Aurora over Loess Hills

Despite still recovering from the last disappointing South Dakota trip, and a trip to Chicago looming, the forecast for aurora on Thursday was too good to pass up. I was initially considering going back to northern Missouri, but for an extra hour or so of dive time, I could get to the Loess Hills again, further into where it was forecast to be visible, and up on a nice bluff above the Missouri River valley with a northern view. I put in PTO for the next day, and left home a bit after 2, heading towards Omaha, well technically Council Bluffs, since that's where I booked a hotel.

One slight difference with this trip compared the the previous few was I-29 being closed around St. Joseph, and being rerouted on 229. This took me along the river in St. Joseph, where 229 is for some reason stacked.

About 3 hours after leaving, I checked into my hotel in Council Bluffs, shuffled stuff from my backpack into my camera bag, and got back on the road for almost another hour, back to the overlook I had hiked around before back in September. Unsurprisingly, I wasn't the only one with that idea, and there were a couple cars already there, and up on the overlook there was someone else with camera equipment set up, and at least one family.

I staked out a spot near the edge of the bluff (well it was more a steep hill, either way, would have been unpleasant to go down quickly) and set up for the evening. And around 8:30 things picked up, and continued pretty well for over the next hour.

The most surprising thing was looking up and seeing aurora, as well as looking towards the southwest. I went north for a better chance to see them, I was not expecting to be under them.