March 4, 2018 Auroras and Iditarod
Talkeetna and Willow, Alaska
We arrived in Talkeetna in the late afternoon and walked around a bit. We did some moose photography, too. I was a driver, so after getting yelled at once by a local resident for stopping in an awkward spot, I decided to skip the photography and focus on driving and pulling over safely, so I don't have any moose pictures from this part of the trip.
In the evening in Talkeetna, the auroras made a brief appearance. Strangely, for such a remote place, it was very difficult to find a place dark enough to do good aurora photography. All the places that were readily reachable (by car) near Talkeetna were pretty lit up with either outdoor lighting or vehicle traffic. A lot of the cars and trucks there have very bright LED racks in order to help see moose at night, so it is impossible to photograph auroras while they are driving by.
Between the passing cars, we were able to get a couple shots in, but the auroras quickly faded, and the moon rose, illuminating Denali to the north. With the auroras gone, I decided to focus on the moonlit mountains. We also came back in the morning to take some pictures after sunrise. It is very rare to see Denali under a clear sky.
We drove south about 90 minutes and found parking in Willow. We walked about a half mile over to the start of the Iditarod. This was the actual start, not the ceremonial one, which took place in Anchorage.
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| Fading auroras at an overlook on the south side of Talkeetna. |
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| Denali in the moonlight. |
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| Denali not long after sunrise. |
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| A dogsled team pulls out from the Iditarod starting line in Willow. |