The Northern Lights in Utah!

 The Northern Lights, Aurora Borealis has been a long time bucket list item of mine So I was thrilled to learn that there was a an extreme G5 Geomagnetic Storm that is the largest one since 2003. We had a smaller one last year that I unfortunately didn’t see anything with, but considering this one was bigger I decided it might be worth driving about a half hour out to Saltair, where there is less light pollution. Upon arrival we realized that we were not the only ones to think of this spot (which didn’t really surprise me). But wow, it was a bit of a zoo! Anyway, we got lucky and found a place to park and made our way down towards the beach.

I might have imagined it, but I swear I could see the lights flashing in and out with my naked eye but they just looked white. However, the camera picks more up than your eyes can see.

I got a little frustrating with the never ending headlights of cars coming in so we decided to head over this hill and down the other side. It helped quite a bit.

That’s better Wow!

Super cool!

I was starting to think I would never see this, but here we are.

Super pretty.

Purples and greens.

I was hoping to get some over Antelope Island, but did not appear to have any luck with that.

This was my favorite shot of the night. So cool.

More color.

I might have set my exposure a little too long as I was not capturing the pillars I have seen in other people photos. However, I was just happy to be able to see it myself.

With a few airplanes.

A contender for the nerdiest selfie we have taken yet. This competes against the one we took in Oregon with the Milky Way.

More color.

Eventually we both needed to use the restroom and I wasn’t sure there was one around we could use, and well, there were too many people to just use nature. So we decided we saw it and it was time to head home.

From what I am seeing on the social media, if we had just stuck it out for another hour or so, we would have actually been able to see the color with our naked eyes, and probably have gotten better pictures. Kind of kicking myself for that, but hey, I am super happy with what we saw tonight so no I can’t be too mad.

That was truly spectacular and I am glad I got to see it!