In the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, a hero named Theseus volunteers to enter a creepy Labyrinth to kill the Minotaur, a half-man, half-bull monster kept by King Minos, who demanded regular human sacrifices from Athens. With the help of Minos’ daughter, Ariadne, Theseus sneaks in, defeats the Minotaur, and escapes the maze.
Despite being only vaguely aware of the myth, and previously unaware of the sister lakes Minotaur and Theseus, I jumped on the opportunity to hunt for the aurora again. Both lakes’ photogenic views point north and seemed like great spots to set up a nighttime photo. Better yet, the hike in was just under 2 miles, meaning I didn’t have to spend hours hiking back to the car by headlamp.
While the hike is short, though, it is steep (“a real ass-kicker” was the term I actually used). I’ve hiked two volcanoes this summer, so I figured it would be a piece of cake. It hurt. Oh well.
Despite hustling out to potentially catch sunset at the lake, I did only get to Minotaur with the last light of the day casting Rock Mountain and Howard Mountain to the south. I scouted out potential compositions while I waited for nightfall.
About 10 minutes later, the aurora finally showed up.
At first it appeared as white streaks above the northeastern horizon, stabbing out toward the stars. Eventually the color set in, pink coming from the north with a green band above.
For the first time (it was my third time catching the lights) I understood what people meant when they said the lights “danced,” as the green bands above rippled gently. I tried my hand at a timelapse, hoping to capture the motion.
Back at Minotaur, I tried to set up a more conventional landscape image, with a foreground element and a background (Labyrinth), and the lights above. Here you can see the pinks in sky directly to the north.
All images shot on a Sony A7iv with the 16-35 f2.8 GM I lens.