Aurora in the North

The last rays of the Aurora disappeared as we reached the top. See the full Aurora at the bottom of this blog post.

Recently I spent a week in the north of Finland. Our family and one other family went to Syöte which is 20 kilometers from the border of Lapland and only 100 kilometers south from the Arctic Circle. The chances of seeing a great Northern Lights show increase the further north you go.

And although we have had a lot of snow this winter they had, of course, even more snow up there. At times we got very playful and fooled around in the snow. It was so much fun!

We spent the days either cross country skiing or downhill skiing. I was enjoying all the winter activities but every day I anticipated the sunset and what could happen after that …

The Aurora Borealis was active both in the beginning and in the end of our trip, but the first round got ruined by clouds and fog.

The fog made the landscape with snowy popcorn trees even more mystical.

These creatures take their white clothes on for the winter season and take them off for the summer season.

Me concentrating more on photography than on skiing. It was difficult to see the ski tracks in the fog.

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I kept my eyes constantly on the aurora forecasts. The family we travelled with had not seen the lights. At least their children hadn't. So it became my mission to provide that to them, although I couldn't produce any Northern Lights myself.

Luckily the sky was clear on our last two nights and I managed to capture some green dancing in the sky.

The Northern Lights seen over our cozy cottage.

When I stepped out from our cottage to check the sky and saw them dancing already I hurried to announce to everybody that now is the time to go up to the mountain top to watch the show. We hurried to get dressed and make the 10 minute drive. As we stepped out of our cars near the top of Iso-Syöte we saw a great show going on.

The highlight of the aurora show just as we started our walk up to the very top of Iso-Syöte.

I took my best aurora photos for the night right there and then. Seeing that aurora in the north was a mighty experience. And then we climbed to the very top. Unfortunately the show was short this time and the best part was already over. We waited for a second run but had to go back after waiting a while.

The next night the other family left so they really caught the Aurora Borealis in the last minute. We spent another day up north and our last night the sky was once again decorated by the green lights. But more on that in a future blog post.

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Can't get enough of aurora photos? Me neither. If you are interested you can read an interview with Timo Oksanen, a Finnish photographer that I really admire. Click the link and find more magic! https://hello-aurora.com/blog/interview-timo