Winter in Alaska by Scott Richardson - That Kids Going Places - Exposure
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Winter in Alaska

Aurora, mountains, and bush mail flights

Scott Richardson
By Scott Richardson

Seeing the northern lights for the first time was mesmerizing. The swirling colors of the aurora above Fairbanks capped off an incredible first visit to Alaska in 2015. Since then, I’ve been lucky enough to see the lights in Iceland and briefly again in Alaska on a trip to Wrangell-St. Elias.

After several trips to Alaska in summer and fall, I returned in winter, hoping to experience the northern lights at their predicted peak around the spring equinox.

Knowing I’d be at the mercy of the weather and solar storms, I kept my plans loose and booked just two accommodations for 1.5 weeks: a lodge near Denali and a small cabin on the outskirts of Fairbanks.

Fairbanks is the perfect basecamp for aurora-chasing; it’s the closest city in Alaska to the Arctic Circle and sits directly under the auroral oval. It also sits at the intersection of many of Alaska’s highways, which made it easy to make a split decision when cloud cover changed.

When I landed in Fairbanks at 2 AM, the temperature was a cool -16°. My seatmates on the plane reported seeing a faint aurora just before we landed, but by the time I picked up my rental car and drove out of town, the sky had clouded over. I slept for an hour in the car on top of the frigid Murphy Dome, but the cold got the better of me, and I drove back into town to warm up at the grocery store when it opened at 5 AM.

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Early morning in Nenana, Alaska

After picking up groceries at Safeway, stove fuel at Walmart, and a lighter at a gas station (from a store worker concerned that 6 AM was a little early to start smoking before I explained it was to light my stove), I traveled south to Denali.

I spent three days exploring the first 13 miles of the Denali Park road by car as far as I could drive and by foot and snowshoe up to the Savage River. The frozen rivers, creeks, and lakes offered dramatic views of the surrounding mountains.

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Savage River, Denali National Park
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Hiking the Denali Park Road
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Views while snowshoeing around Denali National Park
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Mountain views while snowshoeing around Denali National Park
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Nenana River, Denali National Park
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Sled dogs, Denali National Park
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Savage Cabin, Denali National Park
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A frozen Horseshoe Lake and Nenana River, Denali National Park
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Early evening sun on the mountains, Denali National Park
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Dusk, Denali National Park
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Views of the Alaska Range from Otto Lake, Healy, Alaska
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Snowy views, Rock Creek and Meadow View trails, Denali National Park
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First night of aurora chasing near North Pole, Alaska. After striking out on a trip to Chena Lakes, I returned to my cabin and waited until a faint aurora started to show. From there, I headed north to the Chena River, stopping in the parking lot of a cocktail bar when the aurora really started to dance. I drove as far as Cleary Summit on the Steese Highway, where I found a crowd waiting to see the aurora return, and returned to my cabin at 3 AM.
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Aurora over the Chena River, Badger, Alaska

In Fairbanks, I spent my days exploring the University Museum and the Interagency Public Lands Center, where I watched all of their films and read all of their exhibits.

One day, I accompanied a bush pilot on mail delivery to Circle and Central, two small communities technically drivable from Fairbanks via the Steese Highway but more safely visited in winter by plane. The only other passengers were two indigenous residents of Circle traveling back to visit family, and once they disembarked, it was just the pilot and I exploring the Alaskan backcountry and spotting mining remnants in the landscape.

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Mail delivery via bush plane to Circle, AK. Population 91.
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A firetruck sits next to the runway in Circle, moved to higher ground after an ice jam caused the Yukon River to rise to a record height in 2013, washing a house into the river and forcing others from their foundations.
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Mail delivery to Central, AK. Population 38.
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Third night of aurora chasing near North Pole, Alaska. The map showed clear skies around my cabin, and Chena Lakes Recreation Area was my best bet for spotting the aurora that night. Unfortunately, cell signal drops off at the edge of the lake. I could not keep up to date with the Aurora forecast, but my patience paid off as I was treated to an incredible display of Aurora throughout the night. First, a tight band of aurora began to dance on the horizon. That soon grew into a giant swirl of fast-moving green, purple, and bright white lines. The aurora stretched from horizon to horizon, bright as could be for at least 30 minutes.

Another afternoon, I drove the road to Chena Hot Springs and hiked along its snowmobile trails until the sun faded. And I spent another afternoon following arctic-bound trucks up the winding, slow Elliot Highway to where it meets the Dalton Highway haul road.

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Monument Creek, Chena Hot Springs

Another day, I drove to Delta Junction and down the Richardson Highway to the Castner Glacier, where a glacial creek forms an ice cave every winter. Ice forms brittle, sparkling stalactites along the cave’s ceiling in endless patterns.

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Entrance to the Castner Glacier Ice Cave
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Castner Glacier Ice Cave, Richardson Highway
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Textures inside the Castner Glacier Ice Cave
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Mountain views while hiking near the Richardson Highway
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Delta River and a snow-covered Rainbow Ridge, Richardson Highway
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Sunset over the Alaska Range, near Delta Junction

I had good luck spotting the aurora most nights of my trip. However, localized clouds made me weary of traveling too far from some common spots where I usually found clear skies. The Chena Lakes Recreation Area was a 10-minute drive from my cabin. I spent hours walking along the frozen lake, admiring the aurora. I also had good luck poking my head out of the cabin door, then running along an access road for the Alaska Pipeline that gave me a clearing from the trees when the aurora unexpectedly became active.

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Final night of Aurora chasing outside my cabin in North Pole, Alaska. The aurora wasn’t forecast to be particularly active on this night. I didn’t realize it until I was there, but I rented a cabin from an aurora enthusiast who runs a prediction website and night-sky webcam stationed next door to my cabin. This made staying warm inside the cabin easy, constantly refreshing her webcam feed until the aurora was visible. At first, faint curtains appeared above the trees, but instantly, they became brighter and enveloped the entire sky. Hanging out alone in the dark, I heard a woman yell my name and ask if I could reply to assure her I wasn’t the nuisance moose that terrorized her street. She invited me into her driveway, where a tree clearing afforded me an incredible view of streaking aurora dancing fast above.
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Movements of a bright auroral display above North Pole, Alaska
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Aurora above the cabin I called home for a week, North Pole, Alaska

Exhausted by exploring each day and night, I ended the trip with a lazy afternoon at Fairbank’s breweries. I met some interesting people at Black Spruce Brewing, who adopted me into their friend group and convinced me to accompany them to HooDoo Brewing. We ended the night with some interesting conversations. The people of Fairbanks are an interesting bunch.

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Aurora above Badger, Alaska

© 2025 Scott Richardson

I’m a landscape photography enthusiast currently on a mission to visit all of America’s National Parks by my 40th birthday (currently at 58/63). I spend my days as a video producer and animator near Philadelphia and enjoy getting outdoors for hiking, sightseeing, and paddle-boarding in my free time.
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