A change of plans... Muncho Lake & Stone Mtn. More fire and more light

Just when you think it can't get any better.....

Stuff comes along that just blows your socks off even more!

That is the essence of the past couple of days

What a ride it has been.

I've always been a planner.

We would go here, here and there, in the time allotted and then move on to the next stop.

Now that we are full time however - I've had the luxury of changing gears....

Going where our mood points us.

No schedule....

Just a rough plan... written in pencil.

With that in mind - we changed gears.

Our plan was to head South down the Cassiar Highway but other opportunities arose,

and instead we decided to continue south on the Alaska Highway.

Leaving Teslin Yukon, the metal decked bridge is always a treat!

Heading past the Liard Hotsprings area - there are always Bison about.

We arrived back at Muncho Lake.

The campground was empty and we had our pick of campsites.

Chairs with a view on Muncho Lake BC.

We spent several nights here.

Fellow Full-timers Doug & Pat who we met in Whitehorse popped in

to say hello.   

They liked Muncho so much that they decided to move from Liard to Muncho so we spent

some time with them here in these beautiful surroundings.

A view of our site from the waters edge.

I wonder if the Dogs realize how good they have it.

Do they appreciate the view?

The clean fresh air?

Or is it all about the bones?

Time for a self inflicted hair cut.

Then a swim in the brisk clear water.

My Infrared temperature gun said the water was about 47°

After a few days we hit the road.

About 30 min into our drive we came up behind our friends...

Doug & Pat!

Climbing up into the Rockies and the Continental Divide on the Alaska Highway.

 At the top of the pass.... about 4.000 feet - lies Summit Lake in Stone Mtn Provincial Park.

Our destination for the night.

The colors were beautiful and the weather brisk and fall like.

When we stopped here in May the lake was still frozen.

Now we are at the other end of the cycle.

The view from our front window.

That night we were treated to more of the Northern Lights.

Our perch here at Summit Lake was perhaps the best place to view them.

This time I broke out my point and shoot Cannon and tried to capture them.

Northern Lights Summit Lake, BC

 This was my first attempt to try and capture anything like this.

Northern Lights Summit Lake, BC

 I used a 15 second exposure and let the aperture float on automatic.

Northern Lights Summit Lake, BC

Its hard to describe what it was like.

It turned out this was one of the most intense solar storms in a long time.

Visible as far south a Arkansas, and stopping traffic in Scandanavia....

And here we were in the Rockies of far north BC in clear cool air!

The lights were constantly in motion.

Sometimes flickering like a flame...

Growing rapidly - then dimming.

Changing colors from green to blue to red.....

Shooting across the sky at times...

A line across the sky with balls of light shooting along that line like a cosmic ray gun.

Other times it was like lightening.... branching out and filling the sky with light and color.

I've seen some pretty cool stuff in my years....

This was in the top 5.

Our plan in delaying our trip south was to allow night to return to the north country and

hopefully catch the Northern Lights.

We can say mission accomplished big time!

We are now just east of Jasper Alberta.

We've been off the grid for a few days and work has piled up....

I need a  few days here to get caught of on over a hundred emails from work,

then...

we'll head south to Banff along the Icefield Parkway 

and meet up with friends Rob & Pat in Banff.

Glacier National Park, Seattle, Oregon

are on the list after we return to the states on Sept 28th.