Everything to See & Do In Fairbanks, AK
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Back at the beginning of March, just before Covid-19 really started to hit the U.S. hard, my husband and I took a five day trip to Fairbanks, AK. This was the first time either of us had been to any part of Alaska, so you may be wondering why we picked Fairbanks, of all places, in early March, of all times.
The reason: the aurora borealis, aka northern lights. It has been a bucket list item for us to see and photograph the aurora borealis. After quite a bit of research, we landed on Fairbanks as a reasonably accessible location. As for the time of year, some internet research told me that around the equinoxes (March and September) is the best time to have a chance of seeing the lights. Even so, there is no guarantee. A lot of it depends on solar wind forecasts and the weather. If it is cloudy/overcast, you aren’t going to see it. Luckily, there are apps, websites, and facebook groups to help you out.
I learned far too much about photographing the aurora borealis to put in this post, so we’ll save that for another time. Here I will tell you about the rest of this amazing trip. Despite the frigid cold, I would go back in a heartbeat. The Fairbanks area is rugged and beautiful. Everyone we encountered was friendly and welcoming.
First up, Lodging: We stayed in a quaint little mountain yurt that we found on Air BnB just about twenty minutes northwest of Fairbanks. The property owner was friendly and helpful with our aurora viewing goals, and her dogs were the icing on the cake. The older of the two dogs stopped by our yurt almost daily, usually when we were cooking, and plopped down on the floor to hang out. He was the absolute sweetest!
Transportation: If you go to Alaska in the winter, you almost certainly will need four wheel drive, especially if you’re staying up in the mountains like we were. If you are staying outside of town, you pretty much can not rely on taxis or ride share apps to get you around. I called a few of the major rental car companies located at the Fairbanks airport. For some reason we had a hard time getting one to guarantee we would have a 4WD vehicle, even after calling and speaking to someone directly. Not wanting to risk being stuck with an inadequate car for the weather and road conditions, I kept looking until I came across Alaska 4x4. The rental process was quick and easy, and everyone we spoke to, from making the original reservation to vehicle pick up, was friendly and helpful.
This is our yurt, and the jeep we rented out front.
Dining: Our yurt had a full kitchen, so we stopped at the grocery store when we first arrived in town to pick up supplies to cook meals and snacks. We only actually went out to eat a couple of times. The one restaurant worth noting was the Cookie Jar Restaurant, which was suggested to us by a woman working at the rental car office. The food was delicious and the service was quick and friendly. I highly recommend it.
The only moose I was able to get a picture of.
Cold Weather Gear: As I mentioned earlier, the temperatures were very cold. At some points, it was -20F or colder, and during the day it didn’t really get up past 10-15F. Because of this, we thought it best to rent some cold weather gear. If you already have your own, you will be fine, but we live in the San Francisco area and it is never that cold here. There are a couple of companies you can rent from in the Fairbanks area, but we ended up going with Alaska Outdoor Gear Rental. The pick up and drop off process were very simple and conveniently located near the airport. We definitely appreciated having the coat, snow pants, and boots.
Now for the fun stuff! We booked two activities during our trip: sled dog mushing and a visit to a reindeer farm.
Mushing: We scheduled our thirty minute mushing tour through Paws For Adventure. We were bundled up in our sled and taken through some snowy, wooded trails for an amazing adventure. Our musher answered all of our questions about the dogs, how they train, what they eat, etc. And at the end of the tour, we were able to hang out with and cuddle some of the other dogs at the kennel.
The good boys and girls of our mushing team.
Reindeer Walk: The other activity we scheduled was a reindeer walk at Running Reindeer Ranch. We learned all about how the ranch was started, how it got its name, and reindeer life history. Then we took a walk through the woods with the herd and learned about reindeer care and each individual's personality. The tour ended with hot cocoa and cookies!
With the rest of our free time, we relaxed and enjoyed the Fairbanks area. We drove around taking in the views. We stayed up late into the night looking for the aurora borealis (which we did see and photograph, by the way). And we drove around looking for moose because I really wanted to see one. We ended up seeing three moose, but unfortunately not for long enough to get a picture. I guess that’s just all the more reason to visit again!
