For many, seeing and photographing the northern lights or aurora borealis is a life goal… and it should be! If you are serious about seeing the lights, you need to dedicate more than a day to it. Multi-day trips like these Arctic Aurora Photography Workshops will carry you to the heart of Alaska’s Arctic Brooks Range and are the best way to maximize your odds of seeing the aurora. For five days and four nights, we will immerse ourselves in the arctic landscape, chasing lights at night, and compositions of the mountains and wildlife during the day. While there are never guarantees when it comes to finding the northern lights, previous Arctic Aurora Workshops have had great success with participants typically seeing and photographing the aurora borealis on multiple (sometimes every night) of the trip.

You'll be picked up at your hotel around 9am, and we'll turn the wheels north. It's about a 6 hour drive from Fairbanks to the tiny bush community of Wiseman, but it's a beautiful trip. We'll be traveling along the famous Dalton Highway (or Haul Road, as the locals know it), passing through the rolling hills of the interior, over the Yukon River, across the arctic circle, and into the rugged mountains of the central Brooks Range. Lots of photo stops and lunch along the way. We'll arrive in Wiseman in time for dinner and a little relaxation before we head back out for our first night of aurora hunting!

With three full days and four nights in Wiseman, we'll have lots of opportunities to explore during both the daylight and nighttime hours. Since aurora photography can keep us out until the early hours of the morning, we have a relaxing start to the day with a late breakfast. After which head out in the van for daytime photography of the mountainous landscape, or linger closer to home to go on snowshoe walks, take a dogsled ride, or meet some of the local residents of Wiseman. At least one day, we will drive north as far as the top of Atigun Pass, the highest road-accessible pass in Alaska, and the peak of the Brooks Range. As it gets dark, we will venture out ready for a night of aurora photography! 

We'll bid goodbye to Wiseman after breakfast, and retrace our steps back down the Haul Road to Fairbanks. While there is still opportunities for photos, we'll try to make better time as we head south. Typically, we will arrive back in Fairbanks between 3 and 5 pm, but that varies based on weather and road conditions. I'll drop you off at your hotel in Fairbanks, or wherever you wish to go!