Category: Aurora Borealis

The Residence Inn in Louisville is really nice.  They do a full breakfast which is included in the price and make sure to come clean your room.

The day started at 9:00 am when we piled into the non-jeep rental and headed for Estes Park, Colorado.  We had reserved snowshoes and ski poles at Estes Park Mountain Sport.  They had them ready.  This place is amazing.  If it has to do with the outdoors, they pretty much have it.  The rental fee for the poles and snowshoes were approximately $8 each.  You really can’t beat that.

It was around 10 am when we left the store and headed into the downtown area.  We needed to be at Bear Lake at 12:15 pm to begin our Eco-tour and snowshoeing. We stopped at the Egg and I (those from Fort Laudernale know of the Egg and You) and had a light brunch to carry us over until dinner.

We entered the park and as Michel and I had previously bought the senior pass for $10 we breezed through. The pass is good for a lifetime and allows up to four people free entrance.  As far as I know this is the best deal ever in the entire United States.  If you are over 65, get one.  It’s worth it.

As we began our ascent to Bear Lake for the rendezvous with our park ranger/guide, we started with clean roadway and then progressed to a little snow on the road to the point the road was covered in snow.  I quickly inserted the four wheel drive/snow conditions and we made it safely to the trail head.  The ranger, Cynthia was there to greet us.

Prior to that, we struggled with snow boots, snow pants, foot warmers, jackets, goggles, and mittens.  It’s quite a work out just donning the gear.  As it turned out, it was all completely necessary!  The air temperature was 17F and with the the wind, the wind chill factor was 10F.

The hardest part is putting on the snow shoes.  Think of bending at the waist with long johns, insulated pants, snow pants, and a parka.  After about 15 minutes we were ready to go but Michel had mistakenly taken a young girls ski poles instead of her own.  It was eventually straightened out and off we went.

The next 10 minutes was hell.  Remember, I hiked the Bugaboos in August at over 7,000 feet elevation.  We all thought we were going to die.  We were at 9,475 feet and that extra 1500-2000 feet made a big difference.  We three all immediately re-analyzed whether we could do the two hour hike.

Fortunately, we finally found a comfortable pace and finished the hike.  We had some excellent instruction from Cynthia, the park ranger and how to recover from a fall.  (You fall like a turtle because of the pack on your back, backwards and have to roll to your stomach like a whale and then regain your footing.)

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The best part about Cynthia was she knew when to take breaks and allow people to recover from their exertions! She then led us to an area of pristine snow (it had snowed 10 inches the night before) and had us experience the difficulty of breaking a new trail in deep snow.

Eventually, we made it to Bear Lake.  The wind was howling and we got to walk across the surface of a fairly large lake, breaking trail.

We then began a climb to Nymph Lake in a snow storm.  About 1/4 of the way up one of the women announced she felt dizzy.  It turns out she was 6 months pregnant.  She eventually collapses in spite of Cynthia’s ministrations and a volunteer with Cynthia took her back to the parking lot.  Later, we found out she was fine.

We then continued  our ascent to Nymph Lake.  It was a 160 foot climb so our eventual elevations was 9,635 feet. About halfway up the trail, the wind rose and we were all blanketed in a complete white-out of snow blowing from the trees.  That was a tremendous feeling.

If you go to various web sites on Bear Lake, they will tell you the hike is easy.  This was not that hike, because (1) we were in snow (2) we climbed in elevation instead of walking around the lake and (3) because of the wind chill factor.  This definitely put the hike in the moderate range for experienced hikers but difficult for us flatlanders.

The scenery was spectacular, the sun came out and it snowed at the same time!  This was one of those lifetime experiences!  We returned and put away our gear and warmed up on the trip to the visitors center.  We had our National Park Passports stamped and one more National Park was notched.

The park ranger at the visitor’s center recommended a more scenic drive on our return to Estes Park and he was 100% correct.  The views were outstanding.  While standing there a young lady from Texas wanted to go to Bear Lake but was overly concerned about driving in snow even though she had a four wheel drive vehicle.  We convinced her she had nothing to fear after we told her we were from Florida and made it just fine.  I didn’t volunteer we all had experience driving in snow over the years.

I think I’ve decided to purchase a pair of snowshoes.  I really love doing this.  It brought out the best in we three and gave us a tremendous sense of satisfaction that we were able to do this at our age.

I hate waking up Fort Lauderdale time on a trip out west. The three hour time difference messes with my biological clock. Again, about four hours sleep. I showered and headed downstairs for breakfast at the Gold Pan Saloon in the hotel. The one that was the source of my previous sleepless night. They were getting ready for date night with a band where couples come on stage and sing love songs to each other.  Champagne for the evening was $37 Canadian but $17 Canadian if you performed. Seemed like a great draw.  Either included chocolate dipped strawberries and truffles. I would be busy with the second night of Aurora viewing.

Michele and Nancy slept in and I decided to go ahead with the 10 am city tour by Northern Tales, our Aurora tour company.  Our tour guide was Yoshita from Japan. A lot of Japanese immigrated to Canada and even more come over on a yearly visa.  Yoshita had been in the Yukon Territory for about 10 years and was very knowledgeable about the history and culture of the region. The tour was appropriately 2 hours and we got to see some interesting sites. First stop was a reconstructed stern wheeler, the SS Klondike which used to ply the Yukon River from Whitehorse to Dawson City.

Stern wheelers were used because of the narrowness of the Yukon River. On the bow was a powerful winch system used to pull the ship up some rapids on the way back to Whitehorse.  Today, Whitehorse, the largest city in YT has approximately 15,000 residents.  That compares to 17,000 moose in the YT.

Our next stop was the hydroelectric dam which powers most of the city.  King Salmon run the Yukon River and since the construction of the dam in 1956, the salmon needed a way past the dam, hence the construction of the world’s longest wooden salmon ladder.

Next we crossed one of only four bridges across the Yukon River in the entire YT to view Whitehorse from a high bluff. The view was quite nice but a Japanese couple, wanting a background shot put heir young child on a guard rail post and had Yoshita take their picture. It was about a 300 foot drop to the frozen river below.

Our last stop on the city tour was a skyscraper log cabin. Apparently one of the quirky early settlers was just a bit different. Today, there is a Thai massage parlor on the ground floor of the one story front cabin but the skyscraper in back is very popular for rentals. When one becomes vacant, it is immediately snatched up by a new renter.  Have you ever seen log cabins stacked with porches?

At 1:15 pm we departed on a tour of the Yukon Wildlife Preserve about 30 km out of town. It started as a private preserve of a man and his wife who wished to preserve North American ungulates. When he died, the Yukon Territory bought the  land and continued the work of the founder. Today it is officially classified as a zoo and it reminds me of Lion Safari in Palm Beach county where you ride through in you car to view the animals.

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The next stop was Takhini Hot Springs for a dip in the springs.  I’ve done Chico Hot Springs and Granite Hot Springs, and they are nice. This is plush. The changing room is heated with a hot shower from the springs.  There is a smaller, shallower side that is really warm and a larger, deeper less warm side.  There’s also a gourmet cafe attached to the springs.

I departed at 10 pm for the second night of Aurora viewing. Things did not bode well since it was snowing.

When we offloaded the bus, I found out as previous virgins the night before we had been upgraded! They were holding out on us the Taj Mahal of tent cabins.  It was a double cabin very well appointed and made the cabin of the night before seem like a slum!

In any case, it snowed all night and alas, no Aurora.  The staff worked hard to not allow the clients to be disappointed.  They engaged everyone in conversation and even made maple syrup Popsicles using snow.

We returned to the hotel by 2:30 pm and I immediately went to sleep and managed a kingly 6 hours of sleep. I’ll take it easy today and forego another night of Aurora watching. I’ve just too little sleep. I’ve even scheduled a massage for this afternoon.

This is another bucket list item and I found two friends willing to share the trip to Whitehorse to view the northern lights.  After reading up on the best places for viewing, Iceland and the Scandinavian countries kept coming up, but I have friends who went  those routes and were disappointed.

Alaska was OK but iffy with the consensus that Canada offered the best bet. Tops on the Canadian lists were Whitehorse and Yellowknife, both in the Yukon Territory.  Whitehorse guaranteed, if a clear night, 100% success so I recommended Whitehorse.

The tour I selected was with Brewster, a reputable company in western Canada and with whom I had experience last August.  A visit with AAA ironed out all the kinks and Michele, Nancy and I were ready to go.

Our flight departed Fort Lauderdale International at 6:30 am so I was up at 2:30 am to do my usual morning routine.  I used the Yellow Cab app to schedule a cab and it worked like a charm. The driver was actually a little early.

I had my passport and my newely in hand Global Entry Card which also pre-clears you with TSA, so security was a breeze.

Our connections were with Air Canada. We first flew to Montreal  (3 1/2 hours) where we cleared customs.  From there it was a long haul to Vancouver (6 hours) and then to Whitehorse (2 hours). Add on about 4 hours in terminals and my early morning wake up and you have my 19 hour day.

We touched down in Whitehorse at 8:25pm PT and the hotel had our ride awaiting. We had reservations at the Best Western hotel in downtown Whitehorse.

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Not only had Toshi gotten us our room key cards, but our winter clothing in neatly packed bags. She explained the downtown area, best places to eat (noticeably absent was any place in the hotel) and sights to see plus other tours through her company we could add on. She escorted us to our floor and the second omen appeared.

On the way to my room, a yappy dog started barking.  The dog continued uninterrupted for the next hour and a half. At least the dog mitigated the pounding bass music coming from the saloon downstairs.  I finally felt sorry for the dog and reported it to the front desk.  The gentleman at the desk said he would check.  More barking and a second call to the desk established that the woman with the dog was out, probably dining.  I asked if it were possible see was on an excursion to see the northern lights scheduled to return at 2:30 am and he assured me that was not the case.  The dog continued to bark.  Somewhere around 11 pm either the owner returned or the dog got laryngitis.

That’s when it became noticeable the walls are paper thin and my neighbor was playing their television to (1) either block the noise of the dog or (2) mitigate the pounding base music of the saloon or (3) mask the sounds of the drunks from the bar who spilled out on the street or (4) simply is used to sleeping with a tv on for background noise.

The saloon closed at 2:30 am and the drunks stayed out front for another 30 minutes (thank god it’s cold outside) and so, since 3 am, I’ve only had the tv next door to keep me awake.

I finally got up at 5 am and began to search for other hotels in Whitehorse. Others are either too far out of town or about the same as this.  This one is actually rated #3 in all of Whitehorse on Tripadviser. I intend to write my own review and call it a saloon and social club that rents rooms.

Hopefully, if I can function later, we depart at 10 pm for northern lights viewing to return at 2 am.