While Alaska is a popular dream destination in the summer, it gets little respect in the winter. The frigid temperatures, lack of light, and heavy snow scare off most people. However, that’s the exact reason why I thought Fairbanks Alaska would be the perfect place to go for a winter adventure – I wanted to […]
I looked around the Two Rivers post office wondering what it was like to live in such a small community in Alaska. In this tiny little ‘rest stop’ along the Chena Hot Spring Road, the post office and the general store were attached to each other and seemed to be the hot spot of the […]
I see the big yellow engine against the scenic winter backdrop pulling into the flagstop. The whistle blows and immediately I can feel my excitement build. The steel wheels are frosted over and look bitter cold as they creak and roll past me on the track. It sort of felt like a winter scene out […]
Every time I return from a trip, put the key in my doorknob, and open the door – a feeling of relief washes over me. I’m home. I can unpack and put my stuff back in its place, and kick my feet up on the couch and enjoy the process of having my own place […]
Northern lights photography is not like other night photography; it has challenges that go way beyond normal night photography challenges – namely…the cold! You only get northern lights in the winter when you have those gorgeous dark skies, so that means you are going to be waiting out in the cold for the perfect shot […]
I was surprised that many people don’t even have Alaska on their radar for Northern lights trips! Go do a search and you’ll be inundated with Iceland and Norway, but Alaska is a bit of an outlier. And you know what that means? It’s the perfect place to plan your northern lights trip because it’s […]
Until I went to Fairbanks Alaska I thought the northern lights were all just hype. No – I haven’t joined a Flat Earth Society or decided Global Warming is a hoax, I just didn’t know if I fully believed in the northern lights. I had good reason to doubt them. Often the Aurora Isn’t What […]
I went to Fairbanks Alaska in the heart of winter and lived to tell the tale. Ok, so maybe it’s not quite that dramatic, but the fact is most people are scared of Alaska in the winter, especially the interior where the temperatures dip below 0 most nights and you have to plug in your […]
Sometimes you don’t have to go far to experience culture shock. I first heard the term Cowboy Poetry in the tiny town of McCarthy, Alaska. I had struck up a conversation with a young woman about travel and she told me about the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko as a festival that I “must […]
In an effort to bring you some new voices on Ottsworld, here is a guest post from a fellow blogger and Portland Oregon resident Susan Stephens. She had laid out a perfect weekend itinerary for her home town of Portland! All opinions and experiences expressed here are hers. –Sherry Portland, Oregon is a collection of […]