This was a four night trip to Alaska with two main goals. First was to go to Gates of the Arctic National Park, the 44th (out of 59) that we have visited. We hope to get to the rest of the 59 within 2-3 more years. The second goal was to see and photograph the Northern Lights (Aurora). I have posted my images for that goal in a separate gallery. Since we had the time, we also drove down from Fairbanks to Denali National Park. While we have been there a number of times before, this was the first time in winter.

Note that temperatures this time of year are normally 10 to 20 degrees F in the mornings. However, it turned out that our 4 mornings were 30, 31, 38, and 12 below zero. Those first three mornings were REALLY cold, and standing out in the evening photographing the Northern Lights were similarly cold (it was windy as well)!

To get to Gates of the Arctic we flew on Wright Air from Fairbanks to Bettles Lodge, via stops in Allakaket and Anaktuvuk Pass along the way. Write Air carries passengers and freight to small remote villages. That second stop actually put us farther North than either Bettles Lodge or even where we would fly to in Gates of the Arctic NP. Once in Bettles Lodge, we had lunch then flew from there with Kevin Kellogg to the two peaks in the park that are referred to as the “Gates of the Arctic”. We then landed on skis on a frozen lake and had hot chocolate there! After that we took off from the lake and returned to Bettles Lodge. Both Kevin Kellogg and Bettles Lodge can be reached at 907-692-5111, or www.bettleslodge.com if you want info.