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Winter is coming, everyone!
The further north you get, the faster the line between day and night can shift, and up here in Seward, the night gets longer by six minutes a day after the summer solstice! The nights were still short in August, but I had hoped beyond hope that there would be enough darkness at this time and latitude to view one of nature’s most spectacular phenomena: the aurora borealis!
There were hints that the aurora had made an appearance the last few nights, but I hadn’t been awake enough to see them. Tonight, though, I was determined. I’m an early riser, so it was pretty tough to stay awake until 3:00 AM, but the 60 mph gusts of wind rocking the motorhome made sleep a no-go! Then, at last, the tiniest bit of color crept into the sky overhead!
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At this time of year, the aurora was really hard to see with the naked eye. Getting the camera to hold still enough between wind gusts was a challenge too! But nonetheless, there was something magical about witnessing this ancient battle between electrons from space and Earth’s plucky magnetic fields! Ultimately, my paws cramped up from holding myself to the ground, though, so I had to head back inside and wait until morning!
When the sun pushed the Northern Lights into memory, we got up and headed back to the harbor for a boat tour of the Kenai Fjords. Motoring out onto Resurrection Bay, we passed massive Bear Glacier and old World War II stations, but the abundant wildlife that had been so heavily promoted by the tour was not to be seen!
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This, the guide said, was because summer was coming to an end! Most of the animals had migrated elsewhere in preparation for colder weather. The marine mammals had moved south to breed or to find more abundant food, while the seabirds were abandoning their roosts as the waves of winter would get tall enough to wash the cliff faces clean! So there wasn’t much to see beyond the fantastic cliffs and sea stacks spiking out of the brilliant blue water.
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We stopped for lunch at Fox Island, where every tour comes with an all-you-can-eat buffet of salmon and potatoes and prime rib, for those who eat that sort of thing! So the three of us sat in a patch of sun by a freshwater pond, enjoying the food and the view between the wind gusts that still had not settled from last night.
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We hadn’t crammed too much into our day on the Fjords, but having seen the aurora and gone cruising among the Kenai Peninsula’s magnificent fjords, I felt pretty satisfied, even with the understanding that every exciting summer must eventually come to a close.
The North remembers!
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