Avventura invernale in volo sul circolo polare artico - direzione sud

I took the fly up/drive back tour to the Arctic Circle on 17 Jan 2018 with the Northern Alaskan Tour Company. I must say this tour has a lot of moving parts and this company has it flowing pretty smoothly. Everything went on time, flights, drives and transfers. We got a safety briefing at the airport and split into groups for the plane ride. 2 planes were leaving at the same time Fairbanks and Cold foot were having nice weather above 0 degrees so the flight was nice and scenery was beautiful. We all wore headsets and the pilot Ken talked most of the way up giving tips and info of the areas. The ride was about an hour but did not feel that long. We hit some mountain waves when we got close to Cold foot which pushed the plane around a bit but the pilot slowed down and that stopped. Landed in Cold Foot with no issues. We loaded into a van with our driver who would take up down to the circle we stopped at the pipeline for some pictures and then to Cold Foot camp for some lunch. you can fill out the form at the airport for what you would like to eat but can also order on the spot They have bathrooms and a gift shop. Nice little restaurant. Took about 2 hours to get to the circle we stopped once along the route as the sun was setting to get in some pictures. We got to the circle and took a bunch of pictures at the sign and received out certificates. Obviously it was dark and the vehicles lit up the sign so it was tough to take it all in but it felt like an achievement and glad I did it. We then switched over to a large coach and new driver. We had a long ride back but we looked for the Aurora and stopped a couple of times for pictures, while it was about a 3 on the scale it was not as vibrant as I thought it would be, I took pictures with a GoPro in night lapse and got a few good pictures that looked better than what I saw with the naked eye, go figure. We stopped at the Yukon River where there a restaurant for dinner. We walked down to the River walked around on it to say we did not a lot to see in the dark, we had lanterns and there was a light from the bridge nearby. There was also a trading post run by a mother and son who were characters, bought some postcards from them. Back on the coach and the ride to Joy was long but the drive told stories and played a video on the bus about local natives. At Joy we swapped out to a van for the last hour or so ride back to Fairbanks. Some people stayed behind to continue to watch for lights at the camp. The driver drove us all to our hotels in Fairbanks around 1 am. for a total 12 hour day. Remember to tip your drivers they have a long day Overall this trip is amazing while the ride back is long in the dark seeing the lights for a bit was worth it. The company runs a great tour and would recommend this to anyone.