Day 6 - Fairbanks

Pioneer Park in Fairbanks, Alaska

We discover Fairbanks is closer to Bejing than to New York

Mush, mush

I check out the shops while Chuck relaxes

Train around the park

Masks carved out of whale bone

The only totem pole we saw all trip

Fairbanks home of the first superintendent of Denali

Moose swing

One of kind of machine to drive across ice in order to build air fields

Exhibits inside Airplane museum

Check out the article Chuck is reading at the museum

Fairbanks is the second largest city in Alaska. It is located about two hundred miles from the arctic circle. There are two large military bases in Fairbanks, army and air force. The city itself is not very pretty and there is not much to do there. Those long, cold winters must really take a toll. Chuck said Fairbanks is "rough, tough and gritty". They don't put that in tourist brochures.

We did spend a couple of hours at Pioneer Park which is kind of a historical theme park. Most of the log cabins from Fairbanks have been moved and reconstructed within the park. Most are now retail shops.

The big tourist trap in Fairbanks is a sternwheeler which cruises the Chena River. The Discovery, transports tourists (who travel up by rail from the cruise lines) a couple of miles up the river to a "reconstructed" Indian village. This was the kind of fake Alaska experience we wanted to avoid. I would rather know Fairbanks is a trashy town than be deceived by the cleaned up area immediately around the Discovery landing.

We had originally planned to rent a car in Fairbanks and drive up to the Arctic circle on the Dalton Highway (the Haul road to locals) but were unable to find a car to rent. Only a couple of companies rent cars which they allow to be taken on the Haul Road (which is gravel not paved). One of those stopped renting on September 1st and the other one rented our reserved car out from under us. Maybe next trip.