Borealis Basecamp - Northern Lights

Go to Fairbanks and stay at Pikes Lodge. Rent car at lodge and drive to Wickersham Dome or Chena State park to view lights. There are many other places to view aurora depending on conditions. We had to drive to Healy one night to find clear skies. Michael with Face the Outdoors is a wonderful aurora guide and professional photographer who can guide you to your best opportunity to see and photograph the lights.
If you go in March there is the world ice carving contest in Fairbanks, well worth the time.

If you go to Fairbanks, UAF has webcams and forecasts for lights. They are pretty helpful if you’re trying to see them on your own. Goldstream valley is a good place to watch. There’s a pull-off on bellaine road. UAF’s museum is pretty cool too if you’re already in town. For being a small remote school, the Geophysical institute does some incredible work.

Webcam
Forecast

Thank you to all that replied. Very much appreciated

We did a trip to Fairbanks in January. We ultimately chose to do an air bnb instead of the base camp experience.

The truth is…most of the time, the naked eye doesn’t see the northern lights, you see them through the pics you take and how the camera processes the lights. While a neat idea, the glass topped igloo style rooms would not give you the glowing green sky while laying in bed as you are probably imagining. Instead, most northern lights look like a hazy sky to the naked eye.

We got amazing pics…but looking out a window is no where near the same as what we see looking back in the pics. So I consider the igloos a bit gimicky. Part of the fun is watching the forecast and being out all night while driving to where you can see them the best.

We rented a car and found them ourselves, but also got amazing pics off the back deck from our air bnb in the mountains.

We went on an Alaskan Cruise last year and planned to fly into Anchorage a day early to do a Northen light excursion. It was canceled due to weather. Wife was so disappointed so I planned us a 12 day Iceland trip for this September. Renting a camper van and doing the ring road with a few incursions into some of the highlands. Hopefully she will get to see them at some point on our trip.