The Light Fantastic

The cure the Daily Grind? An Alaska Getaway to meet the Aurora Borealis and the people who track it.

- Stephanie Granada

IT’S 8 P.M. AND STILL SUNNY AS WE DRIVE AWAY from Fairbanks ALONG A BUMPY ROAD.

The goal is to gain distance on any last remnants of city light by nightfall for the best chance of seeing the aurora borealis—the main reason my boyfriend Mac and I are here, a mere 200 miles south of the Arctic Circle. For the past three years, we’ve been in low-grade survival mode between health issues, several moves, and starting a business. Heading north (way north) for the colorful light show is our attempt to find the fresh air we’ve been craving and rediscover our sense of wonder.

To see the aurora borealis, our host, Adriel Butler, tells us, we’ll need total darkness and clear skies, and Fairbanks has a lot of both—especially from late August to late April. “But at the end of the day, the northern lights are a natural phenomenon. If you try to time it, they’ll misbehave,” he says. Still, that didn’t stop Butler from erecting an entire lodge around them. Last November, he opened Borealis Basecamp, a collection of nine and counting off-the-grid domes with barely there architecture and windowed ceilings that offer guests a view of the dancing colors from the bed, similar to what you’d find in Arctic tourist towns in Europe. It’s a tricky feat when you consider that the compound was built 30 miles outside a major city in one of the West’s coldest and most extreme landscapes—and that the area comes with some of the highest energy rates in the country. (A combination of fiberglass used in polar research shelters and clear paneling that’s seven times more thermally efficient than glass ended up doing the trick.)