Epic Idaho Northern Lights | The Most Amazing Experience Ever
I’ve been wanting to write about my experience of the most epic Northern Lights here in Sandpoint, Idaho ever since it graced our sky on the night of May 10, 2024. I’m excited to finally be getting around to sharing my Northern Lights photos from that night as well as the somewhat entertaining story that goes along with it.
You see…my brother is a BIG weather buff. He graduated with a degree in Meteorology. So as you can probably imagine, he’s always made sure we had all the most up-to-date information growing up. The afternoon of May 10th, I get a text message from him saying, “Be on the lookout tonight,” with a screenshot of this Aurora Forecast radar map…
My response?
“Will do! Hopefully we have clear skies. That’s usually our problem.”
And it usually is a problem. Most other times I’ve heard of the Northern Lights being “visible” from North Idaho, I would stay up late until the skies got dark. But by the time it would be dark enough to see anything, the entire sky would be overcast and nothing could be seen.
I did, however, manage to capture a glimpse of color cast on the mountain range across from our house at the time. This was one of those supposed Northern Lights nights, but I’m not convinced.
The faint pink and green color casts on the mountain was as much of a tease I had ever seen since living in Idaho.
So when Dustan (my brother) reached out, yet again, to bring to my attention the possibility of seeing the Northern Lights, I was admittedly skeptical. I had serious doubts. So much so, that I had honestly nearly forgotten about checking that night.
It was around 10:30pm. I was ready for bed. My teeth were brushed and face was washed. I was moments away from a falling into bed for the night. As I was about to head upstairs to the bedroom, I happened to come across a Facebook post from a friend here. The caption to her photo was, “I heard that if you take a photo with your phone that you can see the colors better.” Lo and behold, her photos were showing very clear and vibrant colors sweeping across the sky. I immediately jumped up from the couch, opened up our back door, stepped out onto the deck and….
Nothing. I saw nothing. I saw this white streaky cloud-like thing across the sky. I could feel the disappointment starting to creep in. But I thought, “I’m just going to hold my phone up, take a long exposure shot (thank you, Apple) and see what happens.
I was not prepared for what happened next…
Like whaaaaaat?!
I was shocked. My heart immediately began to race with excitement, and I ran upstairs to wake Jon up and show him this photo on my phone.
The two of us walked out into our front yard. And again, at first glance, it didn’t really look like much was up there. White streaky clouds were streaming across the sky, but my eyes definitely could not make out any actual color.
But each time I lifted up my phone and took a photo…
The sky was constantly changed. The first 15 minutes we were outside, the colors has rapidly morphed from just a wispy blue and green sky to bold streaks of magenta, lime green, blue, purple, orange, and every color in between.
By this time, we had walked from our front yard to our neighbor’s wide open 20+ acre field. I sat myself down right in the middle of it all and watched as the Heavens unfolded with the most spectacular show my eyes have ever seen.
By 10:51pm, the sky was dramatically changing…and fast! To think that had I stepped out of the house 20 minutes later than I did, we could have missed the most intense part of this spectacular show!
Do you see the cross in the sky!?!?! I mean, seriously.
How can we not see God’s glory and beauty all around us? These photos give me chills every single time.
That was the Northern Lights, Night #1…
Of course, social media and our text chains with local friend groups were going wild that night and all day the following day. News reports were saying that there could be a second, equally amazing show the next night. I was determined to be better prepared this time.
I had an engagement session that night. We ended up getting home well after sunset, and I was worried that we would miss the “prime time” to view the Northern Lights. As soon as we pulled into our driveway at 9:34pm, I pointed my phone to the sky and snapped photo just to see what was going on.
It was faint, but it was something! I got super excited and rushed into the house to prepare all the things. Lawn chairs, blankets, my “big girl” camera, tripod, my phone and a tripod for it so I could try a Timelapse video, headlamps, snacks…we were ready.
We got all set up out in the middle of our neighbor’s field…and we waited…
…and waited…
Nothing seemed to be happening.
Sadly, no spectacular show happened again that night. And what’s even more sad, is that I felt a little disappointment. Haha. I had just seen God’s (the ultimate Artist) most amazing piece of artwork the night before, and was bummed not to be experiencing another round. I quickly shifted my way of thinking and just became even more grateful to have been fortunate enough to see what I saw the night before. Many people in our area missed it!
This was the last photo I ended up taking that night. We gave it a solid effort; staying out until 11:00pm.
Thank you so much for stopping by and enjoying my Idaho Northern Lights experience along with me as I reminisce about that epic night.
