Thursday dawned early in Fairbanks, but we were not awake to take note. When we were finally up and ready to go, we needed to pack our car as today we would be traveling south. It turns out I made an unfortunate error when I booked our hotel for our Denali visit. The place is actually two hours south of the Denali entrance. My daughter discovered this the day before we left so not much we could do about it. Today we would drive two hours from Fairbanks to Denali and then two hours past Denali to our room for the night.
Before we started out journey south, we wanted to spend some time in Fairbanks. After a hearty breakfast, we wandered around a park that goes along the Chena River. It has a number of points of interest. One is a monument to Alaska-Siberian relations which I found rather interesting and unexpected. We also discovered an arch made of antlers from moose and caribou. This reminded me of a similar arch we saw in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
At the edge of the park is the Fairbanks Visitor’s Center, and this is worth stopping for. There are museum quality exhibits here that inform about the region particularly from a native perspective. While there are other museums in Fairbanks that are probably more complete, this is a quick tour, and its free.
At the beginning the exhibit shares about the two seasons. There is winter, and there is preparing for winter. During the summer the people grow and preserve their food. Animals are hunted and prepared. All of this is done in preparation for the coming winter. One of the interesting statements we read which stood out to all of us is that during September there is a loss of one hour of daylight each week.
Besides this focus there are other exhibits describing both modern experiences and historic experiences. One room has a video that shows some of what the winter is like in Fairbanks today. Another rooms shows some of the leaders of the native peoples. One section pictures the debate during the Carter administration when much of Alaska was put under federal control. It took us about a half hour to go through the exhibits. When we left the Center we looked over an old cabin sitting right in front. We could not go in, but we could peek through the windows to see the interior space.
After visiting the Visitor Center we walked through town to the Ice Museum. Since we hadn’t seen the Ice Museum at Chena Springs the day before, we decided to check out what Fairbanks had to offer. This turned out to be an interesting experience. They had actual ice sculptures that allowed visitors to interact with them. For example there was a dog sled set up with ice dogs, but the driver statues had holes in the parkas so one could put his face there pretending to be the driver.
Another popular section was the ice bar made all of ice with ice bar stools as well. Visitors could sit on one of the stools that had a fur covering and pretend to be drinking at the bar. Fortunately parkas are provided to keep one warm. This was all set up for those ever popular Instagram photos. However, photos taken here were hard to work with. Clear ice and strong lights made the photos challenging to process.
Another popular activity is the ice sledding. Visitors can sled down an ice hill on a flat wooden sled. It actually goes very fast and stops when it goes off the ice at the bottom. I didn’t try it, but my daughter did and thought it was fun.
After interacting with the various sculpture there is a demonstration of ice sculpting although I wouldn’t call it ice sculpting. The artist uses a drill and creates a design on the back of a block of ice. He is able to add color to it to make it stand out. He really does a good job with it. There is a jar to tip the artist that is pretty obvious so people tend to feel obligated to give a tip.
After our tour of Fairbanks, it was time to drive south. The trip to Denali was fairly straightforward. There was not a lot of traffic on the roads. The countryside was quite green with high hills at the beginning of the trip. We made a few stops along the way for photo ops. There weren’t as many places to stop as I might have liked.
The closer we got to Denali, the more we began to see taller mountains with some snow on them. I expected to see snow capped mountains, but instead the mountains would have streaks of snow coming down the sides. Soon it seemed there were mountains on both sides of us as well as the Nenana River. I wasn’t sure what all the mountains were or whether any were in the Denali range, but it was a pretty drive.
We stopped at the main area in Denali National Park for a short time. We wanted to make sure we knew where we were meeting the bus for our tour the next day. Of course we checked out the gift shops and had an ice cream cone. We then continued on our way.
The drive south from Denali continued with the mountains around us. The views and mountains kept changing as we drove. Along with the mountains we saw a number of small lakes or ponds. These would usually be set in the midst of bright green grass and created a very picturesque scene. We also enjoyed the clumps of wildflowers that were growing along the side of the road. There were mostly pink and purple flowers with some white. Lupine was pretty common. Traffic seemed a little heavier, but overall stayed light. We did encounter some road construction which delayed us some, but that was about it.
South of Denali National Park is the Denali State Park. Views from here are supposed to be as good or better than the ones in the national park. Unfortunately for us as we went farther south, the weather began to change and became more cloudy and eventually it began to sprinkle some.
It was about this time that we reached the north view point of the state park. There was a clear view of the mountains, but clouds covered the tops of some. There was a diagram that indicated the names of the mountains we were looking at, but it was hard to figure out with the tops disappearing into the clouds. Since we would be coming by the next day, we decided to stop again then and see if we could get a better view. The park also has a south view point, but we didn’t bother to stop as we figured nothing had really changed with the weather.
We finally arrived at our destination for the night. This is a little place well off the beaten trail. The owners have built a duplex with a nice open kitchen, living, dining area below and a bedroom on the second floor. Our only complaint is the mosquitoes. A few managed to creep inside. Not so fun.
It was early to bed Thursday as Friday we would have to get up bright and early for the two hour drive back to Denali for our bus tour. The tour leaves at 6:40 am. I will be getting up about the time I normally go to bed. Traveling can be tough.
Have you had a chance to visit Fairbanks? What were your impressions of this Alaska city? Share your thoughts in the comment section below. Denali is our next destination. Let your friends know and share the link.