Happy Nice Mall

A few years ago, around 10 pm on a cold mid-March evening, I took my dogs outside for a walk beyond the lights of our home in Carbondale, Colo. Big Dipper and North Star, I noticed the distant horizon pulsating with a green glow. I couldn’t believe I was seeing the northern lights.

Like other aurora borealis sightings I’ve seen in New Hampshire and Alaska, the glow turned into flashes of green, as if multiple search beams were running across the sky. Charged particles from the sun had entered Earth’s magnetic field thousands of miles above, and as it rained down into the planet’s upper atmosphere, the particles collided with nitrogen and oxygen atoms, illuminating the sky with shimmering strips of rose-pink and pale green light.

freezing, climbing to high altitudes or Sweden or Alaska’s Far North to see the northern lights. With careful planning, timing, and luck, witnessing the aurora borealis in the Lower 48 is one of the greatest yet rarest spectacles for anyone willing to sacrifice a little sleep.

“Whether you’re lucky enough to witness them depends on a number of things, including how active the current solar cycle is,” said Mirka Zapletal, director of education at the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord, NH. More charged particles brought into our upper atmosphere by solar flares and the solar wind – more activity than in recent years is expected.

Patience is essential, along with clear, darkened skies and an aurora forecast to capture the elusive landscape. The fact that there is no guarantee of seeing the lights makes the view even more spectacular. Here are a number of outdoor destinations in the continental United States that offer the chance to see the northern lights if your timing is right. These places are also rich in entertainment opportunities in case the weather conditions do not adapt or you go to sleep with the alarm.

What do I know, wherever you go

Usually glowing for half-hour cycles followed by two hours of sleep, the aurora borealis can only be seen after dark, with the hours surrounding midnight offering optimal viewing conditions. The lights are invisible in summer, full moon nights, or in the middle of city lights.

The March and September equinoxes are the best times to capture the screen. (But on clear nights, from an unobstructed and dark view of the northern horizon, they can be seen as far south as Pennsylvania from fall through early spring – in 1958, audiences witnessed an extremely rare aurora display from Mexico City.)

Besides getting a weather forecast for cloudless skies, aurora borealis forecasts are also important. website Institute of Geophysics Provides weekly updated North American aurora forecasts for the next three hours, three days, or 27 days in Fairbanks, Alaska. This year, indices measuring disturbances in Earth’s magnetic field predict that the nights of March 11 and 19 (the day after the full moon) will offer the best chance to see the lights in the Sub 48. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration it also provides forecasts online in half-hour increments.

in New England

Acadia National Park It’s a rare dark-sky enclave on the Maine coast in the middle of the otherwise lit East Coast that makes a good base camp with the nearby town of Bar Harbor known for its seafood, locally owned shops, breweries, and museums. Ideal spots to watch the lights are at the north end of the park or down the road. School Peninsula, away from the city lights, either at Schoodic Head or the more accessible Jordan Pond. If there is no aurora, stargazing is generally excellent in this region. Adventurous souls can snowshoe with head lamp or snowmobile with snowshoe Cadillac Mountain On the driveway (1,532 feet) to catch the continent’s first sunrise from October to March is a parade for those chasing the dawn light. The legendary green glow that occurs over the Atlantic Ocean as the sun’s first rays bend over the horizon is as rare as the northern lights.

In northern New Hampshire, under Mount Washington, outside the small town of Carroll, Bretton Woods resort, the largest ski resort in the state. Because the resort faces north with little light pollution, this is one of the more accessible places in New England to hunt for aurora borealis.

Ryan Knapp, a meteorologist at the Mount Washington Observatory, a scientific and educational nonprofit that sits at the summit of this summit, has seen the northern lights about three dozen times over the past 15 years. “I’ve seen images from sunset to sunrise,” he said. “On the other side of things, the shortest was roughly five minutes.” Their experience was mainly while standing in the valleys below, as the sky at the observatory could be cloudy.

A few thousand feet below the summit, Bretton Woods offers numerous daytime activities, including downhill skiing, snow tubing, 60 miles of groomed cross-country trails, guided alpine skiing, ziplines, and fat bike rentals to take a tour, open until mid-April. snowy landscape. A cheaper option with Aurora’s many potential hiking and snowshoeing viewpoints can be found four miles south on Route 302. Highland Center of the Appalachian Mountain Club. Overnight guests can join guided walks or borrow essential items such as bags or snowshoes.

Shorter than climbing to the top of the Green Mountains, Gate Park10 miles north of Burlington, Vt. and next to Lake Champlain, it can offer one of Vermont’s best dark sky views, with stunning sunsets across frozen water. And if the northern lights go out, the reflections from the vast ice surface will remain unforgettable. 4 miles long, 10 feet wide Gateway It provides an excellent and dark vantage point for walking on the lake. Eclectic and grand with cottages and other accommodation options nearby Shelburne Museum (with works by Andrew Wyeth, Winslow Homer, and Grandma Moses) is a 15-mile drive south. Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory (35 miles down Interstate 89 in Waterbury) can be hard to resist.

in the midwest

A few miles west of Mackinaw City in northern Michigan, Headlands International Dark Sky Park It sits in 600 acres of old growth forest on the shores of Lake Michigan. As a certified Dark Sky Park, Headlands is known for its starry nights and offers free visitor programs and celestial phenomena events at the waterfront center and observatory. Limited accommodation is available on site, but the park is open 24 hours a day with no access fees. Half a dozen miles of trails have signs directing visitors to stations to watch the skies – using red-lens flashlights to shield the night.

Rodney Cortright, one of the park’s astronomers, said hundreds of spectators came to the park on some nights to see the lights. “You don’t need a dark sky park,” he said, but “anywhere dark in the countryside works.”

“We’re at a point where we’re going to see more solar activity,” he added.

For a less structured adventure, Lake Superior is 50 miles to the north with hundreds of miles of ideal and starry panoramas over America’s largest body of freshwater.

Minnesota It offers the largest potential aurora viewing site in the contiguous United States, with approximately 30 nightly screenings each year, according to Jim Gilbert, author of several naturalist books on the state. Besides the northern lights, the area is often brightly lit at night with constellations as well as sea-going ice fishing, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, and dog sledding tours. Gunflint Mansion, 43 miles up the paved Gunflint Trail. Many places where you can see the aurora image Boundary Waters Canoe Area WildernessBets can be hedged by driving to the end of the Gunflint Trail, managed by the U.S. Forest Service. seagull lake Close to the Canadian border. owner Seagull Clothes“My neighbors are constantly posting amazing pictures of the northern lights,” Deb Mark said. The area has incredible views to the far north as well as the possibility of hearing wolves howling.

Since the aurora experience can be a daunting task, if you stink in the spring, it’s possible to rent canoes from Gunflint Lodge or Seagull Outfitters on warmer fall nights when the lights resume. The original Ojibwe inhabitants thought of the ever-changing night sky, Wawatay., as a cultural validation, Believing that the aurora is a performance of ancestors dancing above to celebrate life and reminding audiences below that we are all part of the celestial marvel of creation.

Jon Waterman is the author of 15 books, including “National Geographic’s Atlas of National Parks.”