Chena Hot Springs

From the Denali campground, we drove on further north on August 19th to Fairbanks, by now under the guidance of our weather and aurelia borealis websites. After stops for food and fuel, we headed on toward Chena Hot Springs, where, we were informed, there would be a decent chance of seeing the northern lights that night. Chena Hot Springs is about an hour's drive beyond Fairbanks, and it is sort of a Fairbanks thing, one of the two or three top tourist destinations in the area. So we read. In our estimation, it was a small partially enclosed hot springs, not very inviting, surrounded by motel buildings, a restaurant, and a very large number of, um, things, many whimsical, that had to do with life in the far north. We were not amused, and grew even less amused later that evening when the clouds gathered and there were no northern lights to be seen. Prospects changed overnight, worsening, and we decided to spend a few more nights at a nice B&B in Fairbanks, to rest, relax, reconsider, and, of course, reorganize.

Among the interesting artifacts laying around

Snow coaches, out of season

A DC-6; interestingly, one was flying in and out of the Fairbanks airport
throughout our time there; 1950s airliner, last of the big prop jobs

Lobby artifacts

Excalibur

Cool spring

More artifacts

Alas, this was as close as I got to a shot of the outdoor hot springs

Not knee-high by the 4th of July

The Aurarium...an ice museum...we passed

Departure the next day; as you can see, at this latitude the trees already

are changing; we'll be leaf-peeping all the way to San Diego!