On our first attempt to see the aurora we went to an aurora viewing lodge. At the lodge they offered hot drinks and homemade cookies to keep everyone happy since we would be staying up late. A presentation was given explaining the science behind the aurora borealis. However, by the end of the night we had yet to see an aurora. However, our luck would improve the next day. At around 12:03 am an aurora appeared in the night sky. Everybody in the viewing center rushed to put on hats, gloves, and heavy winter coats. The spectacle lasted for a little longer than an hour; it was very memorable and interesting and gave people plenty of time to take pictures.
One of the most strange phenomena that we realized is that the aurora do not actually look as green as they do in pictures. This is because cameras capture more light and colors that appear in the sky than our human eyes are able to. In reality, the aurora looked like a sometimes faint, white whisp in the sky.
Our final attempt to see the aurora came later in the trip when we visited Denali National Park. We hiked over the highway onto a frozen river where we heard the poem, The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert Service. While we didn’t see the aurora borealis on our last night, people were happy that we got to go to bed a little earlier.