Driving north from Denali National Park, we were truly driving into a different part of Alaska. Mountains, which had been along our side for almost all of our travels in Alaska slowly disappeared continuing north and west, as our road Alaska Route 3 curved north and east. In a short 2.5 hours we reached the most northern city that we would see on our trip, Fairbanks.
Fairbanks sits just 140 miles south of the Arctic Circle. We were pretty close as well in Dawson City, YT at 150 miles south of the circle. It is the largest city in the interior of Alaska with the borough that it is in being home to a little under 100,000 people (The city of Fairbanks is home to a little over 30,000 people). It is home to an Air Force base as well as the founding school in the University of Alaska University System. Needless to say, we had a lot to explore.
After arriving in town we wanted to use the day as a prep day, a day to prepare and do some research on the town to find out what there was to do and what we wanted to do. After a stop in the local Safeway grocery store we headed over to our campground where we made delicious salmon tacos from the salmon that we had caught on the Kenai Peninsula a few days prior. We then rested and relaxed and prepared for a fun few days in town.
Downtown Fairbanks
The next morning we woke up ready to go. We headed into downtown Fairbanks, found parking and started to walk around. While the town had some nice looking buildings it seemed as it was struggling a little to keep businesses in them. We wandered in and out of a few stores buying a few small trinkets to remember the city by. We then walked by the river and found a “Welcome to Fairbanks” sign with distances to other cities posted such as Seattle – 2313 miles & San Francisco – 3111 miles. We then walked next door and saw the Fairbanks office for the Yukon Quest. The Yukon Quest is a Dog Sled race much like the famous Iditarod. The Yukon Quest is different however as it crosses an international border going from Whitehorse, Yukon to Fairbanks, Alaska. While we were there they even had a few huskies out back that you could pet and learn about how they train for the race.
From the river we headed over to what was to become our favorite part of downtown Fairbanks, the Ice Museum. We hadn’t found the Ice Museum in any of our research but as it was the only building with a marquee in downtown Fairbanks it kind of stood out. We walked in, paid the entrance fee of $15 and waited for the next show time to begin. We didn’t know if it was going to be a movie about ice sculpting, natural ice or what, but we were game to find out.
Fairbanks Ice Museum
The building used to be an old theatre so the show started out with a movie showing clips of the aurora borealis, which occurs over Fairbanks in the winter. It then showed clips from the Fairbanks Ice Sculpture Exhibition. It was then we learned that the Ice Museum was a museum of one of the local ice carvers ice sculptures. After the movie ended “Andy” came out. I say “Andy” in quotes because his actual name is An, Zhe. He is a Chinese immigrant who moved to Fairbanks in the late 1990’s.
After the movie ended lights appeared around ¾ of the theatre where we then saw Andy’s ice sculptures. Andy had essentially turned a large portion of the building into a large freezer so that he could show off his ice sculptures. The best part of this was that now that the movie was over we could go into the freezer and play on and with the sculptures. Everyone was given a jacket and into the freezer we went. There were ice polar bears, ice igloo’s that you could get in. He had an ice snowmobile that you could get on, an ice bar that you could pretend to have a beer at and a whole team of ice sled dogs. The best sculpture however was an ice slide that you rode down on a sled. He gave us little plastic sleds, said 1,2,3 and pushed us down the 30ft slide which ended going up some plywood on a small staircase to stop. This was a ton of fun!
Once everyone was getting a bit chilly we returned back into the theatre and watched as Andy entered another part of the freezer with a huge window. This is where we watched him carve flowers out of a block of ice using power tools and some food dye. It was really interesting watching him carve delicate flowers into a big block of ice using power tools. One wrong move and the whole piece could crack and fall apart, but as Andy is a pro the flower piece came out looking awesome. All in all we had a great experience at the Ice Museum. We went in on a whim, had no idea what it would be like but it turned out to be a ton of fun!
Salmon Bake at Pioneer Park
After the Ice Museum it was starting to get late and we needed some dinner. For dinner we had made plans to go to the Alaska Salmon Bake in Pioneer Park. A salmon bake is an all you can eat salmon buffet with a few sides. This one happened to be located inside Pioneer Park. Pioneer Park is a 44-acre park run by the city of Fairbanks. Once inside there are multiple museums and interactive exhibits set up to teach you about Alaskan History. While we were interested in seeing the park our stomachs were more interested in a bit of salmon so we made a beeline to the Salmon Bake.
I had been to this one back on my Alaska trip in 2007 and had really enjoyed myself so I thought that Julie would probably like this too. With tax, entrance fee per person is about $40, which isn’t bad for a buffet featuring all you can eat Alaskan Salmon. You can also get cod, prime rib and for a little extra fee, Alaskan Snow Crab (we couldn’t pass that up). So in Julie & I went. I think we may have eaten our body weight in salmon after our 3rd trip up to the grill. Needless to say we left happy.
Once out back in Pioneer Park we walked around for a bit. Most of the exhibits were closed but we were still able to see the SS Nenana, a historic Fairbanks stern-wheeler steamboat. We were also able to see the Denali Observation Car aka the Harding Railroad Car that President Harding used on his trip to Alaska back in 1923. After seeing the railroad car we headed back to Bubbles and to the campground. It had been a great day!
Museum of the North at the University of Alaska
The next day we woke up ready for another day of Fairbanks fun. First up for the day was the Museum of the North at the University of Alaska. We had read that this was one of the top things to see in Fairbanks so off we went. The museum had turned out to be much bigger than we had originally thought. Most of the museum was dedicated to human and natural history of Alaska. This was broken up into Alaska’s different regions. Its Arctic north, islands of the panhandle and the Aleutian Island Chain and Alaska’s vast interior. It told stories of its early pioneers and how they survived as well as the animals and plants that make up each region.
From the history section of the museum we went into a theatre, which showed a short film about the aurora borealis. Unlike the short clip one that we had seen at the Ice Museum the day before, this film was all about how and why the aurora borealis exists and why Fairbanks is one of the best places to see it in the winter. It was really well put together and we both enjoyed it a lot. Kudos U. of Alaska!
From the University we wanted a bit of down time and as we had not seen a movie in quite some time we went over to Fairbanks’ only movie theatre. We had originally wanted to see the movie Rocket Man but as they had stopped showing that the previous day we ended up seeing another music based movie called Yesterday. We both ended up liking the movie even though its plot was a bit far fetched. Still two thumbs up from us!
North of Fairbanks
From the movie we were a bit thirsty so we found the Silver Gulch Brewery. As this brewery was located about 10 miles north of the city this would actually be the furthest north that we would go on our trip. The brewery was also the most northern brewery in North America. As an added bonus it turned out to be our favorite in Alaska. We tried a flight of beer and thought each one was excellent.
We didn’t only go a few miles north of the city to see the brewery but this was also one of the best viewing areas in the city to see the famous Alaska Oil Pipeline. The pipeline runs 800 miles from Prudhoe Bay along the Arctic Sea in northern Alaska to Valdez on the Gulf of Alaska on the southern border of the state. At this stopping point on the side of the road there were big diagrams showing how the pipeline was built and why it was built. Most of the pipeline had to be built above ground, as most of Alaska’s soil is actually permafrost. The oil running through the pipeline is over 100 Degrees F so the pipeline could not be buried. If it were it would cause the permafrost to melt causing the pipeline to become unstable. We read all the information boards along the pipeline and walked along side of it for a bit before jumping back into Bubbles and heading back to the campground for the night.
North Pole, Alaska
The next morning we packed up and started our trip out of Fairbanks. Before leaving the immediate area though we had one last stop. Just outside of Fairbanks is the town of North Pole. In North Pole it is literally Christmas all year round. Streets have names such as St. Nicholas Drive, the businesses are decorated with wreathes and Christmas trees and the light poles are painted to look like candy canes. The big draw to North Pole however is Santa Land. Santa Land is a restaurant, gift shop and general store where they sell everything Christmas 365 days a year. If you were wondering if Santa was there…yes he was…and is….every single day of the year. For Julie this might of well been heaven. Growing up to this day her house had 8 Christmas trees during Christmas season. One tree was even left up all year and decorated seasonally, Valentines Day, 4th of July, St. Patrick’s Day etc. If there were decorations to put up, the tree would be decorated. As you can imagine Julie was ecstatic to be there!
We walked in and walked through the restaurant a bit. It mostly sold desserts but I’ll refer to it as a restaurant for the stories sake. We then walked through the gift area. There were everything from ornaments to tree toppers, cards and every Christmas themed thing you can think of. Lastly there was the big guy himself….Santa. Julie of course wanted to sit next to him for a picture. Julie waited in line behind some excited Swiss tourists but next it was her turn. After a few pictures we got to talking to Santa. He asked where we were from and after telling him Tampa he asked how mayor Bob was doing. At this moment I thought that maybe I was lied to all my life that Santa wasn’t real. How did this guy who I assume has a full time job playing Santa Claus in North Pole, AK know who the mayor was in Tampa, FL, a town over 4600 miles away!? I had to give it to Santa, maybe he does know all. I should probably stay on his good side or risk not receiving gifts next year.
After our chat with Santa we went outside where Santa Land has its own reindeer (caribou) herd. It was pretty neat being able to see these animals close up. We had seen quite a few on mountainsides all over the state but had not seen one close up before. They look mostly like big male deer but knowing that they were caribou makes it pretty neat. After we were done checking out the herd we hopped in Bubbles and headed out of town and started our journey back to the Canadian border.
Next up…One last stop in Alaska before we cross the border back to the Yukon.
