Eeyou istchee james bay: the best northern lights guide

The northern lights are an amazing sight to see. They dance in the sky, form big pillars of colors and, you have the milky way as a background. In this northern lights guide, I will tell you everything you need to know to witness them in the most wonderful environment possible, in the eeyou istchee james bay. This blog post contains affiliate links. When you make a purchase, I may get a small commission at no extra cost to you. Find out more here.

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About the eeyou istchee james bay region

The eyyou istchee region goes from the 49th parallel to the 55th parallel. It a land full of wild landscapes and adventures. It is home to indigenous communities, the Cree nations. They protect their land and they exploit the people’s land in a durable way, for the future generations to enjoy. If you visit the visitor center of the different city you visit, you can participate in a variety of activities offer by the first nations. You can try many things, like fishing brook trout or lake trout, kayaking, hunting, cooking and even arts and crafts. You’ll get to learn about the Cree culture along the way. 

You’ll get to see the boreal forest with your own eyes. The view is simply breath taking.  Rivers and lakes are around every corners and the vast terrain offer a multitudes of unique hiking trails. If you are into wild plant foraging, Labrador tea leaves and the best blueberries of your life are everywhere!!

I actually picked my winter ration of Labrador tea leaves for at least a year. Plus, I had blueberries for a couple of breakfast while I was traveling. But beside that, you can visit hydroelectric stations. I think that one that should not be missed is the LG-2 dam. The view from the Robert-Bourrassa Lookout is stunning and you can drive across the bridge for another viewpoint. 

Where to watch? 

Which region to choose?

The northern lights can be watch with higher probability in the Quebec city than in the Montreal region. If you want to take it up a notch and really stack all the odds in your favor, the best place are the côte-nord region and the eeyou istchee baie-james region.

Since, these regions are at a higher latitude, the auroras are visible in the sky often and they all have pretty amazing landscapes. But, if you want to get out of your comfort zone and experience something really different I highly suggest that you go for the polar bears territory and go to James bay. 

What is the best place in Eeyou Istchee James Bay ?

I found the perfect spot for this experience and I’m gonna share it with you! In Chisasibi, there is a rest area. You can check it on google maps, it’s the only one there. Before you pitch your tent or park your van, be mindful of the cree communities living in this city.

Therefore, go to the visitor center and ask to sleep at this rest area. It’s a way to let them know where your are and also, they can tell you the safest place to stay. Since, the eeyou first nation still live of a good part of the natural resources available in their traditional territory, you might find yourself getting into a trapping grounds. It’s better to stay safe.

How is the rest area ?

For the spot in itself, you are right beside the James Bay and to view extend to the Hudson Bay. You should go near the pebble beach and pitch your tent near the tall grass. This way, you’ll be sleeping with the sound of the waves and if other people come to spend the night at the rest area, you’ll have a little bit more privacy. Let me tell you, the sunset and sunrise are delightful, you won’t regret it. 

When I went to Eeyou Istchee James Bay in September, it happen to be canada geese’s hunting season. We met community members of Chisasibi and they told every members of their party where we where located so that everyone stayed safe. We had the chance to have a really good conversation with one of the man and he told us everything about the cree perspectives and how they tend to their land for the sake of the future generations. It was an amazing moment. 

FYI, you will only have access to a picnic table and a roofed observation platform. Everything else you think you might need, you have to bring it with you.  

How to plan ahead? 

When to visit Eeyou Istchee James Bay?

The best way for you to have a memorable experience is to go in September. First of all, you’ll find that there is A LOOOOTT less flies around to annoy you and if you’ve never been to this part of Quebec, let me tell you it is a great win. The flies are ferocious in this part of the world!!

Second, it’s the time of the year where the solar activity is at it’s peak, while the temperature is not too low. It can get cold at night, so be prepared, but in the day time it’s nothing a down jacket can’t handle. With the climate change, it can get a little bit warmer than usual at this time of the year, but at night you can get close to 0 degree Celsius.

How to get to Eeyou Istchee James Bay?

Next, if you want to plan you’re route, you can visit the eeyou istchee james bay regional government website. You can find all the latest news about the closed roads. Plus, you can visit my guides section for all the gas station on the way there. It’s a must, because you really don’t want to have an empty tank. The gas station can be hundreds of kilometers apart and the cell service is only available in cities like Radisson. Between that, you’re on your own.

Also, if you have a 4×4 car and are willing to put thousands of km mileage on it, your good to go. If not, you should rent I car with unlimited km, like I did. You will go through a lot of dirt road and even roads with tall grass growing in the middle. I was able to get one at around 500$ for 9 days of location and it was, by far, the best decision I made in this trip. I would totally got stuck a lot of time if I took my small car as I was first planning.  

How to predict the northern lights ?

For the Northern lights experience in Eeyou Istchee James Bay, to plan my days and my nights, I used My Aurora Forecast & Alerts app. This app will use climate models to calculate the upcoming events of aurora borealis at your current location. You can also put your location of choice in the app and it will tell you everything you need to expect for the next following days. The features that I mostly used were the kp-index, the clouds map and the probability tab. 

For the kp-index, they are reliable up to three days in advance. It indicates the solar activity. The higher the value, the higher are your chances of seeing northern lights. At Chisasibi, a good index is at least at a value of 5.

Additionally, you can access the cloud map if you click on the aurora map and there will be a cloud sign at the bottom. It was useful to have an idea if clouds might be coming in my way during the night. As for the probability tab, it gives you the prevision for the next 30 minutes, considering the value of the kp-index and the clouds coverage. You’ll then have everything you need to plan your nights accordingly. 

What to expect?

How to prepare for the unexpected ?

The Northern lights are a bit unpredictable. Even if there are a lot of applications and tools available to help, you need to be aware that it’s only a probability. So, even if the chances seems really high in a couples of days before, the predictions are only reliable two or three days in advance. My advice to you would be to plan a couples of days in the eeyou istchee james bay territory. That way, if the sky gets cloudy unexpectedly or if you get two days out of three of rain,  like we had, you still have another day to witness them. 

What about the colors ?

What I would have loved to know before hand, is that northern lights do not ALWAYYYS look as the ones in the movies. Of course, they can be green, red or even purple. But, they can also be white when they are of low intensity. In this case, auroras looked a little bit like clouds.  At first, they were dancing in the sky, but not as much as when it got to a higher intensity.

Then, when the show got to it’s maximum, I saw the big pillars of lights forming and it was dancing a lot more. After seeing this, I put my camera in front of it and saw all the colors light up. So, if you do a road trip to eeyou istchee baie-james for this experience, take the time to analyze the sky around you and if you are not sure, just take a picture and you will know for sure. 

While auroras are a little bit hard to predict and that they may vary in colors, this was an experience that I would gladly do again. If, you’re not sure, just take the leap and visit the nord-du-québec region. You won’t regret it. You’ll get to experience the cree culture, camp with an amazing view of the hudson bay, see a ton of wild animals and enjoy the beauty of the boreal forest.

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