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Published: October 12th 2010
When: 28th Sept - 3rd Oct
Where: Yellowknife, Hay River & the drive back to Calgary.
Highlights: Aurora, starlit nights, city of Yellowknife & Galaxyland at WEM
P.S: Feel free to click on the photos to enlarge them to see the aurora clearly😊
Click
here for the first few days of this trip.
28th September Shower forecast. We hit the
Legislative Assembly for the 10.30 am tour. An intern gave us the 40 minute tour of the Legislative assembly. I learnt so much about the NWT & their way of dealing with things. The building looked very modern(definitely not even close to the one at Edmonton, AB) & took 5 years to build. It incorporates every single detail that NWT is all about. The details include the mace, the caucus room & their public meeting room. Every painting has a story to tell. I was spellbound.
Still showers. So, we hot the
Prince of Wales National Heritage Center around the corner. Entry was free & this place was even more wealth than the Legislative assembly. S was getting a little late for her nap & it showed. But I learnt a lot. Forgot a lot too. But it was really worthwhile.
S fell asleep in the car & we found our way home about lunchtime. After a late lunch, me & S spent some time at the trampoline, outdoors by the lake. By now, I started getting used to the cold & ever-changing weather. If it was sunny for a minute, it would soon be filled with fog & it would be hard to see a couple feet further into the lake. Well, we were so high up in latitude. I stopped believing in the weather channel anymore.
We took the short 2km hike around Niven Lake when the weather got better for a short while. By the time we were done with the hike, the showers picked up.
Ganesh managed to check aurora yellowknife on Twitter & managed to stay awake as the clouds were supposedly clearing from 12.00 am - 1.00 am. Like clockwork, we saw stars for the first time. And they were everywhere. By the time we came out, other residents of the B&B were out as well. We joined with an Australian who gave the first hint of the lights. She had already seen them dance 2 nights earlier.😊
Sure enough. We took a
photo which showed green light far north. I was amazed. I wanted to cry out, "They are true". "They are there." "It is not a dream." Finally,"So. I saw them!" Ugh! What a relief. But I did not do anything so dramatic.😊
But, time flew. We took some photos. They did not dance, though. Within what seemed like a couple of minutes, clouds came over & covered the entire happening. Ughhhhh...
29th September We proudly disclosed our sighting at breakfast.😊 We hit Frame Lake. It was ridiculously cold to begin with. Half way through S fell asleep. Carrying her around the lake for 5kms seemed next to impossible. So, we turned around at 2.5kms.
After an early lunch, we took the drive to Tim Can Hill. The hike was along a gravel road, but we got different views of the lake. We caught a pretty sunset too.
We literally hunted for souvenir magnets in vain. Obviously Yellowknife is not as touristy as I thought it to be.
Being the last night, both of us planned to stay up late just in case the lights decided to show up.
And they did. Quite early actually. Around 10.30pm or
so. We took some pictures. But then that was as late as I could go. I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the sack.
30th Sept We left early morning after breakfast. We had a nice chat with the owner. Apparently, every B&B is run by a family. The man generally works full-time elsewhere, while the lady takes care of this entire thingy. It is no joke. They may be earning more than I know, but I felt happy giving her the money I owed her for those 4 days I stayed with her. I will strongly recommend this place.
Our trip to the North was still not over & after a good 6-7 hrs, we found ourselves searching for our cabin in Hay River. Geographically, Hay River is the Southern point of the Great Slave Lake.
I almost gave up searching for
Mountain Aven campgrounds. It felt weird that even the guy at the gas station did not know this place. Thankfully, a local guided us to an unnamed road by the airport before crossing over the green bridge. There is no way we would've found this road. The address, Lagoon road is non-existent on the local
map. Half way down the road, we stopped a truck from the other end hoping to get assurance that this IS the road. Turned out that the guy whose truck we stopped was the owner's son & he turned around to let us follow him to their cabin. Trust me when I say it is in the middle of nowhere. The guy, Roy was kind enough to show us the entire place which consisted of 2 other cabins, a gazebo & the lake, of course. We made sure we asked him where the lights will be visible. He just pointed to the sky and said, "They just come up here". Reassured, we checked into our cabin. It was a mini studio with kitchen & living space & a bed up the loft.
They even left us some vessels to cook our own food.😊 It was rugged. No electricity. No showers. No flush toilets even. Propane lights & stove. Would be an interesting stay, we thought. S loved the place instantly.
We were greeted by a welcome note from the owner along with shower passes for all of us at the recreation center. I was impressed, I should say.
Settling down
was easy.
Our last night of spotting an aurora. But as usual, I slept off with S. Ganesh had to wake me up to show me the night sky. I did not want to get up. If I did & came out to see the stars & the night sky & the aurora of course, I'd be awake. And I didn't want to. So, he left me with myself & headed out. After hearing all he had to say about the night sky, there was no way I could even shut my eyes. I followed him obediently.
I was blessed with the bright green lights just at the cabin door. I went, "WOW"! They sure are something!!!
We stayed up late. I knew we saw the early aurora. Something much grander would surely pop up somewhere high.
But I guess we were tired. We came inside to take a short nap. Apparently the short nap turned into a full night's sleep.
1st October Spent some time at the gazebo with my daily practices. And ignited late to go visit
Wood Buffalo National Park some 100 km away. Served us right to not check a map, because at the entrance, we
got to know that most of the stop points are far away. Anyways, I am sure the park would be as wild as the rest of NWT as there were very few cars I saw on that drive.
We drove back into town & did some local grocery shopping. We settled ourselves on the vast beach of Great Slave Lake. All to ourselves. Not a soul nearby, who could hear us. Felt so good.
Turned out there was a local party in the gazebo. There was campfire et al. So, we set base at the beach again after dark. Thankfully, the weather was much warmer. The sky looked absolutely gorgeous. Stunning & breath-taking. Surprisingly, S fell asleep in a couple of minutes in the outdoors.
I had to come back for shooting some star trails. I wasn't so bothered about aurora tonight. The lakeside demanded every bit of attention & it well deserved it. I spent more than an hr in that darkness avoiding Ganesh's flashlight as well. It was like magic. I loved the solitude while Ganesh hung out by the campfire.
I was so happy. I willingly came back home & was awake for a little while before
I convinced myself to sleep. Ganesh kinda mentioned that he would not wake me up tonight. He'd had enough. Maybe that had to do with me staying awake longer.
2nd October We had our long drive back to Alberta. Reluctantly, we bid goodbye to Roy. Canadians are so friendly & homely that it reminds me of India & "some" Indians.😊
The drive back was not so much eventful. But sure surprising. At Peace River, all the trees were bare. No more fall colors. It caught us by surprise. I learnt that the past week had been very windy. We were so glad that we witnessed the peak on our way in.😊 It would've been such a shame to not see them. They were quite a sight!
We let S play in the local playground which she thoroughly enjoyed.
No more aurora business. Slept early. Slept well.
3rd October The long drive home. 700km. We decided to start early & we left fairly early. We reached Edmonton by 2pm. We let S play at Galaxyland at
West Edmonton Mall(WEM). And we started back to Calgary around 6pm. Too bad we got caught up in construction for a little
bit near Airdie. We were so glad to be home after this long drive. S was a champ throughout the trip. Else, this trip would not have become a reality.
Information/Observations: -NWT is famous for Diamonds, Gold, Silver & various other minerals.
-The place we stayed at Hay River is called Mountain Aven Campgrounds. They have a few tipis & a couple of cabins. No electricity here. Everything works on Propane. Awesome place for stargazing & aurora viewing. Absolutely dark sky. In fact better than Yellowknife. 😊
-Check out some facts of
Great Slave Lake. Quite a statistic!
Just back home & it itches. For another trip. We'll see...😊
~travelbuffs
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Aluel
Navarrete
Aurora
Thanks for sharing. I'm sure the Aurora was a spectacular view. I dream the same. Nice to see a happy travelling family. Memories are the best treasures. Cheers!