Northern Lights in Churchill, Canada
We made it to Churchill!
Our flight north from Winnipeg to Churchill was close to three hours due to headwinds. The landscape we flew over was strikingly alien -looking to this Florida girl. We arrived to find an unseasonably sunny, gorgeous day, with temps in the upper 20s to low 30s and no wind at ground level.
We are traveling with Natural Habitat Adventures, a premier company for wildlife tours. Our enthusiastic, informative guide Katrina planned for us to have our first trip on the sub-Arctic tundra for sunset and dinner in our rover, but none of us expected we would end up being treated to such an amazing display of the Northern Lights. Even our local driver could not stop taking pics. The lights started out golden, reds showed up through the camera lens, and they just kept getting bigger and more dramatic, filling the sky all around us. It’s true, the colors are greatly enhanced by the camera. As the lights grew they danced and flowed, alternating between appearing like a sci-fi special effect one minute to a smooth glissando on a piano keyboard the next. At one point we had a light arc above us that was as amazing to experience as it was impossible to record.
The pic above was shot with my hand held iPhone, from our vehicle’s open window. To get pics like the pros you need some serious equipment, a tripod, patience, and luck. We hit the jackpot as far as luck goes.
Not to be overlooked, we got to go dog sledding today, completing the “Iditamile”and it was such fun. Once again we were in luck, since it snowed recently and they have only been able to start using the sleds the last couple of days.
Big Dog Dave and his family are multigenerational indigenous Métis who run Wapusk Adventures. Dave is a champion dog-musher who has about 40 dogs and he gave a very interesting presentation about his family’s history as well as the art and science of caring for and training sled dogs. He also loaned me his great fur hat for our ride.
Tomorrow is a big day since we will head out very early to search for Polar Bears. So, I’ll close with a couple of pics and call it a night.
What a fabulous trip!
How spectacular! What a treat for your first day!
Sounds like a great trip, I wish I was with you.
What an amazing trip so far! Checking off many boxes of what you had hoped to see!
Extraordinary trip in every way so far! Excellent photos and timing! So happy for you and Fred.
P. S. Love the hat🥰
The hat is quite the look on you! Can’t imagine seeing the northern lights “live”!
Nice post, also the sunset 🌇
Thanks for visiting my site!
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I so want to go do this, I am looking up Natural Habitat Adventures right now.
Being I live in Canada I can get do this without a tour guide but looks like they do nice trips
Only a couple of companies can get you into the Churchill Wildlife Management Area. Access makes a difference in how many bears you are able to see. Of course, the bears go wherever they want!
Yup. I’ve been researching a trip here. Amazing experience especially if you do photography
Enjoying very much your blogs , keep it up . love from Pakistan
Thank you so much for your kind words.