{"id":929606,"date":"2026-10-12T00:32:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T00:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/929606\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T00:32:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T00:32:21","slug":"5-of-the-best-places-in-canada-to-see-rare-pink-northern-lights-this-year-daily-hive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/929606\/","title":{"rendered":"5 of the best places in Canada to see rare pink Northern Lights this year | Daily Hive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Northern Lights could turn pink this year, and the best place to see them is in Canada.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re so used to seeing shades of green and blue, but a pink-filled sky is quite rare. However, it turns out that 2026 is one of the best years in the past decade to spot the bubblegum hue.<\/p>\n<p>The rare colour appears when energetic particles penetrate deeper into the atmosphere and interact with nitrogen molecules, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.asc-csa.gc.ca\/eng\/astronomy\/northern-lights\/colours-of-northern-lights.asp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Canadian Space Agency<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Luckily for us, Canada has plenty of prime spots to try and catch the pink sky this year.<\/p>\n<p>New research from Nordic airline <a href=\"https:\/\/www.icelandair.com\/en-ca\/vacations\/northern-lights\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Icelandair<\/a> compared 35 aurora-viewing destinations across eight countries, looking at factors like darkness, accessibility, likelihood, scenery, and the vividness of pink auroras captured at each location.<\/p>\n<p>And Canada scored well.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dailyhive.com\/calgary\/alberta-lake-named-best-world-maligne\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Maligne Lake in Jasper, Alta.,<\/a> has been crowned the best place in the world to see the pink Northern Lights in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>According to Icelandair, aurora displays analyzed at Maligne Lake showed \u201ca dominant vivid rose-pink.\u201d The location also has a low Bortle rating of 3.2, meaning darker skies that can make the aurora\u2019s colours and details easier to see against the night sky.<\/p>\n<p>The surrounding mountains and Spirit Island also create prime conditions for aurora photography. And unlike many remote viewing locations, Maligne Lake is accessible by road and is relatively easy to reach from Jasper\u2019s main resort area.<\/p>\n<p>Within Canada, top spots include locations in Alberta, the Yukon, and Manitoba.<\/p>\n<p>Prelude Lake near Yellowknife was ranked as the second-best spot to<a href=\"https:\/\/dailyhive.com\/canada\/aurora-admin-text-northern-lights\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> view the pink Northern Lights<\/a>, with the likelihood of seeing them described as \u201cvery high\u201d from September through April.<\/p>\n<p>That compares with Maligne Lake, which, despite taking the top spot overall, has a \u201cmedium\u201d likelihood of seeing the aurora according to Icelandair\u2019s data.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/mail.google.com\/mail\/u\/1?ui=2&amp;ik=d328fae0ae&amp;attid=0.2&amp;permmsgid=msg-f:1878301774678662610&amp;th=1a1111832cb51dd2&amp;view=fimg&amp;fur=ip&amp;permmsgid=msg-f:1878301774678662610&amp;sz=s0-l75-ft&amp;attbid=ANGjdJ_0vgVN1tHUTaHdq-2mQ7Dmmir7wmkcjlV4K8YWbJegDLCU7Qm-sCmlWgya3vDoKmKRNeweUrNhWDHSJUTtS5zLPjTF2ooMJVuC9KgCYGuOvAuYS7kKZ733Pm8&amp;disp=emb&amp;zw\" alt=\"5 best places in Canada to see pink Northern Lights\" title=\"\" class=\"\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1638\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Icelandair<\/p>\n<p>While the best seasons for seeing the pink Northern Lights generally run from September to April in some locations, the viewing window can vary depending on where you are.<\/p>\n<p>At Wood Buffalo National Park, on the border of Alberta and the Northwest Territories, the best time to see them may be during the winter months starting in December.<\/p>\n<p>You don\u2019t necessarily need a fancy Nikon or Canon to capture the pink lights. If all you\u2019ve got is an iPhone, you can still <a href=\"https:\/\/dailyhive.com\/canada\/phenomenal-canadians-share-dazzling-photos-as-northern-lights\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wow friends online with stunning photos<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Experts recommend enabling the maximum exposure, turning off the flash, and adjusting the exposure level to a negative value in order to get the best results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Northern Lights could turn pink this year, and the best place to see them is in Canada.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":929607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-929606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=929606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/929607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=929606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=929606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=929606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}