Cleary Summit Aurora

About this spectacle

Cleary Summit, rising along the Steese Highway northeast of Fairbanks, Alaska, offers one of the most accessible aurora-watching perches in the Interior. On clear winter nights the sky erupts in curtains and ribbons of green, occasionally violet and crimson, arcing from horizon to horizon against a backdrop of boreal spruce silhouetted below. The elevation lifts you above valley fog that can obscure auroras from Fairbanks itself, giving a wider, cleaner view of the magnetic sky. Temperatures regularly plunge well below -20°F, so layering is essential, but the trade-off is an immersive silence broken only by the crunch of snow underfoot. The summit is reachable by road, so visitors can watch from a vehicle with the engine running for warmth, then step outside when the display intensifies. Activity peaks during geomagnetic storms and is strongest around the equinoxes. The long subarctic winter nights from September through March provide ample darkness for extended viewing sessions.

When to go

Sep — Apr, peak Sep — Mar

Getting there

Nearest airport: FAI. Nearest city: Fairbanks.

Booking options

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