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By Root 789 0

and your eyes are locked skyward watching the Aurora Borealis, often called the Northern Lights, from one of the best vantage points on earth, Yellowknife in Canada’s Northwest Territories. The Aurora Borealis is a natural phenomenon of colorful lights displayed in the sky created by interactions between charged solar particles and atmospheric gases in the enormous magnetic fields circling the North Magnetic Pole. Because Yellowknife is located at 62°, right under the Auroral arc, the lights are often the brightest here.

The Aurora Borealis viewing season extends from mid-August through mid-April—basically when the sky is dark enough so you can see the lights. But, the most favorable conditions are when it’s the darkest, January through March, and the skies are clear.

Yellowknife is snow adventure central during the winter. You could go dog sledding by day or night, when you can combine the adventure with Aurora viewing. You decide if you want to ride behind a musher controlling the sled, or learn to mush your own team. During the day, you can go cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, or trophy pike fishing on the Great Slave Lake. Outfitters offer snowmobiling tours that can include Aurora viewing. Other adrenaline-inducing activities include ice-road tours and winter fly-ins for caribou viewing. Take advantage of your daylight hours to experience all that this area has to offer, but save your nights for the extravaganza in the sky.

Packages are available which include Aurora viewing, lodging, and other activities. You can stay in Yellowknife, choose a wilderness, lodge, or even stay in a teepee. —LF

Northwest Territories ( 800/661-0788 in Canada or 867/873-7200 international; www.spectacularnwt.com).

Tours: Yellowknife Outdoor Adventures ( 867/444-8320;www.spectacularnwt.com/node/878). Beck’s Kennels Aurora Viewing and Dog Sled Tours ( 867/873-5603;www.beckskennels.com).

When to Go: Aug–Apr; very best time Jan–Mar.

Yellowknife.

$$ Enodah Wilderness Travel & Trout Rock Lodge ( 867/873-4334;www.enodah.com). $ Aurora Village (mostly teepees; 867/669-0006;www.auroravillage.com).

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Marfa Lights

The Lights at Night, Are Big & Bright

Marfa, Texas, U.S.A.

Some say the lights are nothing more than static electricity. The native Apache believed they were stars fallen to Earth. Other folks say they’re the result of swamp gas, ball lightning, UFOs, secret military weapons, St. Elmo’s fire, or distant headlights reflecting off layers of warm air. The mystery may never be solved, but everyone who sees the famous Marfa lights swears that a view of these enigmatic glowing orbs, floating in the night above the desert floor, is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that’s sure to raise the hair on the back of your neck. People have come from all over the world to see and study this luminous phenomenon, and nobody has yet developed a universally accepted explanation.

The Marfa lights are seen in an isolated, rural area of west Texas near the intersection of U.S. Highways 67 and 90. Similar lights have been reported throughout the region, but the greatest numbers of reported sightings occur here, between the towns of Marfa, Alpine, and Presidio. There is an “official” viewing platform on U.S. Highway 90, just east of the Highway 67 junction. Though the lights seem to occur in any kind of weather and regardless of the season, they have been witnessed only at night. Visitors to the area should be aware that temperatures can drop precipitously in the desert at night, even after a hot day; jackets or coats are recommended year-round.

First reported in 1883 by a settler named Robert Ellison, the lights are usually described as white, red, yellow, or orange globes, roughly the size of a basketball, that float about 5 or 6 feet (1.5–1.8m) above the ground. Though they have never been seen close-up, they are said to appear in pairs or groups, floating, merging, disappearing, then reappearing in a mysterious nighttime dance. The otherworldly lights, which seem to appear unpredictably throughout the year, may last from just a second or two