Best Things To Do In Fairbanks

Join Alas­ka Wildlife Guide in expe­ri­enc­ing one of Alaska’s most desired attrac­tions, Chena Hot Springs Resort. From vis­it­ing the most north­ern Ice Muse­um, soak­ing in the all-nat­ur­al hot springs to learn­ing more about geot­her­mal ener­gy and vis­it­ing rein­deers, this tour will be a high­light of your Alas­ka experience.

Plunge into a win­ter won­der­land of spruce forests, wide open spaces and wildlife. This snow­mo­bile tour in North Pole (just out­side of Fair­banks) offers an unpar­al­leled peek at Alaska’s inte­ri­or and a seri­ous thrill, whether you take a first-timer’s tour or embark on an overnight adventure.

Sam­ple a vari­ety of Alaskan activ­i­ties year-round through this orga­ni­za­tion that’s all about show­cas­ing the com­mu­ni­ty of Two Rivers. The sig­na­ture Taste of Two Rivers Tour includes a dog sled demon­stra­tion, gold pan­ning, and an oppor­tu­ni­ty to meet & pet rein­deer. Oth­er sum­mer tours include hikes with rein­deer and vis­it­ing a peony farm. In win­ter, go dog sled­ding (day or mul­ti-day expe­di­tion) and view the north­ern lights. 

North­ern Alas­ka Tour Com­pa­ny offers sev­er­al tours that trans­port vis­i­tors to the Arc­tic Cir­cle. You can fly, dri­ve, or do a com­bi­na­tion of the two, depend­ing on your trav­el pref­er­ence and how much time you have. The most pop­u­lar tour is the fly-and-dri­ve excur­sion, which gives you incred­i­ble views from the air and a tour of the town of Cold­foot, fol­lowed by a dri­ve back to Fairbanks.

See­ing the North­ern Lights is an unfor­get­table win­ter­time expe­ri­ence. Of course, you nev­er know quite when (or even if) Moth­er Nature is going to unleash the dis­play into the night sky. So while you wait, you’ll be try­ing your hand at anoth­er activ­i­ty that’s unique to the Alaskan win­ter: ice fishing!

Won­der­ing how folks up here deal with Alaska’s long win­ter days? It’s easy when the inky night sky comes alive with an amaz­ing light show like the auro­ra bore­alis. Brav­ing the cold is noth­ing if you get a chance to see the lights danc­ing and wav­ing over­head. Com­bine your auro­ra view­ing trip with a few oth­er high­lights planned out by Salmon Berry Tours, and you’ll expe­ri­ence the best of win­ter in Alaska.

Hop aboard a nar­row-gauge train and get ready to stake your claim to gold on this two-hour tour of Gold Dredge 8. Learn all about how 100,000 gold rush­ers fought the per­mafrost in their quest to get rich. Then grab some gold of your own!

Ursa Major was one of the first dis­til­leries in Alas­ka and the first legal dis­tillery in Fair­banks. Today they’re ded­i­cat­ed to the fine craft of small-batch spir­its, and you can enjoy their akav­it, rum, vod­ka, gin, canned cock­tails, and sea­son­al releas­es of whiskey. Vis­it the tast­ing room, join a tour, or take a mixol­o­gy class!

Just a short 15-minute dri­ve from down­town Fair­banks, wait for the north­ern lights to appear in a warm, invit­ing space. Cozy up to the fire, sip on cocoa and cof­fee, and step out­side when moth­er nature puts on a show. Although the cen­ter is a short dis­tance from town, it is far enough away so that you won’t have to wor­ry about light pol­lu­tion inter­rupt­ing your view as you stand gaz­ing under the vast, star­lit sky.

Take part in the thrill of win­ter and fall dog sled­ding out of Fair­banks. You’ll expe­ri­ence the sport with one of Alaska’s longest-run­ning dog tour com­pa­nies. Go for a ride, attend mush­ing school, or go on a mul­ti-day adven­ture to the his­toric Tolo­vana Roadhouse.

A guid­ed day trip out of Fair­banks reveals the qui­et win­ter land­scape of the Tanana Val­ley and Denali Nation­al Park. Walk or snow­shoe on pic­turesque trails through the bore­al for­est, deep in the heart of the Alas­ka range.

The folks at Arc­tic Out­fit­ters are trav­el spe­cial­ists, and they’ll work hard to help you plan a trip to fit your needs. Arc­tic Out­fit­ters rents reli­able, sta­ble vehi­cles that are spe­cial­ly equipped for remote travel.

Vis­it the world’s old­est Siber­ian Husky ken­nel any time of the year with tour options rang­ing from a cou­ple of hours in the sum­mer to mul­ti-day win­ter adven­tures explor­ing Fairbanks.

Fly from Fair­banks and trav­el 80 miles above the across the Arc­tic Cir­cle on a scenic and his­toric adven­ture. Depart­ing in the evening, you’ll pass over the stark ter­rain of north­ern Alas­ka and land at the Athabas­can vil­lage of Fort Yukon. Then, with your guide, you’ll spend an hour learn­ing all about this fas­ci­nat­ing area — the his­to­ry, how peo­ple take care of them­selves in a pun­ish­ing envi­ron­ment, and some of the char­ac­ters who have called this  ...more

Join Alas­ka Wildlife Guide in explor­ing one of Alaska’s most desired attrac­tions, Chena Hot Springs Resort. From vis­it­ing the most north­ern Ice Muse­um, soak­ing in the all-nat­ur­al hot springs to view­ing the breath­tak­ing North­ern Lights dance across the sky, this tour will be a high­light of your Alaskan experience.

Pilot your own ATV through the rugged Alaskan wilder­ness out­side Fair­banks. Choose from morn­ing or evening tours dri­ving an ATV — a 2021 Can-Am Trail Mav­er­ick side-by-side in Fair­banks with Mid­night Sun ATV tours.

Stand out on the Arc­tic tun­dra under the north­ern lights, expe­ri­enc­ing their eerie glow on a one-day tour you won’t soon for­get. From Octo­ber to April, you’ll depart from Fair­banks on this one-day adven­ture and get a majes­tic flight­see­ing trip to the remote town of Cold­foot, above the Arc­tic Cir­cle. Explore this fas­ci­nat­ing town and look for the mys­te­ri­ous lights over­head. Then dri­ve south and get a close up of all the ter­rain in between, seeing  ...more

Glide over the snow on a sled that’s being pulled by a team of dogs — many of whom have run the Idi­tar­od, Yukon Quest, or oth­er races. Go with Rod’s Alaskan Guide Ser­vice and expe­ri­ence the thrill of dog sled­ding with dogs that love to run and pas­sion­ate mush­ers who will offer a deep­er under­stand­ing of this unique sport.

It’s Christ­mas year-round in North Pole, Alas­ka at the San­ta Claus House, just 20 min­utes from Fair­banks. The San­ta Claus House is a fron­tier gen­er­al store and post office turned hol­i­day shop. The postal tra­di­tion lives on — offi­cial let­ters from San­ta are post­marked from the North Pole and stamped with an offi­cial San­ta seal. The store also has live rein­deer, a cof­fee shop, hol­i­day gift items, the world’s largest San­ta stat­ue and, in summer  ...more

The Mor­ris Thomp­son Cul­tur­al and Vis­i­tors Cen­ter in down­town Fair­banks has brochures, maps, free WiFi and tele­phone, dai­ly lodg­ing avail­abil­i­ty, and local walk­ing and dri­ving tours. Serv­ing as the region­al vis­i­tor facil­i­ty, the friend­ly and knowl­edge­able staff have answers to all your questions.

This train trav­els through the forest­ed areas north of Anchor­age into the bore­al for­est, and even­tu­al­ly into the tun­dra regions fur­ther north. On a clear day the train will slow down to allow you to see beau­ti­ful vis­tas of Denali. You may also spot wildlife along the way. Day Trip from Anchor­age: Tal­keet­na Day Trip from Fair­banks: Denali Mul­ti-Day Trip from Anchor­age: Tal­keet­na, Denali Nation­al Park, and / or Fair­banks Mul­ti-Day Trip  ...more

You may think of rein­deer as fly­ing crea­tures of the imag­i­na­tion, but here in Alas­ka they’re very real. And this unique tour gives you the oppor­tu­ni­ty to get up close and per­son­al with these mag­nif­i­cent ani­mals. Walk among them and pet them — it’s tru­ly a moment made for Instagram.

Locat­ed on a qui­et ridge­line out­side of Fair­banks, the Bore­alis Base­camp offers 20 ele­gant igloos and a new vil­lage with 5 auro­ra-view­ing cubes, includ­ing a fam­i­ly suite cus­tom-designed and specif­i­cal­ly posi­tioned to max­i­mize your view­ing of the North­ern Lights. You’ll also have the chance to take advan­tage of the camps many win­ter activ­i­ties like dogsled­ding, snow­ma­chin­ing, snow­shoe­ing, and fat-tire biking. 

Gold Daugh­ters pro­vides a fun, hands-on way to learn about Fair­banks’ gold rush his­to­ry, and get a glimpse of the same thrill that brought so many peo­ple to Alas­ka in the first place. Your entrance fee pro­vides you with a poke of pay­dirt with guar­an­teed gold and lets you pan all day.

Plen­ty of peo­ple come to Fair­banks to look at the sky — for north­ern lights, or to bask in the mid­night sun. But this dog-mush­ing expe­ri­ence out­side of Fair­banks is proof that there’s plen­ty more of Fair­banks to be seen at eye — or even paw — lev­el. May through Octo­ber, take a a trail ride with 16 dogs hitched up to an ATV. Novem­ber through April, take a mush­ing tour through the snow!

Climb on board an authen­tic Alaskan stern­wheel­er, the River­boat Dis­cov­ery, and take a jour­ney back in time along the Chena and Tanana rivers. Stern­wheel­er boats trans­port you out into the Alaskan wilder­ness, and also back to a time when Gold Rush fever was sweep­ing across the state. The Dis­cov­ery II and Dis­cov­ery III offer ful­ly nar­rat­ed three-and-a-half-hour tour. But all your time isn’t spent on the boat. You’ll make an unfor­get­table one-hour  ...more

Take a deep breath and explore Fair­banks! With the mid­night sum­mer sun shin­ing near­ly 24 hours a day, Fair­banks is burst­ing with ener­gy and things to do. Explore Fair­banks is head­quar­tered at the Mor­ris Thomp­son Cul­tur­al and Vis­i­tors Cen­ter which is also the hub of year-round staffed vis­i­tor infor­ma­tion and services.

Spend some time above the Arc­tic Cir­cle under the mys­te­ri­ous, eerie north­ern lights. From mid-Sep­tem­ber to late April, when you have the best chance of wit­ness­ing phe­nom­e­non of the auro­ra bore­alis, you’ll fly from Fair­banks to the remote vil­lage of Cold­foot, in the Brooks Moun­tain Range. After the spec­tac­u­lar flight­see­ing expe­ri­ence, you’ll have either 3 days/​2 nights or 4 days/​3 nights to explore this rugged, fas­ci­nat­ing land­scape, with  ...more

The White Moun­tains Nation­al Recre­ation Area is home to 200+-miles of trail tra­vers­ing a mil­lion acres of wilder­ness and a moun­tain range named for the dom­i­nant col­or of its lime­stone foun­da­tion. To get there, dri­ve 28 miles on the Elliott High­way from Fox (where it splits with the Steese) and look for signs mark­ing the trail­head. The trail­head is the start­ing point for both the Sum­mit Trail, and the Ski Loop Trail, a 5‑mile loop and a nice  ...more

This path was con­struct­ed to pro­vide a place for hik­ers to view the plantlife around inte­ri­or Alas­ka. This is a unique trail that allows hik­ers to view things that would be impos­si­ble to hike with­out a trail. There are all types of wildlife and small plants. Water­boots are rec­om­mend­ed in spring.

This 15-mile loop is well worth the mod­er­ate to stren­u­ous hike. This trail pro­vides views of tors, unusu­al­ly shaped out­crop­pings that were formed 70 mil­lion to 90 mil­lion years ago when molten rock pushed upward and cooled before reach­ing the surface.

Eas­i­ly one of the most scenic dri­ves in the Inte­ri­or, the trip out to Table Top Moun­tain from Fair­banks winds deep into the cen­ter of White Moun­tains Nation­al Recre­ation Area, ris­ing up hill­sides and dip­ping down into val­leys for a rolling pic­ture show of spruce for­est and snaking riverbeds. The hike to Table Top Moun­tain is just as spec­tac­u­lar, pro­vid­ing panoram­ic views of the White Moun­tains from the cen­ter of the range, and is a short ​“must  ...more

The Chena River­walk makes for a relax­ing self-paced stroll along the Chena Riv­er and through the most scenic parks and plazas of his­toric down­town. It’s best when flow­ers are in full bloom (July-August). The path stretch­es approx­i­mate­ly 3.5 miles between Pio­neer Park and Air­port Way, with longer options avail­able. Or — park at Immac­u­late Con­cep­tion Church or in the Down­town Trans­porta­tion Cen­ter for a short­er jaunt.

From the top of the domes, take the side trails to the south sides of the hills and look for both blue­ber­ries and cranberries.

This is a mod­er­ate­ly dif­fi­cult 5 mile long trail that begins and ends at the Wick­er­sham Dome Trail­head at Mile 28 Elliot High­way. This trail offers beau­ti­ful views of the Alas­ka Range and Denali (Mt. McKinley).

A win­ter use trail that access­es two cab­ins; Angel Creek Low­er Cab­in and Angel Creek Upper Cab­in. It’s pos­si­ble to hike in dur­ing the sum­mer, but the ground is usu­al­ly very wet, so it’s advis­able to take the new sum­mer trail to the upper cab­in. It leaves from near the low­er cab­in and tra­vers­es the hill­sides for sev­er­al miles before descend­ing to the upper cabin.

Mur­phy Dome is a recre­ation­al site most pop­u­lar with ATV rid­ers and hik­ers. It lies about twen­ty miles out­side of the Fair­banks, most of which are trav­eled on Mur­phy Dome Road off of Sheep Creek Road which can be accessed from the UAF cam­pus. This Dome is also a pop­u­lar place to watch sun­sets in the sum­mer and fall, or to observe the north­ern lights in winter.

The idea of this down­town plaza stemmed from a cel­e­bra­tion of the sil­ver anniver­sary of Alaska’s state­hood in 1984. Through the work of Fes­ti­val Fair­banks, Inc. ​’84 Direc­tor, William R. Wood, the Fair­banks City Coun­cil sup­port­ed the cre­ation of the Gold­en Heart Plaza. Con­struc­tion was com­plet­ed in 1987 and fund­ed by dona­tions from Fair­banks cit­i­zens, fam­i­lies, busi­ness­es, and associations.

A short or long day hike awaits at Angel Rocks, a scenic dri­ve out Chena Hot Springs Road and with­in easy range of the reju­ve­nat­ing waters that have drawn trav­el­ers for over a cen­tu­ry. The best option for a short day trip in this area is the 3.5‑mile loop that begins on even ground along the north fork of the Chena Riv­er and then sharply climbs up 900ft. For a longer hike to end with a refresh­ing dip in nat­ur­al hot springs, park at the same  ...more

One of the best trips near Fair­banks fea­tures incred­i­ble views, excel­lent walk­ing, and easy logis­tics. For much of the route you’ll fol­low rock cairns accom­pa­nied by mileage posts as you cruise through undu­lat­ing alpine ter­rain. This is a suit­able trip for a begin­ner back­pack­er who has a high lev­el of fitness.

One of the ways in which the Uni­ver­si­ty of Alas­ka Fair­banks (UAF) dis­tin­guish­es itself is through an insti­tu­tion-wide affin­i­ty for the out­doors (their newest slo­gan is ​“Nat­u­ral­ly Inspir­ing”). And much to the delight of stu­dents and res­i­dents, UAF main­tains an in-town trail net­work for ski­ing, hik­ing, snow­shoe­ing, bik­ing, and run­ning that is direct­ly acces­si­ble from cam­pus (also very pop­u­lar with dog walkers).

Grow­den Park is an expan­sive park sit­u­at­ed in down­town Fair­banks. Growden’s play­ground and open play areas are pop­u­lar with Fair­banks fam­i­lies, and uti­lized for a vari­ety of recre­ation­al activ­i­ties rang­ing from fris­bee foot­ball to medieval arts and role playing.

Recre­ation­al and com­pet­i­tive cross-coun­try skiers alike are pas­sion­ate about Birch Hill Recre­ation Area; a favorite among locals with its exten­sive and chal­leng­ing trails that are always well-groomed, for both clas­si­cal and skate skiers.

Once a small dairy owned by a cou­ple named Cream­er, this land is now an extra­or­di­nary wildlife refuge. More than 100 species of birds and mam­mals call this wilder­ness home (sand­hill cranes and mal­lards show up all sum­mer), and there are miles of trails that mean­der through a vari­ety of habitats.

Locat­ed on San­ta Claus Lane, the Ter­ry Miller Memo­r­i­al Park fea­tures a pic­nic area, chil­dren’s play­ground, a spa­cious gaze­bo donat­ed by the North Pole Rotary Club and an up close view of the Alas­ka Rail­road as it pass­es by.

This pub­lic use area rough­ly 2,000 acres is sand­wiched between Sheep Creek, Gold­stream and Bal­laine roads. The area is criss-crossed with dog mush­ing, ski­ing, ski­jor­ing and snow­ma­chine trails. This is also is a pop­u­lar blue­ber­ry-pick­ing spot.

This is the site of the orig­i­nal air­field in Fair­banks, from which the first air­plane to leave the ground in Alas­ka took flight in 1913. Today, res­i­dents often use the grassy open areas to fly kites, exer­cise their dogs, or have a pic­nic. School chil­dren walk between the library and ele­men­tary school that bor­der the park to the east and west. Wildlife sight­ings are always a pos­si­bil­i­ty, par­tic­u­lar­ly for birds and moose.

This hike is great for the ear­ly-ris­ing fly fish­er­man. The lake is full of grayling and there are often cari­bou, moose and bears along the trail. The hike fol­lows an old min­ing trail that par­al­lels the Susit­na Riv­er to Snod­grass Lake. There are many active mines along this hike and be sure to keep an eye out for grizzleys.

This is an exten­sion from Low­er Angel Creek Cab­in and serves as the sum­mer access route to reach Upper Angel Creek Cab­in because the win­ter route is too wet to hike until the trail freezes.

Grape­fruit Rocks is on the short list of favorite spots for local rock climbers, who make fre­quent week­end trips to these lime­stone for­ma­tions and boul­ders stand­ing 50 miles north of Fair­banks. Grape­fruit Rocks is both ​“off the beat­en path” and yet still acces­si­ble by road, and offers some of the best rock climb­ing in the Inte­ri­or. It makes for a great day hike to watch climbers attempt runs on a vari­ety of lime­stone facades. Feel­ing bold?  ...more