The northern lights are most often associated with Scandinavia’s vast winter skies, but the aurora has a far wider reach than many travelers realize. In the right conditions, you can catch its glow far beyond the Arctic Circle — even in pockets of the United States where the nights are dark, quiet and unexpectedly electric. Sorry, Sven and Sonja — your icy realm doesn’t get all the glory. Maine, Wisconsin and even Idaho (and no, that’s not a typo for Idala, Sweden) can deliver aurora shows every bit as jaw-dropping, no frozen fjord or woolen long johns required.
Here’s where to see the northern lights from September through March (peak season!) and catch the sky’s prettiest plasmatic party on the DL without needing a passport. Note: While these stateside places are heavily hyped on socials, according to data compiled by (ironically enough) Icelandair, your borealage may vary.
Idaho
Northern lights shimmering over Boise, Idaho. (christiannafzger via Getty Images)
See all of those thousands of eyes peeping up to the sky? No, not on the potatoes — the human ones! In the Gem State’s Panhandle National Forests (a combo of the big three: Kaniksu, Coeur d’Alene and St. Joe) you can have your moose and bobcat sightings while taking in the aurora too. The area’s best is around half-a-mile-elevated Priest Lake, which will aptly leave you hot under the collar for all of those aerial acrobatics.
Stay: Pitch in for a camp-happy spot from a list of nearby options “open to the public all year except when extreme conditions threaten” at fs.usda.gov.
New York
The northern lights peek through the starry sky above the Adirondack Mountains. (Karen Timmons via Getty Images)
While there’s tons to see in the Big Apple, the city that never sleeps also never gets dark enough to spot the northern lights. Luckily, the Adirondacks are only a five-hour drive away, and at the range’s Sky Center & Observatory, the skies are crisp and clear enough for a real auroral show. Nighttime roof access works on a case-by-case basis — it’s all about whether an astronomer is on site and if the skies are clear enough to make it worthwhile. To avoid a wasted trip, they recommend calling the day of (or night before) or signing up for their email list to keep tabs on nighttime viewings.
Stay: Trailhead by Weekender offers mountain-framed rooms just minutes from the observatory — and it also sits near a charming old-school bowling alley, if you’re inclined to trade skywatching for strikes. Rooms start at around $120 per night.
Michigan
Northern lights over Manistique Lake, Michigan. (Adrian Oarga via Getty Images)
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula doesn’t just dabble in aurora color — it delivers the full palette, especially along aptly named Lake Superior. Brockway Mountain, Miners Castle, the turnouts from Munising to Marquette, Breakers Beach and Eagle Harbor Lighthouse are among the best places to watch the northern lights show off above Superior’s wide-open skies.
Stay: Tour a turret! Enjoy a princely lakeside stay and then some along Allouez’s Seven Mile Point Road at Keweenaw Castle Resort, which boasts just four majestic suites. Rates start from $175 a night.
South Dakota
Silhouette group standing under the aurora borealis. (sarote pruksachat via Getty Images)
Come for the granite visages of the Founding Fathers, stay for the sky show they could’ve never imagined. Badlands National Park is the real aurora star here — a 244,000-acre sweeping spectacle of canyons, fossil beds, spires and bighorn sheep that turns downright otherworldly after dark. When night falls, head to the Cedar Pass Amphitheater, where astronomy volunteers host 30- to 45-minute stargazing sessions, telescopes at the ready.
Stay: Say what you will about nearby, ironically named Rapid City, but it has chutzpah: Officials once invited Al Capone to relocate there. (He politely declined.) Plan B: You! Live like an even bigger gangster at the nearly century-old, “historically hip” Hotel Alex Johnson, a proud member of the Curio Collection by Hilton. Rates start from $128 per night.
Wisconsin
The northern lights over Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula region. (Kidril Durbin / 500px via Getty Images)
Lactose intolerant? No matter, you still have a reason to visit America’s Dairyland: its northern lights. Head to the tip of Door Peninsula and into 2,373-acre Newport State Park, Wisconsin’s only designated wilderness park and home to a certified Dark Sky Park. It’s one of just 18 in the country (and only two in the Midwest), making it a prime place for aurora spotting.
Stay: The former Hillside Inn has been renamed and rebooted as The Ellison, with a renovation that nods to its midcentury-modern roots. It’s just four miles southwest of the park, tucked along the eponymously named bay. Grab a cozy, contempo, beach-adjacent room from $190 a night.
Oregon
Aurora over the Owyhee Canyonlands, Oregon. (Doug Michaels via Getty Images)
With a city as buzzy as Portland, it’s easy to forget Oregon has a front-row seat to some of the darkest skies on Earth. Look toward the Oregon Outback International Dark Sky Sanctuary — a vast stretch of high desert across Lake, Klamath, Harney and Malheur counties — and you’ll find conditions ideal for northern lights viewing. Spread across millions of acres, it’s one of the world’s premier places to catch the aurora in true darkness.
Stay: Whether the apple of your eye flutters or flickers, the 8-acre, sauna-equipped Summer Lake’s Stargaze Inn opens its arms to both birders and aurora-chasers alike. Rooms start at $250 per night.
Maine
The northern lights look stunning above South Portland’s tiny Bug Light lighthouse. (Cynthia Farr-Weinfeld via Getty Images)
Pining for something luminous? Maine’s forested skyline is one of the best backdrops in the country for the northern lights. As the country’s northeastern edge has impressively low light pollution, it offers some of the best odds of catching the colorful spectacle. If you wanted another Dark Sky Sanctuary, you got one inside Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument.
Stay: Set on the placid shores of Upper Shin Pond, Mt. Chase Lodge offers year-round accommodations on the water, with easy access to the northern entrance of the park. While the cottages put the kibosh on all things Wi-Fi, the main lodge lets its bandwidth run as wild as those nearby river otters with the zoomies (from $125 per night).