Some videos take weeks of planning. This one took a bonfire and dumb luck. We were in Mackinaw City for a relaxed weekend, sitting by a fire on the shoreline with the Mackinac Bridge lit up across the water, when the sky started doing something the sky in Michigan does not usually do. Within an hour we were standing on the beach with our necks craned back, watching the aurora borealis roll directly over the bridge.
The bonfire that got upstaged
The plan for the evening was simple: fire, chairs, snacks, watch the bridge lights, go to bed. Mackinaw City is good for exactly that kind of night. The town sits right at the Straits of Mackinac, and from the shore you get the whole five-mile span of the bridge glowing against the dark. That alone is worth the drive. Then the first streaks of color showed up overhead and the fire spent the rest of the night burning for nobody.
The storm that lit up half the country
We found out later how lucky our timing was. That weekend in May 2024, a severe geomagnetic storm, the strongest to hit Earth in about two decades, pushed the northern lights way farther south than normal. People were photographing aurora from places that never see it. We just happened to already be parked at one of the best foregrounds in the Midwest when it hit. Standing under it, the color was obvious to the naked eye: greens low on the horizon, pinks and purples straight overhead, and it moved. Photos make the aurora look like a still painting. In person it ripples.
Watching it over the bridge
The Mackinac Bridge made the whole thing feel staged, in the best way. Aurora shots usually need a lone tree or a cabin for scale. We had a five-mile suspension bridge, lights on, with the sky pulsing behind it. We shot until the cold off the water won, warmed up, and went back out again. Neither of us had seen the northern lights before. Seeing them for the first time over the Straits of Mackinac sets an unfair standard for every aurora we might catch after this.
If you want to catch them in Michigan
A few things we learned by accident. First, northern Michigan is legitimately good aurora territory when a storm hits, and the shoreline matters: you want open sky to the north over water, which is exactly what Mackinaw City gives you. Second, check the space weather forecast before a trip, because the difference between us and everyone who missed it was nothing but timing. Third, let your eyes adjust. Away from the fire and the phone screen, the display got dramatically better. The camera sees more color than you do, but what you see with adjusted eyes is the part you will remember.
The full display, bridge and all, is in the video. Watch it on YouTube. We also send a short weekly newsletter about where we are and what broke this week. The signup form is on our newsletter page.