Aurora Borealis above the Brooks Range in Alaska, USA

© Noppawat Tom Charoensinphon/Getty Image

The light fantastic. Aurora borealis

You don't have to go all the way to US state of Alaska to see the Northern Lights, but the further north, the better: auroras are more frequent and intense the closer you are to the North Pole. This intense Aurora Borealis was captured over the Brooks Range, the stretch of mountains that forms the North Slope region of Alaska. Travel hundreds of lonely miles north on the 414-mile Dalton Highway and you'll descend into a vast coastal plain before finally reaching the Beaufort Sea coast, where nothing but icy water lies between you and the North Pole.