Total Solar Eclipse
Boston → Niagara → St Louis → Lake of the Ozarks → totality
The August 21 2017 total solar eclipse cut a path of totality across the central US. I planned a six-day road trip to chase it.
Started in Niagara Falls Ontario, drove south through the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, ended up at the Lake of the Ozarks for the eclipse itself. Spent the night in Friedenswald, a religious retreat center in the woods, because every hotel room within driving distance of the path of totality had been booked for years.
Totality is unlike anything else. Two minutes of dusk in the middle of a summer afternoon, the sun replaced by a black disc rimmed in white light, planets visible in the sky, the temperature dropping noticeably, the birds going silent. The two minutes was over before my brain caught up to what was happening.
I went chasing again in April 2024 for the next one.
Highlights