On January 19 there was an aurora alert. A coronal mass ejection (CME) was headed to Earth. My friend Darren and I drove outside of the Calgary city limits to have a look, but there were thick clouds everywhere. Realizing the futility of our effort, we drove back to town.
The next day I checked the auroral oval at about midday. The solar storm was still going strong! By now the clouds had cleared so that was not an issue. But would the activity last into the evening?
Darren and I drove out to Canmore, making frequent stops to look at the sky. Despite the auroral oval indicating a strong potential for activity, we did not see anything. To bide our time we took some photos of the Three Sisters, a Canmore landmark.
While hiking back to the car, we noticed a green glow to the north. Bingo! We jumped in the car and drove towards Lake Minnewanka in Banff. By the time we got to Banff, the aurora was descending on Cascade Mountain.
We pulled out at the Two Jack Lake viewpoint. It offer views across Two Jack Lake towards Mount Rundle and the constellation of Orion.
Looking up the road towards Lake Minnewanka, things looked promising.
When we arrived at Minnewanka there was already a crowd. Most people were parked on the dam. We parked at the far end in the parking lot, and then hiked back across the dam and along the shoreline to get away from car headlights and other sources of light pollution.
When we were setting up, not much was happening in the sky. But then, suddenly, the sky came alive.
We could people cheering back at the dam. We let out a few Wowww-s as well. Lake Minnewanka itself was frozen, and the aurora reflected on the ice surface.
A few people were out skating. This skater’s headlamp left a wobbly trail as he skated in front of Darren.
An intense beam of light sprung up.
More Oohs and Aahs.
When the aurora outburst subsided, we decided to change location. We hiked back along the dam and then ventured along the summer trail on Minnewanka’s north shore. Despite our patience, the aurora did not reach the same intensity again.
Nonetheless this is a very pretty spot, and we’ll have to come back again here some day.