Join fellow Geo-Survivors to celebrate Winter Solstice on the shores of Lake Spenard.
It's a brief gathering from 12:30pm to 1:00pm because there isn’t much daylight today!
Winter Solstice 2022 will be at 12:47 PM on Wednesday, December 21 - Alaska Time.
Please now suffer through the following, right to the most important last paragraph!
With so many aircraft around here, sometimes sunset can look like a Stonehenge experience!
Once known as Jeter Lake (until renamed for Joe Spenard following his epic party at
this very spot in 1916), this location has seen organized revelry for literally generations.
The locally-renowned unpublished “Revelatio Hibernal Solstitium” (not even found on Google!) (well, sort of not found, actually) in fact claims the Spenard Vortex can be found here, spewing forth gifts to lucky visitors. Make arrangements in your day to show up here at 12:30pm on Wednesday December 21st to see if you’re a lucky (well, maybe lucky) recipient of stuff to be spewn from the Spenard Vortex!
Dress to be outside, and know that it's usually kinda breezy here!
Hibernal Solstice Historical Note: Exactly a decade ago at this very time and location, the infamous GC426MJ Post - Apocalyptic Hibernal Solstice Gathering was held, to celebrate surviving the Mayan End of World Experience. Thirty or so geocachers had a blast - and there's a lot of photos in those 'attended' logs to prove it! Interesting today to see how young we all looked ten years ago.... Anyway, you may find yourself to be a lucky survivor of yet another kind of ‘end of world experience’ – you know what I’m talking about – and this year’s Hibernal Solstice Gathering may have a similar significance for you!
In addition to being the day where the sun only shows its face for 5 hours and 27 minutes, we must ride out the consequences of whatever weird weather system has blown into the Anchorage area. Imagine – this may be the very day when a new record snowfall occurs, or a record high temperature streak attempts to melt away the record precipitation we’ve experienced thus far! Or, we may find ourselves shivering inside our geo-vehicles, reluctant to get outside in what might possibly be record subzero temperatures! Who can know what the 18 hours and 33 minutes of darkness will bring us on the night before Winter Solstice – in Spenard, no less! Counselors will be on hand to assist those who can’t cope with the concept of seemingly eternal darkness, and we remind you open containers of alcohol aren’t allowed in Muni of Anchorage Parks (regardless of the minutely possible imminence of the so-called End of the World,
or the fact that this park is indeed in Spenard...)
The Spenard Vortex creates great Sunset viewing opportunities here at high noon...
Seriously now, Welcome to the Hibernal Solstice...
that day when Anchoragites see the least amount of sunshine and experience the longest night of the year. Thanks to the 23º tilt of the Earth's axis, areas north of the Arctic Circle go without sunshine through the entire depth of winter. We're fortunate here in Anchorage - we still get over 5 hours a day of sunlight during mid-winter! By Christmas Day we'll have gained several more minutes of daylight, and by March you'll really notice day by day how much longer it's light outside. In fact, come mid-summer you'll see cheechakos putting tinfoil on their windows because they couldn't sleep in the constant sunlight! (Thus, another great reason to become a Sourdough Member of GeocacheAlaska!, Inc. - because for just $20 you get a trackable nametag, plus you're equipped to deal with all-day / all night light! See other benefits by clicking on the link below.)
Go ahead... Click the Image to learn more!