Journey to Denali and the Chena Hot Springs Paperback – May 8, 2025

The year was 1968, and I was in my senior year at Academy in Erie, Pennsylvania. I was attending an event just north of the city one night in late October, and after the event, I was walking to the car when I happened to look up at the moonless, yet starry, night sky. It was chilly like Erie was known for weather-wise, and as I looked up, there in the sky was the most impressive light show I have ever seen in my life. It was the Northern Lights. Prior to this, having lived most of my life in the South, this phenomenal spectacle was something that I would most likely have never seen, and, until that night, had never expected to see. Dazzling! Stunning! Mesmerizing! Are there any words that can accurately convey to someone who has never seen this phenomenon what such an extravaganza of color looks like? Can you get them to experience the same thrill by simply telling them what you saw? No. They have to be there. So, there I stood that night, looking straight up at the sky, silenced by complete awe and wonder, and I did not move for thirty minutes. The light show from Heaven was like someone had opened up the night sky at the very top and had begun to pour brilliant liquid colors that swept down the sides, at once forming curtains of color, then morphing into sweeping rays of dazzling lights. Years went by, and those years turned into decades, yet I would never lose the desire to see this incredible phenomenon again. However, so many years had passed, that I began to think that it was a dream that would never come true. It would be more than half a century of missed opportunities before I finally said, “Long enough! Make it happen!” I began to do my research and found that the best place for me to see the Northern Lights would be Fairbanks, Alaska. I had picked the best time to go anywhere to see the Northern Lights, because we were entering what is called the Solar Maximum, a time when solar activity creates the highest level of coronal mass ejections, the phenomenon that causes the Northern Lights. Furthermore, this cycle takes twenty-two years to repeat itself. There are eleven years in which the solar activity descends until it reaches the lowest level of activity, called the Solar Minimum. At this point, the Northern Lights would become a rare phenomenon. Then, over the next eleven years, the solar activity begins to increase until it reaches the Solar Maximum again, a cycle of twenty-two years. Twenty-two years! I was not willing to wait that long. This HAD to be the year! I went to Alaska to see the Northern Lights, but what I found was so much more. They aptly call it “The Last Frontier.” Just as you cannot describe the Northern Lights, the same can be said for this magnificent State. A visit to experience the sheer vastness and raw beauty of Alaska should be on everybody’s list of things to do at least once in their lifetime, and I sincerely hope that this book will create a desire in you to take the adventure. I guarantee that you, too, will be inspired. Read more