Old Faithful Aurora

As the blue light of dusk faded to an obsidian black, I gathered my gear. Upon opening the door of my camper van and stepping into the night, coyotes broke the silence and began to sing. My headlamp pierced the dark, lighting up the paved walkway on my way to Old Faithful. Northern Lights, AKA Aurora Borealis, are not common in the lower 48 states, but 2023 has given us many opportunities to see them. On this night I was especially lucky. Even though I couldn’t see the Auroras with my own eyes, the camera could. That’s not unusual for the Northern Lights. Often the camera can see what your eyes cannot. As I reviewed the back of my camera, I felt frustrated thinking I was getting the lights of the town of Gardiner many miles off in the north. But upon further inspection, I was elated to find those lights were none other than the Aurora Borealis. Old Faithful did her job as she has for 15,000 years. The Auroras did theirs. And I was able to capture something I had never seen before, Old Faithful erupting beneath the Northern Lights.