Why Maplequarry exists

Most aurora content answers the wrong question first. It leads with a destination, then mentions the season almost as an afterthought — when for most travellers, timing is actually the bigger lever than location. Two people can visit the exact same viewpoint in Yellowknife and have completely different trips depending on whether they picked December or June.

Maplequarry starts from the opposite direction: pick a region you’re already considering, and a month you’re already weighing, and see the actual factors — darkness, geomagnetic positioning, typical sky clarity — laid out with the math shown, not hidden behind a single vague star rating.

What Maplequarry is not

It is not a live weather or aurora forecast, not a booking platform, and not affiliated with any tour operator, airline, or government tourism board. It doesn’t sell anything. The Maplequarry score is an illustrative, seasonal estimate built from publicly known daylight and geomagnetic patterns — read the full method on how it works, and see our Terms of Use for the full disclaimer.

The hotel catalogue

Alongside the guide, Maplequarry keeps a catalogue of 1,000 hotels across Canada, with photos, facilities, rooms, location and contact details, so you can pick a place to sleep once you have picked a region and a month. Hotels in northern-lights country are marked with their own filter. Descriptions and photos come from the Hotelbeds hotel catalogue and can be out of date; we do not take bookings, show live prices or accept payment to list or rank a hotel. When a hotel has a website of its own in our data, the button on its page links there.

Corrections and feedback

If something on this site is out of date or you think a figure needs a second look, let us know.