Travel to Canada -- Northern Lights

The northern lights, near Blachford Lodge. "The best way to describe them is by comparing them to flames, which you can see but which flicker and more around," Max Johnson says. (Courtesy Great Canadian Travel Co., MCT / January 11, 2013)


Max Johnson, 56, is a London native who has been living in Canada since 1980. For the past 36 years he has assembled Arctic travel packages for the Great Canadian Travel Company (( ), including one for viewing the northern lights - aurora borealis.

Q: What's the weather these days?

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A. I look out the window now at Blachford Lake Lodge, in the Northwest Territories, and it's minus-25 Celsius; about the same in Fahrenheit.

Q: And you have the northern lights.

A: Exactly. The peak season is mid-January to mid-April. It's possibly the most spectacular sight you can imagine. "Awe-inspiring" is overrated as a phrase, but there's a feeling when you stand outside and the entire night sky is dancing with greens and purples, and there's a sort of hiss that comes across the landscape. Blachford Lodge is away from anywhere; there's no sound made in the middle of this natural environment. This is quite extraordinary.

Q: Hiss?

A: I'm not a physicist, but I guess it's static electricity jumping and bouncing in the sky. The northern lights are static electricity - solar flares create these light spectacles as they hit Earth's atmosphere.

A: It's a background hiss - not an aggressive noise. It's a sibilant sound that seems to dance all over.

Q: Do the northern lights vary from year to year?

A: Yes, but it's more over a 12- or 15-year cycle. In places like Yellowknife - the city's about a 15-minute flight from Blachford - it's more a question of 70 percent versus 90 percent brightness.

Q: There are cruises to see the northern lights in places like Scandinavia. Why would people go to the Northwest Territories?

A: The Yellowknife area has predictably colder and drier weather. Churchill, which is on Hudson Bay, has fantastic lights, but much more cloud coverage. The same goes for anywhere in the north where there's water: Sometimes you can't see a thing. The Yellowknife area has clearer skies.

People choose Blachford because it's a delightful lodge and away from city lights.

Q: How long are the nights right now?

A: Probably about 20 hours. It starts getting dark around 3.p.m.; the northern lights normally come out around 9. I remember being out there one night watching the lights for three hours.

Q: What do people do the rest of the day?

A: There's snowshoeing, snowmobiling, fishing, reading, talking to others . complete relaxation. When Prince William and Kate toured Canada and California, they stopped at Blachford. They wanted a day away from everything, and Blachford seemed to fit the bill: Fine food, activities, all-inclusive and so on. The lodge accommodates 15 to 20 people at most… Fifty percent the people who come for the lights are from the U.S.; of the rest, half are Canadian, half are European. The standard northern lights package costs $1,855 ($1,864 U.S.) from Yellowknife.

Q: When the northern lights are going full-tilt, do they light the sky from horizon to horizon?