Finding the Northern Lights: Fairbanks, Arctic Circle & Chena Hot Springs

The trip had been absolutely amazing to this point, but I had one more thing on my bucket list that I was really hoping for–the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights. Of course, everyone else wanted to see them too, but I planned for us to be up north for the end of the trip in hopes of seeing them. So we headed north, armed with the Aurora app and the University of Alaska Fairbanks Aurora Forecast Site found at https://www.gi.alaska.edu/monitors/aurora-forecast.

We arrived in Fairbanks for the weekend to do laundry, stock up on groceries and attend church. We found a great campground with a laundry on site, a dump and fill station and electricity at some of the sites–Tanana Valley Campground (right next to the Tanana Valley Fairgrounds). It was a little tight getting into some of the sites but not bad at all. What a great campground!

I was watching the Northern Lights forecast and it said that August 31-September 2 were higher activity days for the aurora borealis, with September 2 being a high+ day. I was excited. One of the best places to view the Northern Lights in Fairbanks is a place called Creamer’s Field. It is an old dairy that closed years ago and the community rallied to save the property to preserve it as a wildlife preserve–particularly birds. Apparently many species of birds summer in Alaska because of the abundance of food. There were birds everywhere on this property and there were some nice hiking trails. Because of all the birds, the cacophony of bird calls here and at our campground only a short distance away was pretty amazing. Not to a bad level at the campground however.

We had woken up at 3 am for two nights before this to see if we could see the lights. Mike saw them one night but it was too cloudy so it was just the clouds glowing. Tonight was the night to try and see them for the first time. So we stayed up playing cards until 11:30 pm. Mike and I went outside and we could see what we thought were the lights faintly through the trees, so we all drove down to Creamer’s Field. And we saw the Northern Lights for the first time. I didn’t get great pictures because I used my iPhone. Mike hadn’t yet figured out how to adjust the settings on his new camera to capture the lights, so he didn’t bring it. I think he thought we wouldn’t see much because of the light pollution. We did see them though.

You ain’t seen nothing yet!! The following day after attending church we hit the road to go north and get away from civilization and the light pollution it brings. I knew that Sunday night was supposed to be the best night with the highest activity. So we drove up to a boondocking spot by the Tolovana River at the Colorado Creek Trailhead. It is basically a rest stop on the way up to the Dalton Highway.

We again played card games until about 11:30. Then Mike, Dad and I went outside to look. There were a fair amount of clouds covering the sky but I noticed the wind was blowing them fairly steadily. I was determined to see the Northern Lights, so Mike and I stayed out and Dad decided to go to bed–thinking the clouds were going to obstruct our view. It was too bad, because the clouds cleared, the lights came out and Mike learned to work the settings on the camera to capture them. It turns out we saw more than just the Northern Lights that night. I learned about this later when we had signal again. The Northern Lights are green and blue in color. However we saw pink and purple which is called STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement). STEVE was only really named and discovered in 2016 and scientists are still trying to figure out what causes it. Needless to say the high+ activity on the Northern Lights and STEVE led to an absolutely amazing light display. It lit up the night and was everywhere.

The lights started out fainter like in Fairbanks and then between 1:30-2:30 am, the sky exploded with light and color. It was everywhere. Extremely awe-inspiring. Almost the whole sky was filled with these phenomena. I was so sad that mom and dad were in bed and we tried to wake them on the radio, but no response (they later said they couldn’t understand us. But by the time they could have gotten dressed and come out, they would have likely missed the amazing part anyway.) I got a similar feeling seeing the Northern Lights and STEVE as I did when we saw the total solar eclipse. I was in awe and it made me reflect on how much God loves us to have created a universe that produces such beautiful things for us to enjoy.

Bucket list item: See the Northern Lights. Check!!! Check!!!! and Triple Check!!!

Wow, what an amazing trip. We were so blessed with all the timing of things being perfect and the weather being perfect. The Lord was so good to us on this trip–filling the trip with little tender mercies.

The next day we got up and headed to the Arctic Circle in the truck because we didn’t trust the jeep with the rattle noise it was making since our issue near Denali. It would be a long day trip, but we decided we didn’t want to take the rigs on the Dalton Highway. The Dalton Highway is a gravel road frequented by large trucks and a lot of dirt and mud that extends all the way to the Arctic Ocean at Prudhoe Bay. We had considered driving all the way to Prudhoe Bay, but early in the trip revised that plan so that we could do more things in the Kenai. So we took on the Dalton Highway, which is rather infamous.

The fall colors were vibrant and full in this part of Alaska and it made for an absolutely beautiful trip. Again, the pictures do not do it justice.

One of our first stops was at the Bureau of Land Management visitors center just across the bridge on the north side of the Yukon River. It was just cool to be at the Yukon River. This river has been a part of many adventure stories written over the years and a part of actual adventures of miners heading to gold rushes and many other hardy and adventurous people. At the visitor center we met a very nice volunteer. He told us about how he got the volunteer job and that he had accommodations that came with volunteering a few miles away. What a cool thing to do. There was a couple there from the Czech Republic as well. They said that they stayed the night before near where we had stayed, but their view of the Northern Lights was obstructed. This made me realize just how blessed we had been to have an almost completely clear sky. It was a gift from above.

At around 2 pm, we arrived at the Arctic Circle. As you can see in the picture below, the truck was absolutely filthy but it would be even worse after the return trip. It made it rather difficult to get in and out of the truck without making a mess in the truck because the runners were coated with a layer of mud. There is a campground at the Arctic Circle so we pulled in for a little bit to eat lunch. The fall colors were just so beautiful. It is a free campground but they are considering making it a fee campground. I’m glad we didn’t bring the rigs down this road because they would have been absolutely filthy. Maybe next time we will though. We continued past the Arctic Circle for a few minutes–I think so Dad could say he drove further north this time than he had ever been before. When Mom, Dad, Cami and Andy they had come to Alaska in the 90s, they had stopped at the Arctic Circle and gone no farther.

On the way back, we stopped at a place called Finger Mountain. From the pictures below you should be able to figure out why they call it that. The interesting thing is that the bush pilots use it as a navigation landmark because it points the way to Fairbanks. That’s pretty cool. That was sure convenient of nature to provide a great landmark oriented just right.

Well when we got back to our camp, we saw the full damage of driving on the Dalton Highway. The truck was a muddy mess. So Mike and Dad got a bucket and took water from the Tolovana River and washed off the cab of the truck so we could get in an out without getting muddy. That made the truck look pretty funny–two toned (see below at Chena Hot Springs.)

The next day we headed out to Chena Hot Springs, east of Fairbanks. This was a really cool resort and we ended up choosing to stay for a couple of days. It was also a nice campground. They had just shut off the water at the dump station, so it was super cheap too. $10 per night. We enjoyed the hot springs that evening. They have done a really nice job of creating an outdoor pool that was very large and really nice. The facilities were clean and well maintained.

Chena Hot Springs also has an ice museum that mom really wanted to go see, so we booked a tour for the next day. The airplane is apparently a fairly recent addition. It is the kind of plane that was the original passenger plane to Alaska. The previous owner flew it to the resort and it took him 5 times trying to land to finally succeed because of the short runway. They intend to make it into a bar. The ice museum stays at 25 degrees Fahrenheit year round. It is powered by the geothermal energy plant that is on premise.

The ice museum is full of ice sculptures. The resort employees a couple who are both ice artists full-time to maintain it and create new sculptures. It was absolutely amazing. Below you can also watch a video of one of them creating a cocktail glass out of ice. They serve appletinis to those who purchase them at the end of the tour in an ice cocktail glass. After the guests drink their appletini, they take the ice glass outside and smash it. It was very cool to see the creativity and what can be done with ice. One interesting thing is that they had caribou hides on the seats at the bar and other places. In the picture of us below, we are sitting on a bench with a caribou hide on it and our backsides were not cold at all, but warm. Caribou fur is hollow and so it is an excellent insulator. The Athabascan people used it for bedding. And speaking of which, for a fee, you can spend the night in the museum. The record for people staying the longest is 3am in the morning. Maybe you will break the record. 🙂

After the ice museum, mom had to go rest because she had been sick the night before and all day. So Mike, Dad and I went on the Geothermal tour. The geothermal energy powers the resort and we toured the geothermal plant. Geothermal energy also heats a greenhouse year round. During the long sunny days of summer they also have several other gardens and greenhouses. The restaurant utilizes the produce. The dragon in the picture below is actually a BBQ or smoker. How cool is that! They have chickens and a northern goshawk thought that the chickens were pretty tasty. The whole resort is quite self-sufficient.

Later Mike and I went for a hike along Monument Creek. It was nice and relaxing and beautiful. I was about 2.75 miles and took us a couple of hours at our leisurely pace. We stopped and enjoy a nice sit by the creek. It was a perfect hike.

The next day we returned to Tanana Valley Campground in Fairbanks and took a day trip to North Pole, Alaska. It was a little bit cheesy to me, but they have definitely capitalized on their name. I’ve never seen so much Christmas merchandise in one place. They even had reindeer which are a cousin to the caribou apparently and are actually quite short. The top of their backs was just above waist level on me.

Then a terrible thing happened–my last day of the trip arrived. Boohoo!!! My flight was at 1:45am the next morning, so we took the Riverboat Discovery tour that day. It was fascinating. We were there with 600 of our closest friends–tour buses full of people. After the wide open spaces of Denali and up north, this seemed a bit crowded to me. It was still fun. As we traveled down the river, the tour guide told stories about some of the local people. One of those people was Susan Butcher. Susan was the second woman to win the Iditarod. She won four times. They told a fascinating story about she and her lead dog, who was the runt of the litter and knock-kneed. He was the dog she trained up and won the race with. It was quite an inspiring story. She fairly recently died of cancer and her husband still runs the kennel they created together.

We also stopped at an Athabascan village created to preserve their heritage and culture by the owner of the river boat. It was pretty cool to learn about their resourcefulness and ability to survive in the frigid Alaska climate. They were incredibly resourceful. They learned things like which fur helped to prevent frost bite. Wolverine fur helps shed frost and protect the face in frigid temperatures so they used it around the face of the hood of the coat below. This was a really educational trip.

This last tour was a wonderful way to wrap up what had been an absolutely amazing adventure. We all fell in love with Alaska and would love to come back again. All that was left was for me to pack my suitcase and have Mike drop we off at the airport to catch my flight. I did not want to go. I really wanted to stay and drive back with Mike. It had been so good to be together 24/7 for two months. He, mom and dad have a long drive ahead of them, but this adventure was worth every sacrifice we made and every inconvenience we encountered. Alaska is truly still a WILD place. We need more of these in the world. If you can–GO!