Northern Lights Near Fort McMurray in the Winter

Not having seen Fort McMurray since about 1981, I was curious about how it might have changed. Most media coverage of the place seems to be bad, as if the town and land around it were nothing but one giant oil sands mine and plant.

I don't want to whitewash anything, but Fort McMurray as a community comes in for too much blackwashing, I'm afraid.

Leaving politics aside for a moment, I can say quite honestly that I was happy with the way the townsite has developed so far. Although the new suburbs look more urban than the old town, the city as a whole has kept a lot of the trees and natural areas. The rivers are respected and accessible to everyone.

I went to see the Northern Lights, at the invitation of Travel Alberta and Fort McMurray Tourism. Now, I have seen the Northern Lights before, but not in winter, and not so far north. Although it was cold, we were with Stu Ross, who operates Aurora Tours. His place is on the lake at Anzac, a nearby town. There's a warm and comfortable lodge just steps from the lake, so it's easy to stay warm between viewings.

I wrote an online article about the Northern Lights viewing at Fort McMurray. Stu Ross has put a lot of his Aurora Borealis photos online, showing the way the lights change from one night to the next.

Contact Fort McMurray Tourism (1-800-565-3947) for local information, and Travel Alberta (1-800- ALBERTA) for Northern Alberta travel tips.

For Northern Lights tours from Aurora Tours, contact Stu Ross at (780) 334-2292, or by email at auroratours@msn.com.

Picture of Northern Lights courtesy of Stu Ross of Aurora Tours, Anzac, Alberta (near Fort McMurray, Alberta).

Northern Lights Over Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada

With snow too deep for my teensy tripod, I had to place my camera on the ground and hope it was at least aimed to the right part of the sky.

Northern Lights are one of Nature's most delicate and ethereal sights. Like a ghost seen and then gone, maybe imagined, maybe real. In Calgary, astronomers might see them, but the rest of us rarely do - too far south, too much light from the city, too late at night, too cold.

Outside Fort McMurray, in the winter, the lights can be bright and bold. This picture used about a 12-second exposure. The pink you see here is from the city's lights. Green is the Aurora borealis, or Northern Lights. Sometimes they are also pink, red, other colours - but green is what I've seen.

I don't think I'll even try to straighten this picture out. It reminds me of the night on the lake, waiting for the moment the lights started dancing again.

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