Fabulous Fairbanks

Fairbanks is a small, but interesting city. The highlight of our trip was a visit to the Large Animal Research Station where we saw and learned about Muskoxen and Caribou. We also took the Riverboat Discovery down the Chena River and learned a lot about dogsledding, catching and dressing salmon the native Alaskan way, the long Fairbanks winters, and what life was like in Fairbanks in the past.

Quick Tips:

The best tip we can give is to be sure and save at least four to five days for Fairbanks. There is far more to see than we saw in the three days we had there. We plan to return and see a lot more of Fairbanks. We also plan to see Chena Hot Springs and to travel up to the Arctic Circle.

Best Way To Get Around:

We had a rental van. There may be other ways to get around in Fairbanks, but we did not explore them. Everything we did seemed to be pretty spread out and the van was very handy for our needs.

We stayed in the Bear Lodge at Wedgewood Resort. Our room was a very plush hotel-type room with a king size bed and private bath. We had a beautiful view of the garden area with its lovely flowers. The bed was extremely firm and comfortable. We loved the free Internet access which was available to guests at the Visitor's Center of the Resort.

While in Fairbanks, we had one breakfast and one lunch at Sourdough Sam's. The servers were so helpful, friendly, and nice, and the food was wonderful. The place was very crowed both times we were there. We loved the breakfast and it was one of the best we had ever had. The fried halibut I had at lunch was also wonderful. If you are in a hurry and don't care about atmosphere (it's just a small diner), then Sourdough Sam's is the place for you to eat in Fairbanks.

One of our favorite activities in Fairbanks was a Riverboat Discovery cruise on the Chena River. The entire trip took us about four hours and there was a wonderful narrator who told us a lot of history about Fairbanks and the Chena River. Along the way we saw Susan Butcher, winner of the Iditarod Race and her dogsled dogs; we saw an Alaska fishing camp; and then we got off the Discovery and visited an Eskimo village. It was a very interesting trip and we learned so much about Alaska and the history of its people. We also enjoyed hearing about what the Fairbanks winters are like and the temperature range that could be expected during the winter months. We highly recommend the Riverboat Discovery Cruise.

The Wedgewood Resort is located next to the Creamer's Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge and we visited it often while we were in Fairbanks. It was wonderful to be able to stand near the different cranes, ducks, and geese and watch them for as long as we liked. The property was originally Creamer's Dairy. When the Dairy closed, the land was purchased for the Refuge.

One of the items high on our list of things we wanted to see in Fairbanks was the Large Animal Research Station. We visited it within two hours of reaching Fairbanks and really enjoyed our tour. Our tour guide was a graduate student who is doing research on the migratory patterns of Muskoxen. During the tour she told us a lot about both Muskoxen and Caribou. We learned how these animals socialize with one another and their favorite foods when they are in the wild. She also passed around some horns from Muskoxen and antlers from Caribou, so that we could feel the weight that the males carry around with them. At the end of her presentation, we saw and felt hides from both Muskoxen and Caribou. We highly recommend this tour to anyone with an interest in Muskoxen and Caribou.

One morning, we drove several miles north of Fairbanks on Steese Expressway to visit the trans-Alaska pipeline viewpoint. The viewpoint is located near the Expressway and is easily accessible to visitors. There were several displays with explanations about the construction of the pipeline, and we found them to be very educational. We had read so much about the pipeline at the time of its construction and we appreciated and enjoyed the opportunity to see some of it.