ALASKA’S MIDNIGHT SUN

RV Life

The words “midnight” and “sun” don’t even sound like they go together. Surprisingly, they are used frequently up here in Alaska, referring to the long hours of daylight during the summer months. I really had no idea what that meant or looked like until we drove as far as the Yukon Territory in Canada. The farther north you go toward the arctic circle, mother nature treats you with more hours of daylight. We will definitely experience plenty of it when we fly up to Barrow the first week of August.
Sunrise and sunset in Skagway on June 21st, which was summer solstice.

I previously published this picture of the sun shining on the trees on the side of a mountain. It was taken around 9:30pm. Our campground was situated near a creek surrounded by mountains and the sun was going down on the opposite side of the valley.

Sun setting and shining on a mountain after 9pm in June.

During summer solstice, Barrow receives 24 hours of sunlight, Fairbanks falls just behind at 21 hours, followed by Anchorage with 19 hours of daylight. I have taken a few pictures at random times over the last several weeks.

You can walk around without a flashlight at 3:00am in Anchorage at the end of June. Notice the streetlight shining on the left.

My photos are not edited. Most were taken without a flash on my camera, and not with my phone. You can literally be outside any time of night and walk around without a problem. I wonder if that creates more work for police officers, or less work, in regards to burglaries and other crimes?

This picture was taken at 11pm in Anchorage in mid July.

It felt strange going to bed with so much light outside when we first arrived up here. Initially, we just forced ourselves to go to sleep at our normal bed time. I made custom blackout curtains for our bedroom before leaving Texas because we like to sleep in complete darkness. Unfortunately, even the blackout curtains can’t make the room totally dark.

Midnight in Anchorage in mid July. Even on a cloudy evening, the sky has a faint glow.

I am happy with more daylight, but I don’t think I could handle the opposite for more than a week. The winters here can be very dark. The numbers I quoted above would be the equivalent hours of darkness during winter solstice. Yikes!