Things to Do in Fairbanks Alaska

Posted on March 4, 2010 by Holly

Go for the color!

1. El Dorado Gold Mine Tour: This is a family oriented tour. Visitors can learn about Alaskan past during the Gold Rush era and they can learn to pan for Alaskan Gold.
2. Historic Fairbanks Alaska City Tour: Traveling on a comfortable Motorcoach visitors can enjoy sights and sound that only Fairbanks can provide such as Historic Downtown Fairbanks Alaska, University of Alaska Fairbanks Museum, Trans-Alaska Pipeline, University of Alaska Fairbanks Botanical Gardens, and Downtown Log Cabin Visitor Center.

Riverboat Discovery & Susan Butcher Kennel

3. Fairbanks Riverboat Discovery Tour: This is an exciting three and half hour adventure aboard the Discovery III, which is an authentic sternwheeler riverboat. Visitors get to see the life in the interior of Alaska, visit dog kennels and gain insight into the ancient Athabascan Indian Culture.
4. Arctic Circle Fly/Drive Adventure: This is a great one-day adventure. Visitors get to follow the trans Alaska Pipeline and cross the Arctic Circle in a ceremonious fashion. They even get a certificate of this milestone, and they will fly back to Fairbanks marveling the beauty of Northern sub-arctic tundra.

Top Five destinations in Alaska

Posted on March 4, 2010 by Rabin

Denali
Seward
Anchorage
Fairbanks
Prudhoe Bay

I have talked with quite a few Alaska visitors. And by and large they have all named the top 5 places to visit in Alaska are:
1. Denali National park
2. Kenai (Pronounced “keen-eye”) Fjords National Park
3. Anchorage
4. Fairbanks and
5. Prudhoe Bay

By a very large margin, Denali is the number one attraction for Alaska visitor. The main reasons being Mt. McKinley, the tallest mountain in North America and the famed wildlife. If you plan to visit Alaska, don’t miss Denali. And ones there don’t miss a day trip into the Park. Unless you are staying inside the park, like at Denali Backcountry Lodge, I would highly recommend you take the full day trip, Denali Backcountry Adventure. This one trip will get you to the very end of the road and give you the best opportunities to see both the Mt. McKinley and the famous wildlife of Denali National Park.

Kenai Fjords National Park is the second most visited place in Alaska. The two major reasons for that are the calving salt water glaciers and the sea life. Again the best thing to do is a full day boat tour such as the Major Marine Tours but if you are the kind that gets sea sick easily, make it a half day trip. The full day trip will take you very close to the calving glaciers and give you time to hear the grinding sounds of the glacier as these rivers of ice slowly move down hill finally calving. It’s a great experience to watch the huge icebergs splitting off the Glacier. The crew might even manage to lift up one of the smaller iceberg and make you a drink from the glacial ice. This is the not the opportunity you get every day.

Anchorage Vistor Center

Anchorage and Fairbanks are the two main gateway cities and there are plenty of activities available at each of them. I would recommend you come into one gateway and leave from the other. Most Airlines will let you do that without any extra charges. They call this the open jaw and treat is as though it was a round trip. So all your discounts, normally available for the round trip, stay intact for the open jaw.

In Anchorage, one could do the city tour. Fly out on a bush plane for bear watching, visit the Prince William Sound, or the Museum of Art & History. Visit the Alaska Heritage Center or any of the host of other activities, depending on your time frame and budget.

Fairbanks likewise and many choices; the famous Stern Wheeler boat “River Boat Discovery”, the tour of an active gold mine, visit to University of Alaska Museum
and/or the Famous Oil Pipe line.

Alaska's Grand Oil Pipeline

Arctic Circle (and receive a Certificate to that effect), Dip your toe in the Arctic Ocean see and hear about the oil rigs and the interesting technologies of today’s oil drilling. If you have slightest engineering inclination, you will love this one. Generally, you will fly one way and ride the famous “Haul Road” the other way. Attigan pass is a great sight and the vastness of the ‘North Slope” is unbelievable. Along the way, you will see wildlife such as the Musk Ox and the Caribou herds.

Allow your self about two weeks to do all that. You need two to three days for days in each location. For most of us, Alaska is once in a lifetime trip, so don’t rush. Take your time and soak it in.

Sam Mature

Alaska Roads, Oil Rigs & the Arctic Circle

Posted on March 4, 2010 by Holly

We have ridden around 1,000 miles north from Anchorage to Deadhorse, Alaska, chiefly to go for a chilly dip in the Arctic Ocean. Deadhorse is the most northerly settlement of Alaska reachable by land transport. The 400-mile dirt road that runs up here only exists to service the huge Prudhoe Bay oil exploration area, and the pipeline that runs south to Valdez.

On the way, we crossed into the Arctic Circle, i.e. into latitudes where the sun doesn’t set during the summer time. Scores of caribou and foxes dot the landscape. Rolling vistas with towering rocky peaks as far as the eye can see.

Alaska Oil Pipeline

We are staying in what is basically an Atco Trailer in a giant oil terminal at the end of the world, but it’s very hospitable indeed. Hairy oil workers are asking us about the bikes and the trip, and are impressed by the scale of our ride. Glad I’ve had my haircut, though.

So, this is where it really starts, and it’s obviously downhill all the way from here back to Anchorage, so no major problems expected.

Killian Ashland

Your Own Alaska Travel Tour

Posted on March 4, 2010 by Rabin

I have found that Alaska’s long roads are a wonderful way to get in touch with the Alaska we all read and see in pictures. The freedom to stop and go as I please, is for me, worth every penny of the rental car. Driving the George Parks Highway up to Denali National Park and then on to Fairbanks was one of the many highlights of my summer. I learned to appreciate the path, and not just the destination.

Driving into one of the state constructed pullouts allowed me the opportunity to stretch, get my camera and to see Salmon

Don't get out of your car

spawning in a nearby stream; and that wasn’t the only wild life sight sighting I was able to do from the road. I stopped at a State Park and was rewarded with a mountaintop of two little lambs and their parents, a Moose too, albeit in the distance. The State Park had nice information placards that detailed the local features, and helped me pick out specific mountains in the range I was studying.

The lush greenery, and the expansive vistas beckoned me to the side of the road again after leaving Denali National Park (an experience in and of it’s self) where I was able to get pictures of what is rightly called “The Last Frontier”. Whenever the little blue signs appeared for a scenic viewpoint, it is a smart decision to heed the warning, you may be passing something you’ll only see in Alaska.

Brenda White

Fairbanks and Barrow Alaska New Tours

Posted on March 4, 2010 by Holly

Alaska Denali Tours

Alaska Denali Tours is booking some fabulous new tours for the 2010 Summer Season.

Coldfoot Alaska optional tours:

1. Weisman Visit: Visit a historic gold mining community and learn of it’s dynamic past and present.

2. Koyukuk River Float: Enjoy a three-hour leisurely float down the Middle Fork Koyukuk River.

3. Brooks Mountain Range Safari (added only with Brooks Range Adventure):

This is a ground tour north into the Brooks Mountain Range on the Dalton Highway.

4. Anaktuvuk Pass Adventure: Scenic flight over the gates of the Arctic National Park to the Nunamiut Eskimo village of Anaktuvuk Pass

These options maybe added to the following adventures: Arctic Circle Brooks Range Adventure® And the Arctic Ocean Adventure™

Barrow Adventure – Overnight Tour “An overnight journey by air to the farthest north Eskimo village.”

Fly north from Fairbanks across the Arctic Circle to the Inupiat Eskimo village of Barrow. Receive an official Arctic Circle Certificate. Discover firsthand lifestyles of Alaska’s Arctic Coastal peoples with a tour of the village. Meet the Inupiat people while enjoying a cultural program featuring ceremonial song and dance, traditional games, and demonstration of local crafts. Walk the shores of the Arctic Ocean near the northernmost point on the North American Continent. Bravely dip your toe in the frigid waters of the Arctic Ocean. Overnight in Barrow at the Top of the World Hotel (included). Depart Barrow on an evening return flight to Fairbanks.