Once fed and showered - the shower still required a trick to stay hot - we hit the road for a bit of hiking. Back Bay is an area most accessible in the winter over the frozen lake. I had found some instructions on how to get there which were a bit old, and there must have been lots of building since then. But we found a way to the lake and headed around the bend to get to Back Bay.
SO doesn't have much mountain goat, so there was some indelicate slipping. Luckily this happened without any major trauma.
We walked through the Back Bay Cemetery and on to the Ice Caves. This must be an area of some kind of flowing water during warm spells since the area is as slick as an ice skating rink with ugly brown ice. But the remnants of flowing water creates a small ice caves with stalactites of ice. It would be neater if they weren't broken off.
The hike back was pretty nice with lots of formations from the Canadian Shield.
The Back Bay Cemetery itself is small. Many graves are not marked or only appear to be marked by a recent, simple wooden cross. Thankfully, there isn't much evidence of people messing with them. The scene with birch trees, pines, rocks and snow was serene.
We wound our way back to the Ice Road Spark and did a little more driving through Yellowknife. This included Ragged Ass Road - a little bit of kitsch never hurt anyone - especially when it has real history behind it.
After resting a bit back at the houseboat, we walked down to the Snow Castle. This is a huge (and getting huger) castle that is built every year on the ice. The goal was to try to get there early, but it was already starting to fill with people. It was quite neat to see it. Despite some evidence of wooden substructure, most of it is ice and snow.
Some of the carving is exquisite.
There was a craft show going on as well inside of it. There were several tables set up by talented artists selling their stuff.
We hadn't been there that long, but as we left it was all ready getting zoorageous. I can't imagine what the Snow Castle must be like if a couple of big tour buses show up at the same time.
We had walked to the Snow Castle from the houseboat, and the walk back had the wind in our face. Despite the nice sunshine, it was quite cold with any breeze making it more brutal on the way back.
After a siesta back at the houseboat (is a Southern and Mexican word like that appropriate so close to the Arctic Circle?) we headed out again for a bit of exploring. First up was to Ice Road. Why do it again? Because it is still there.
There was lots more overall movement on the ice. Skiers, snowmobilers, walkers, bikes, dogs, everything. I'm guessing that as a weekend day, Saturday sees the usual hoards of tourists and the locals out in force. But it is a big lake so it never felt even remotely claustrophobic. It is really interesting how the lake dominates the area in the winter. Land can be unforgiving and terrain unchanging. But the Great Slave Lake forms a perfect winter wonderland - easier to get around, faster to get anywhere, lots of room embrace the cold.
The Ice Road was much slicker this time and at one point tourists covered over half of its width. It still surprised me how deep and numerous the cracks appear in the ice. Any cracks must form a kind of puzzle, locking everything firmly in place; it is perfectly safe. But some of the cracks do form ridges showing a kind of tectonic movement of the ice. As any glacier will tell you, ice is a solid that is still alive. Staying on the houseboat, some of the ice booms have been disconcertingly loud.
After being Ice Road Sparker again, we headed into town to eat. Finding a parking spot at the Northwest Brewing Company was a challenge. There were several almost spots, but nothing that even the Ice Spark could fit into. It appears that a parking lot is being built across the street, but it currently has "No Parking" signs all over.
So we drove around and as we were thinking of a Plan B, a spot opened up right in front of the Brewing Company. Once inside, we realized it was Saint Patrick's Day - definitely a drinking day if there wasn't already enough reasons to do that in the frozen North.
Dinner at the Brewing Company was very good before heading back to the houseboat. Solar conditions were again very favorable for the aurora, but the weather was not. Clouds decreased and increased through the evening and as it got dark, all looked hopeless.
But! Through a brief hole in the clouds the eerie glow of the lights peaked through. This was more of the peep show version of the Northern Lights and it didn't last long. I'm not sure how I would have felt if this had been my only viewing of the Northern Lights - so close, yet so far. But the first two days in Yellowknife were spectacular.
After waiting out the clouds a little more, SO and I decided it was a little futile to stay up. The weather forecasts called for nearly complete cloud coverage with the potential for it to get even thicker overnight. Bed time came a little earlier than the previous two nights.
After some crazy dreams woke me up, I looked outside and through a much larger hole in the clouds a bright aurora was clearly visible. I watched through the window for a few minutes and decided there was no reason not to go outside. After putting on the winter woolin's and watching a short time outside, I decided to grab the camera as well. But by the time I got back to a good spot to set up clouds were rolling in again.
If the first viewing of the night was a peep show, this one was the quick tease. I can only guess that if the aurora was that visible through the brief windows of clouds with some high clouds still obscuring it, had the sky been clear it would have been a dazzling display.
After that it was sleep time for again, knowing somewhere above those thick clouds the Aurora Borealis was making a show few in Yellowknife could see. There are hardly enough superlatives to describe what I was thinking after being able to see the aurora on three consecutive nights.
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