Headlands International Dark Sky Park

3/19/2021

Mackinaw City, MI

Finally, the reason I dragged Gob more than 250 miles north. A chance to see the northern lights. The aurora borealis. The dancing lady.

With plenty of daylight left, we head to the dark sky park to scout out our viewing area, get my camera set up, and ultimately take a nap. We enjoy the sunset before retreating to the van a second time for dinner. I set an alarm for the predicted solar storm. While I had planned to stay up all night on watch, I am already too tired from my lack of sleep the night before and numerous miles hiked today. Soon we are both asleep again.

My alarm goes off. I am not a morning person. Even less of a morning person when that morning is still technically the middle of the night. But my aurora tracker says the show will be live in 13 minutes, so there is no time to grumble. I gather my camera, bundle up, and gingerly wake up Gob. He is also not a morning “person”. We head to our predetermined spot and hunker down, waiting for the light show to start. I take a few test shots, working to get the stars in focus. Gob is sick of laying on the cold ground and crawls into my lap. I continue taking pictures, hoping the catch something that I can’t see with the naked eye and figuring worst case scenario I’ll end up with some nice starry skies. An hour passes, and the dancing lady never graces us with her presence. Or at least that’s what I thought.