Fairbanks is a pleasant supply town with a variety of museums but those of a hedonistic bent will want to head straight to Chena Hot Springs, an undulating 61 miles to the east.
Simon commented whilst we were in Fairbanks:
“We should drive down the historic main street”.
I pointed out that Fairbanks only dates back to 1901 when a Captain Barnette started a trading post at the outer reaches of the river ship. A year later gold was found and the place took off, but it isn’t exactly a picture postcard town and we had already seen most of it.
However a good place to start is the Explore Fairbanks Visitor Information Center within the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors center, which as well as having all the tourist bumpff that one could want, also has an impressive display on living through the four seasons of Alaska and the native history of the area.
Other options include the relatively small Museum of the North (we had already seen so many museums in Alaska and they get a bit same-ish (although the 50,000 year old mummified Steppes bison might have been interesting), the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum if you are into antique American automobiles twinned with accompanying vintage clothing or Pioneer Park – ditto historic log cabins.
We did make the mistake of visiting the Large Animal Research Station ($20) thinking we would get some fascinating insight into the wild animals of the region, but was a mere question and answer session with a muskox we could have seen from the entrance and some bored reindeer.
The wood bison, America’s largest land mammal, might have been interesting but one only had to follow a trail down an outside fence to see them. A calf had just been born the previous day. Some 15% larger and more wooly than their Plains cousins, wood bison were thought to be extinct by 1910 due to overhunting until a small herd of 200 animals was found in a remote corner of Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada in 1957.
In 2015, 130 animals were reintroduced to Alaska in the Lower Yukon Innoko area and the herd is doing well. These will either join them or be the nucleus for a new herd – ironically there is already squabbling about who has the priority in hunting them!
There was a little shop where you could buy musk ox wool known as Qiviut – it is eight times warmer than sheep wool and doesn’t shrink. The wool is sold for about $80 a pound but a Native-knitted ear warmer will set you back $200.
On the outer edges of Fairbanks, this was a more rewarding stop. Opened in 1904, it was the first dairy farm in Fairbanks. It was bought by the Creamers (of course!) in 1938 and it was they who built the elegant white barn with it’s flared roof which housed the cows below and the hay above during the 8 months of winter. They ran the business until its closure in 1965.
Today the 2000 acre refuge is a haven for migratory birds and it was the Sandhill cranes that we wanted to see. In early August they were just starting to arrive on their journey between summer in Siberia and winter in Texas and the lower 48.
The Sandhill crane is one of the smallest cranes at only about 40 inches and the adults have a distinctive featherless red patch on the head. We heard their loud rattling trumpet like cry as they flew in and landed awkwardly on their long legs.
We did a gentle 2 mile lap of the fields although most of them were quite near the car park. There is a helpful information centre in the old house with various bird displays.
Considering Alaska sits on the “rim of fire” there are not actually many hot springs readily accessible to visitors but this 61 mile side trip from Fairbanks is a worthwhile detour at any time of year – in fact I would argue it is probably better in the cold winter temperatures with deep snow on the ground and the northern lights above.
We had to settle for a fortunately cool and drizzly August day – these things are quite hot!
Surveyors had noticed steam rising in 1904 and concluded that there was probably a hot spring in the area but it was only a year later that a rheumaticky prospector and his brother tracked it down.
By 1911, the place had a bathhouse, a stable and 12 cabins and hasn’t looked back since. The springs are the main attraction but there is also the adjacent Aurora Ice Bar where one can drink an Appletini from an ice glass and admire ice carvings.
There is a large rock rimmed outdoor pool at 106°F, an outdoor hot tub and two indoor ones, as well as a cooler inside swimming pool.
We had a pleasant afternoon wallowing in their depths or under a pipe which fires water into the pool so providing good back massages.
There is a restaurant and basic motel style accommodation on site plus a campsite, although there is plenty of beautiful, free wild camping amongst the numerous lakes on the Chena Road.
These are popular moose hangouts – we were awoken at 5 am one morning by the sound of one browsing in the shallows.
There are good walking options from various trailheads along the road including the Granite Tors (mile 39), and Angel Rocks at Mile 48, both have shelter cabins half way so can be extended into overnight trips. There are also public use cabins which can be reserved online; most have vehicle access in summer.
We found Fairbanks a handy place to reprovision in between exploring the various highways to its north – the hot springs are a good place to relax after a long and bumpy road trip.
NOTES
The easiest option is to hire a car, allowing exploration at leisure – things are spread out, even in Fairbanks. The Chena Hot Springs resort does provide a shuttle from Fairbanks and various accommodation packages.
