Wherever You'll Go

Alaska: Land of the midnight sun

My husband’s dream to ride his motorcycle to Alaska was finally realized this month. It would take him about a month to ride from Austin, Texas to Fairbanks, Alaska and back. For me, this was too long to be apart, plus, I also really wanted to go to Alaska! So, we decided I’d meet him there about 13 days into his trip, and we’d spend four days together before he began his return trip home. With only four days in Alaska, visiting Denali National Park was at the top of my list. So, I flew into Fairbanks, the closest major airport, with a stop in Seattle which is at least a 10 hour trip.

Fairbanks

I arrived in Fairbanks at 1am wearing my sunglasses. I couldn’t get over this “midnight sun”. I’d been traveling for 23 hours at that point, and was incredibly disoriented even though it’s only a three-hour time difference. Even with an eye mask, after five nights I never got on a regular sleep pattern.

It rained the first day, so we took the very touristy train ride to Gold Dredge 8. It was touristy but still a lot of fun to learn the gold-mining history and pan for gold. Together we found $28 of gold that they’ll conveniently put in a $30 keepsake necklace. For lunch we headed over to The Cookie Jar, which everyone recommended because it was on “Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives”, I loved the name but didn’t find it to be anything special.

Since it was still raining, our hopes of kayaking were dashed, we headed to North Pole. It’s Christmas year-round in this tiny town. Christmas banners hang from the candy cane light posts in July. We stopped into the Christmas store to take a picture with Santa, and see the reindeer.

We stopped in the sleepy downtown of Fairbanks. There’s a nice paved hike and bike trail along the river, and rentable bikes to check out parked all over. We wandered into the visitor’s center which offers a small museum and lots of local trail maps. I picked a few trail maps, and we ran back to the car in a downpour. What do you do on a rainy Sunday? That’s right – we went to the local Hoodoo brewery. This was a great little spot with a nice outdoor area and a food truck. It’s was a really long day considering we slept so little, so we went to the historic Pump House for an amazing salmon dinner.

We slept 11 hours that night! This was surprising since our VRBO cabin didn’t have curtains and it was so bright. It was a clear day, so we headed down Chena Springs Road outside of town to hike Angel Rocks. It took about two hours round trip on clearly marked trails. The parking lot was full, but mostly we were by ourselves except for the mosquitoes that just wouldn’t quit. Even with the bug spray and pants I still had lots of bites. We headed a few miles up the road to Chena Hot Springs. As soon as we got in the springs, it started raining again but it was quite nice. I wasn’t too impressed with the Springs themselves, it was just one big pool with moss covered rocks and no where to sit, so we didn’t stay long. There’s also an ice museum that looked interesting, but we wanted to start the 1.5 hour ride back to Fairbanks. We stopped into the Banks Alehouse for dinner, and I got some sad halibut tacos with one piece of fish that was half the diameter of the tortilla. It was good, but I needed a second dinner. I did try this weird gummy bear beer that smelled just like gummy bears and had them soaked in the bottom, but it wasn’t that great either. But I was super excited to head out to Denali the next day.

Denali National Park

We were on the road by 6am the next morning so we could make the most of our two days in Denali National Park. It’s about a two hour drive from Fairbanks. I wanted to get to the visitor’s center when it opened so we could sign up for the following day’s discovery hike, an off trail hike with a ranger, but it was booked up. You can only sign up for them two days in advance but with the fourth of July holiday I knew it would be a slim chance. Denali is over six million acres, but only has 35 miles of trail, so off trail hiking is promoted. I don’t have any experience with that so I wanted to go with a guide. You can only drive the first 15 miles of the only park road, so buses run regularly to different spots in the park. We got tickets that would take us to the Eielson visitor center at mile 66. This would normally be an eight hour trip but we had an extra hour waiting for a rescue bus when our’s broke down. It was a warm 78 degree day and the the mountain was out so it wasn’t a big inconvenience. 

For our patience, we were rewarded with lots of wildlife sightings! We saw at least eight grizzlies, including two cubs, countless caribou, and a moose with two babies right on the side of the road. We were also able to see the Denali mountain, the highest in the U.S. Only 30% of people actually get to see it due to the storms and cloud cover.

I didn’t understand the bus thing as first, but after a long day it was nice to sleep on the way back and wake up when someone yelled at the driver to stop for a bear! The buses cut down on traffic and wasted resources, and it was helpful to have 30 pairs of eyes looking for wildlife. If you’ve ever been stuck in traffic in Yellowstone because a buffalo was crossing the street, you’d appreciate it! And although it wasn’t a narrated tour, the driver answered all our questions and offered some info on the park. Once on a bus you can get off anywhere and pick up a bus going in your direction anywhere as long as there’s room, but after seeing all those grizzlies I wanted to stick to the trails.

The following day we hiked the Horseshoe Lake Trail near the visitor’s center before grabbing a bus to the kennels for the dog sled demo. This is definitely a highlight for animal lovers. You can pet and hug the dogs, and learn about how they are bred and see them screaming around a short track pulling a ranger. It was a warm day for the dogs but they were very exiting to see in action.

We only had a few more hours, so we decided to take a bus to hike the Savage River area. Although this is the farthest spot you can drive your own vehicle, we took a bus because we had such a good experience the day before. This was a mistake. We picked up the bus at the visitor’s center and it made about four stops including returning to where we were picked up before heading out. The 15ish miles took us over an hour and one bus driver’s life story. So word to the wise – check the bus schedule. The Savage River area was beautiful and worth the effort to check out those trails. And we were able to quickly catch a bus back that took less than 30 minutes. Before we left the park, I turned in my Junior Ranger activity book and got my Denali park badge. My 10-year-old self was super excited about this!

Heading back to Fairbanks for our last night, we stopped at the 49th State Brewery for dinner. The “Magic Bus” from the  “Into The Wild” movie sits here with an Enter At Your Own Risk sign. The real bus still sits deep in the back country as a refuge for hikers, just as it was for Chris McCandless until his death. Entering that bus was heavy, and reminded me how wild the wilderness can be. I headed to the airport at 4am the next morning with my sunglasses on.