North through British Columbia - Alaska and Points North: Tips and Tales from the Road - page 58

Wealsospentsometime inWatsonLakeattheNorthernLightsCentre, aninterpretive cen-
ter dedicated to the science and folklore of the aurora borealis. I saw the lights once as a
child and have spent my whole life waiting to see them again.
Surely on this trip we would. But no, not going to happen. To see the northern lights it must
be very dark and with every mile we travel north the days grow longer. Even here, still far
south of the Arctic Circle it is never really dark, even in the middle of the night.
At the Centre we leaned that the Territories are the best place to see the northern lights be-
causetheAuroralovalsweepsdirectlyoverhead,only60kmfromearth.Theovalencircles
the north pole with a big ribbon of energy about 200 km in diameter and 60-300 km high.
The Auroral oval glows from space every night but is only seen when it is dark and clear.
As a ten-year-old, I saw them in southern BC, which is unusual because it is so geograph-
ically distant from the Auroral oval. But the south does have dark summer nights and on
one of those nights I was at a children's camp in the Fraser Canyon, far from the city lights.
We had been long asleep in our bunks when the cabin counsellor tore into the room.
“Wake up! Get up! You have to come!”
Sleepy little girls did not want to get up but she was so insistent we stumbled out into the
dark night for the most amazing sight. I have never forgotten.