So, my 16-y.o. son and I are planning a 1-week vacation in Alaska next month. We’re flying to Fairbanks, and plan to rent a camper for the week so we can explore a bit. We’re definitely going to spend a couple of days at Denali NP. Wildlife watching is a must; we don’t fish, but other water-oriented activities are of potential interest. We like to hike.
I’d love to see the Yukon River and get to the arctic circle just to say I did, – but is there anything to see and do there that’s actually worth the drive?
Where else should we be sure to go within a 2-3 hour drive of Fairbanks?
I’m looking at various travel guides as well, but I’d love to get some first-hand advice from you brilliant dopers …
Twin Lakes is too far from Fairbanks for your vacation plans, but you might find this book interesting. Obviously I did; and I’ve never been to Alaska. (Well, technically once.)
Sounds like a great trip. I’ve never been to Alaska, but my friend went. She said the salmon run was just about the grossest thing she’s ever seen, so if you’re going to see that while you’re there, be prepared. She said it was hundreds of rotting fish and it was waaaay smelly. I mean it’s cool and all, but much more *vivid * than the nature shows would have you believe.
Be aware that you can only drive your RV 15 miles into the park, which is not far enough to get a view of Denali. If you only have a week, you should spend a full day on the park operated bus system to the interior of the park. If you are into roughing it, plan to camp out for a couple of days. You are guaranteed to see enough grizzly bears, Dall sheep, caribou and bald eagles to last a lifetime.
I would definitely try to get to the Anchorage area, though. That’s the part of Alaska I’m most familiar with. Fairbanks weirded me out! The long daylight was really odd, even though we’d been living in Anchorage.
Alaska is the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen in my life. (Sorry, BC.)
I’m from Alaska, and my best piece of advice would be not to go to Fairbanks, but that isn’t helpful in the least bit. I find that the Southern parts of Alaska are much better, but then I’m biased (I’m from Homer). If you’ve only a week, I’d say stay out of the city of Fairbanks as much as possible, there isn’t a lot to see there. A trip up to the Arctic Circle probably wouldn’t be worth it either: it takes a lot longer to get places than you’d expect, and I wonder if an RV would even be able to make it up there. Remember, Alaska is HUGE. From Fairbanks to Anchorage is a 5 hour AT LEAST drive, and so even that may not be worth it. I know there are hot springs near Fairbanks, I’ve never been but they are supposed to be fun. Good to go to Denali park, and the mountain. I’ve never been around the park much, but I’ve heard good things from people who have. The hardest part about giving advice here is that most places you’ll want to go will take you at least a day of driving (there and back), especially in an RV. You might try looking on Fairbanks’ wikipedia and wikitravel pages for ideas, or just buy “Lonely Planet Alaska”.
Sorry I can’t be of much help, I just haven’t been up there enough to know everything there is to do. Just yes, bring massive amounts of deet bug repellent and expect hot, dry weather.
Thanks for all the good advice … It pretty much confirms what I was thinking so far.
We’ll definitely plan on the full-day bus tour and will bring bug netting and jungle juice! Except for maybe a visit to the Far North Museum at UAF, Fairbanks is just the starting and ending point. (As for coastal Alaska, I’ve been to southeast a couple of times; Anchorage & Kenai Peninsula are on the agenda for next time…)
One clarification - our camper will be a 4x4-pick-up mounted type, not a full-fledged RV; we’re renting it from these guys who specifically say they’re ok on gravel roads.
Interesting about the salmon – I knew they mated & then died; hadn’t really thought about the aftermath of that. Must be good for the scavengers! Do the bears show up for that?
Been to Alaska 3 times, and I love it. So by no means an expert, but I do have some input:
I was probably the least impressed with Fairbanks as any place in Alaska. Just kind of a grimey, grungy city with no real appeal. I would not plan on spending much time there.
On my first trip, we also wanted to reach the Arctic Circle just to say “we did it”, and it was miserable. The road north from Fairbanks quickly turns to dirt. More specifically “very dusty, very rocky” dirt. And with trucks coming the other way, was pretty nasty (white-out for seconds, not sure if your windshield survived the pelting).
Secondly, the mosquitos north of Fairbanks were some of the worst we ever encountered (see “Wonder Lake” below). They would SWARM within minutes of stepping out of the car.
We did see moose, and got some glimpses of the pipeline. But overall I would NOT recommend spending the time to try to get to the Arctic circle. (the road may have improved, but I’m sure the mosquito situation has not)
Based on only being there one week, I’d recommend spending all your time in Denali. Skip the camper, and bring camping gear (including food). Get a campsite at Wonder Lake, and you’ll be at the closest point to the mountian.
BIG TIP: the best chance to get an unobstructed view of the mountain is EARLY (like 4AM) in the morning. Remember, it will be light by then. Once we were told of this tip, we were able to see the full mountain a number of times (we also lucked out and got a brief glimpse of the mountain in the evening).
The downside to Wonder Lake is that the mosquitos are pretty bad. Not only will you want to bring lots of bug juice, but a headnet would be highly recommended. June in particular is a bad time there (later in the year it is better, I’m told).
Aside from numerous hikes from Wonder Lake, you can always jump on the free buses and check out other parts of the park.
SECOND TIP: for seeing wildlife, just riding the bus from end to end is the best way. The bus drivers are real good about stopping for photo shoots. We (and about 4 other buses) were stopped for a good half hour to watch a mother grizzly nurse her two cubs.
You can also get off the bus at various places to go hiking on your own (we hiked up a hillside to get a better view of Dall sheep one time).
Lastly, as to the dead salmon thing. From what I’ve seen, only the really inexperienced bears (newbies or really inept) eat the dead salmon. I have seen it, but you can almost see the resignation in the bears’ faces. Most are reasonable fishermen, so they go for the fresh stuff.
After spawning, the bodies are primarily munched by birds (crows and seagulls).
I can’t see any real reason to drive up to the Arctic Circle. It’s just a line on a map, the only way to make such a trip more interesting than driving to any other random spot is if you did it on the summer solstice so you could watch the sun not set. Or, I suppose, on the winter solstice, so you could watch the sun not rise.
Other than that, in summer the sky never gets dark in Fairbanks, so whether the sun technically sets or not is irrelevant. It goes from day to dusk to dawn to day with no intervening period of night, even though the sun is below the horizon.
Chena Hot Springs might be worth going to…it’s about an hour drive from Fairbanks. But if you want to hike, pretty much anywhere there’s a trail would be good…Chena Hot Springs road has the Granite Tors trail, which is about a 10 mile round trip, I think, it’s been years since I’ve hiked there.
I’m trying to think of things to actually see in Fairbanks. Hmmm. There’s bound to be something, but I can’t think of any. I mean, Fairbanks is just a town, that happens to be in the middle of Alaska. The town itself isn’t very interesting.
One thing you might consider is a trip to Talkeetna, actually for two reasons. First, it’s a neat town, probably one of the closest to preserving what older time Alaska used to be like. Secondly, there’s two (at least there were two back in my time there) air services that’ll fly you up on the mountain, the Moose’s Tooth, or just around the mountain sightseeing. Helluva trip, that. One’s K2 and the other’s… heck, someone help me… Doug Geeting? There’s probably even more still nowadays.
Is it too late to switch and do Kenai this year? It’s by far the more interesting area, and reasonably easy to get around on. I lived in Alaska for 7 years, and looked around Fairbanks once. After that I spent most of my spare time down in Homer, or bumming around the Matsu Valley area.
Well, he’s only going to be there for a week. And he’s not committed to “Fairbanks”, but rather the interior. And there’s plenty of scenery in the interior, even if most tourists only see Denali. Interior Alaska is a whole different planet than the SE Alaska the cruise ships visit, and there’s plenty to see if you’re interested. More than enough to fill a week. Heck, just driving from Fairbanks to Denali and back, stopping along the way whenever you like would be a worthwhile trip. Just don’t plan to spend more than a day in Fairbanks itself. Not that there’s anything wrong with Fairbanks, just that there’s not much to see there.
