Virtually every night for the next six months, the skies above Blachford Lake Lodge and Resort will erupt in shades of amethyst, emerald, gold, copper and crimson. Aurora borealis season has arrived, and this well-appointed fishing lodge near the roof of Canada is arguably the best place on earth to watch it. Ensconced in the wilderness outside Yellowknife — also home to diamond mines and the “ice road” of recent History Channel fame — Blachford sits on a strip of lakefront that is the very definition of remote. The nearest road ends 60 miles in the snow-blanketed distance, and when conditions become too treacherous to land a plane — as they will later this month until the middle of January — the resort has to put out the be back soon sign.
Reservations at the resort include being picked up from the Air Tindi Float Base in Yellowknife’s Old Town section and whisked into the wilderness via a 20-minute flight by float or ski plane. An experienced pilot can also charter a Cessna 185, de Havilland Single or Twin Otter — the workhorses of the Canadian hinterland — and chart his own private Imax show. After touching down, you’ll settle into one of the five bedrooms in the post-and-beam main lodge or five log cabins. Bear Grylls types can explore the surrounding terrain on cross-country skis or snowshoes, or ice-fish for walleye. Whether the fish are biting or not, the resort’s Red Seal–certified chef will later prepare a feast of local delicacies: poached Arctic char, pepper-crusted tenderloin of bison and savory wild-muskox prosciutto known as miphuzola.
Then, once the sun sets — as late as 8:30 p.m. in October and as early as 4 p.m. in January — it’s time for Mother Nature’s version of a laser-light spectacular. Formed by solar wind colliding with air molecules in the earth’s atmosphere, aurora borealis is at her best in pitch blackness. That’s why the long, dark nights of October, January, February, March and April make for such prime hallucinogenic viewing. November and December are good, too. But come then, you’ll likely be watching from behind the windshield of an 18-wheel semi. Compare that to right now, when you get to lean back, half-empty glass of 18-year-old Macallan in hand, from the lodge’s outdoor Jacuzzi.
Blachford Lake Lodge: 867-873-3303; blachfordlakelodge.com.
Air Tindi: 867-669-8260; airtindi.com.
