Unpredictable and incomparable, like magic curtains fluttering in the solar wind, the Northern Lights are a popular bucket-list experience that people often anticipate and dream about for years. While you don’t need to go all the way north to see the brilliant cosmic display of the Aurora Borealis—I’ve seen them as far south as Milwaukee—it certainly helps. Better to hunt them where the skies are free from human-made light and air pollution, where the glowing waves rise up farther, over your head or spiraling to fill the sky completely. One such perfect place is Utsjoki, situated 280 miles north of the Arctic Circle at the top of Lapland, the very northern end of Finland. Here the Teno—the salmon-rich Tenojoki River—marks the border between Finland and Norway, putting you even north of Santa’s Village (which is in the Lapland capital of Rovaniemi, Utsjoki’s closest major airport connecting to Helsinki in the …