Is there anything better than early morning on vacation?
The last several kilometers of the Ingraham Trail are an odd mix of hard gravel with loose gravel on top. This material would be good to destroy windshields and this road would see a lot of road traffic only a short time later.
There were a few stops I wanted to do, but first it was to Tibbet Lake where the ice road made famous in the somewhat fictional reality series Ice Road Truckers starts. True to form, there were a few trucks heading out on the ice. The Ice Road Spark took its place in the convoy.
But only for a short time. I perfectly executed a handbrake 180-turn heading back toward Yellowknife. I couldn't resist a few donuts on the ice road. How many people can say they've done donuts on the same road that was made famous in Ice Road Truckers?
Back down the road a way we stopped at Hidden Lake Territorial Park. I wanted to hike out to see Cameron Falls. The trail isn't very well marked and our fist attempt put us on a snowmobile track to nowhere - or somewhere other than Cameron Falls. It did continue to be a pretty morning.
After turning around we found the right trail and headed out on it as the only people in the park. The trail was mostly packed snow which made for very slippery going in some sections. SO had to work up some serious inner mountain goat in a few spots. Sliding down some of the steeper sections was also a good option. I would NOT want to be doing this hike in melting and refreezing conditions - that could get seriously ugly.
Many of the views along the trail were nothing short of breathtaking (with requisite Sasquatch rocks). One of the other things encountered on the hike was complete and utter silence. True quiet is so rare, but there was almost no wind and we were far enough away from the road that even truck traffic couldn't be heard. Add to that the sound-absorbing qualities of snow and it creates a quiet that is both unusual and eerie.
Eventually we made it to the falls. The more scenic part of the falls were frozen over, but there was flowing liquid bottom evident down below. This seems like the only liquid surface water in the Northwest Territories.
Some of the cliffs are daunting and with the snow, somewhat precarious.
Above the falls is a steel bridge spanning the Cameron River. After such a pristine hike, seeing it felt wrong, almost vulgar. Wood maybe, but not steel.
Even up top the water is liquid before heading down the falls which, with the exception of one small section, was covered with ice.
There was a pile of wood with obvious signs of past pit fires just beyond the bridge. I can only assume this is there in case someone does fall in. Northwest Territory winter weather and wet clothes could be a deadly combination.
As we hiked out we saw a few other hikers. One of them was very well prepared with snow spikes attached to her boots. This would be helpful.
Back at the Ice Road Spark, we again headed toward Yellowknife. We stopped at a few more places, but there wasn't much to see except frozen lakes until we got to one lake that was littered with small polished stones with an unknown character on one side and one of four words on the other: Happiness, Success, Peace and Compassion. We pondered for a while whether they were thrown into the lake to bring the thrower what he or she was after, or if they were left to bring good luck to the finder. Likely, there is cultural significance somewhere. I was greatly saddened that there were many more Success rocks found - in fact probably as many Success as the other three put together. People need more Happiness and the world needs more Peace and Compassion than Success.
We took the long paved road back to Dettah, and went back to the Houseboat via the ice road. Once back, we lounged around for a bit before heading out to eat at another local restaurant. The Coyote Bistro was having a fund raiser for one of its employees who had gotten suddenly sick. There was some shenanigans going on as most of the people there appeared to be locals who knew each other. There was also live music - bonkers-oddly with big time wrestling playing on the TV behind them. But the food was good and it was fun in its own way.
After dinner we putzed around the houseboat a while, waiting for it to get dark. Skies were brilliantly clear with only a hint of a few clouds off in the distance, but I still started stressing about the weather - although I'm not sure why.
Eventually darkness started to fall and the telltale streak of light began to take shape to the east. It was happening again!
The lights started out very intense. Even as the sky still retained some remnants of the day, the aurora showed up bright and clear.
A plane flew across the cold clear sky creating a contrail. This contrail would be very lasting through the night. It sort of added some reality to the surreal sight, but it was annoying at the same time.
In one picture, I caught a short shooting star (just above the contrail) in a clear case of visual serendipity.
As it got darker the Northern Lights slowly danced and changed shapes, almost with a sense of being. The colors were definitely more intense than the second night in Yellowknife.
The aurora streaked across the sky toward Yellowknife. Even with the bright city lights they showed prominently.
Once again I was mesmerized by the sight of the constantly changing lights. While there are Northern Lights tours, Northern Lights Chasers and Northern Lights Villages, I can't imagine a better way to watch them than alone on Yellowknife Lake only a hundred yards or so behind the houseboat.
As it got later, it got colder and there was enough breeze to be painful. SO and I decided we needed a break and headed back to the houseboat to warm up. As we did, the lights faded away for a while, making the decision feel like the right one.
We stayed inside the houseboat to warm up and looked outside every once in a while to see if the Northern Lights had reappeared. Shortly they did, but not as strongly as earlier in the night. After a brief debate about whether we should go back out, we decided we had to since it would be who-knows-how-long until we would be able to see the Aurora Borealis again.
After bundling up we trudged back out into the snow. I left the camera inside since it was still slightly fogged from the cold and I definitely didn't want it to freeze. I was glad I did as the lights put on a show that would have been impossible to capture in the 1's and 0's of digital film. Long exposure times make great smooth images, but it washes away all the fine details.
The previously dim aurora came alive in a way we had not seen yet. It brightened to near daylight levels and danced and undulated across the sky. Strobes of light raced back and forth across it. Smaller facets jumped up and down. Colors not seen in the previous three days glowed amid the background of green. The aurora looked like the time lapse images frequently shown of the Northern Lights, but it was all happening in real time and directly above us. I'm not sure how long this amazing light show lasted, but by the time it faded it was well into the next day and we both realized how cold we were.
As the lights dimmed once again, thin clouds started to move in and obscure all but the most intense stars. We knew that the lights were not done for the night, but it felt like they had put on a final intense display just for us. If there was a better way to end our time spent experiencing the Aurora Borealis, I'm not sure what it could have been.
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