Aurora Borealis - Check!

If one has a checklist of things to hope to see on a trip to Alaska, the "Northern Lights" is probably near the top. We'd contemplated an extra side-trip far north to the Artic circle along the graval Dalton highway mostly to increase our chances of seeing it. But at the end of a very long day in Haines Junction, Eileen stepped out of the van just after 1 am to go use the bathroom. Caught completely by surprise, the northern skyline was aglow with flickering aquamarine flames - drifting and morphing in a ghostly fashion - very surreal. We watched alone in the dark for half an hour until it seemed to weaken. (*Note: unlike every other picture you see here, we did not take this one - we couldn't photograph it, but I wanted you to get an idea of what it looks like)

In the morning we bought "Bear Assault" pepper spray ($50) and a hiking bell. Thank you for everyone's encouragement to make this a priority.

Another new experience is Permafrost - but how would we know when it is present? Turns out it is quite easy - the road undulates up and down making the drive quite uncomfortable. The permafrost actually begins to thaw in areas that no longer have the protective insulation of plantlife, and this causes the road to sink. Driving any faster than 45-50mph would get you airborne!

The next couple of days involved a lot of driving along the Alaskan Highway. Along the way, we saw a black bear, moose, and two foxes. Most of the landscape was very strange - entire forests of stunted pine trees of just four to ten feet tall. They were hundreds of years old but couldn't grow very well in the year-round frozen earth. Crooked and knarled, it looked like a Dr Suess landscape. A boardwalk hike thru the area took us to a beautiful lake where we saw three beavers. Other than their occasional splashing noise, the world was totally silent, no people, no cars, no planes overhead, no wind, no birds - an odd sensation.

The next night we hoped to see the Aurora Borealis again, but the orange glow of sunset was still strong on the horizon at midnight, so we went to bed. And now we are passing thru Tok, the coldest inhabited place in North America they say (sunny day, fortunately).