Fairbanks, Alaska

Fairbanks, Alaska

We left Cantwell and continued north toward Fairbanks on The Park Highway. We made plans to stay at the Riverview Campground on the south side of town. The Campground overlooks the Tanana River. The river was flowing deep and fast after all the rain. The rain was finally over and the sun was shining most of the time we spent in Fairbanks. Fairbanks has some of the best weather and warmest temperatures in Alaska. We took a drive out to the Chena Hot Springs and had a soak. The springs are around 106 degrees with some hotter spots where the water flows out of the earth.  It’s great to go and hang out for a while. We meet some interesting people there and had some good conversation. The drive out was about 60 miles. The road is through the wilderness and the road ends at the Springs. We saw a moose and noticed that the trees were beginning to turn. The color was amazing.  It was clear, after talking to several local people, fall was beginning. The temperatures were in the low 50’s overnight and high 60 during the day.

We took a trip to Fox, Alaska where the Number 6 Gold Dredge stopped producing back around 1950. The tour was well done consisting off a train ride around the mine site showing different types of mining done during the gold mining of the turn of the century. The huge dredge was open to walk through.  One could feel how the work was relentless day after day for the men.  Part of the tour was to pan for gold.  Panning for gold was way more fun, and exciting than we thought. We can see how people get gold fever.  The guides are very patient showing all of us on the tour how to hold the pan, collecting the water and shifting off the large rocks and stones leaving the gold at the bottom.  The gold is heavier than the other material.  Between the two of us, we collected $45.00 worth of gold.  Since Brad doesn’t wear jewelry, Cathy had it put in a glass locket as a pendant. Now we will never be broke again. We were off to get a pan and start looking for our own gold strike. We found that you can pan for gold on the public lands.  Down the road a piece, we found a place up near Chicken open to the public.  Ahhhhh, could be more habit forming than the Venice stoop—— looking down at the beach, as you walk, searching for shark teeth.

We had read about the Georgeson Experimental Garden at the University of Alaska. The students do research on the active Garden to find plants profitable for farmers in Alaska. We saw the large cabbages and other vegetables that benefit from the long summer daylight. The days were 19 hours long when we arrived in Alaska.  By the time we reached Fairbanks the beginning of August, daylight is 16 hours with daylight continuing to be less each day until daylight is down to 6 hours a day into Autumn.

The town called North Pole is just outside of Fairbanks.  How cool !!!! There is actually a town with that name.  We drove thru and took pictures of the big, big Santa Claus.

Pioneer Park is set up as a small town.  The log cabins were moved from original sites to this location with many now housing retail establishments.  A few were set up to replicate the living in the former times.  A paddlewheel ship had been pulled and pushed thru a man-made canal to place it within the town.  Then the canal was filled in so the boat is now landlocked.  A passenger train car was placed on tracks also within the park.  This was President Harding’s car when he traveled the railroad.

Fairbanks is a lovely, spacious city, without the congestion as Anchorage. There are more RV campgrounds, the weather is better and we panned for GOLD.