Surrounded by Alaska’s vast landscape and natural beauty, Anchorage astounds all types of wilderness explorers with spectacular sightseeing opportunities.
Distinctive Native culture, a variety of annual festivals, a large local music scene, a thriving downtown and restaurants that cater to the most discriminating palate - the city is a feast for the senses.
Summer in Anchorage blooms with brilliant flowers. The air is filled with the scent of flowers, long hours of daylight and the sound of music from numerous outdoor festivals.
Anchorage is truly a wonderland in the winter. Thousands of lights decorate downtown and the excitement of many activities reverberates throughout the entire city.
Anchorage's bright starry nights are nature’s perfect backdrop for dancing northern lights, also known as Aurora Borealis.
The northern lights can be incredibly bright, multihued and fast moving. The most common color is a brilliant yellow-green. Colorful displays can produce red, blue and purple patterns.
Glowing, dancing curtains of light that ripple and sway, fold and unfold then suddenly disappear, only to reform in a new shape minutes later.
Aurora appear in the sky when the electrically charged particles from the Sun are blown on a solar wind and react to the earth's magnetic field.
Fall, winter and spring is the prime season for viewing the northern lights, and the best displays tend to be accompanied by sub-zero temperatures and moonless skies. The best hours are often near midnight. Of course, no one can guarantee when the Aurora will be out. Displays usually occur about sixty or seventy miles above the earth’s surface - about ten times higher than a jet aircraft flies - and can extend hundreds of miles into space. Visitors who wish to spot the Northern Lights should plan to spend a few days because the Aurora is, like the weather, variable. Local Aurora Forecasts are available online or in the weather section of the Anchorage Daily News.
Many of the area hotels have a “northern lights wake up call” for guests who indicate that they want to be awakened if the lights are dancing in the night sky.
