside. The most prominent feature in the airport lobby is a polar bear and seal sculpture that stands over the baggage carousel.
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| Polar bear and seal sculpture at the Yellowknife Airport |
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| Another view of the Polar bear and seal sculpture |
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| Yellowknife Airport |
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| Yellowknife Airport |
Our hotel was located at the centre of the city and only a short ride from the airport. After settling in the hotel, we walked over to the office of the tour operator (Aurora Village), which was conveniently just a block down the street, to pick up some winter clothing that we had booked. Actually, most of the aurora viewing operators offer rental winter clothing for the extreme cold temperatures at night.
After a simple dinner which we cooked with the microwave oven in the hotel room, we waited to be picked up by the tour operator at about 9pm. Our first night in Yellowknife showed how elusive the Aurora could be. With no sign of the overcast sky clearing up, our hope of the first sighting of the Aurora faded into the night. Together with the other tourists, we spent most of the two hours or so by the warmth of a wood stove inside one of the teepees, sipping hot chocolate and hoping for a clearer sky on the following night.
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| Teepees (Aboriginal tents) |
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| Keeping warm inside a teepee |
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