Alaska or Bust: Healy, Alaska to Fairbanks and Chena Hot Springs (Aug 5)

We are into the 2nd half of our 7 week road trip at this point. Thursday was day 25 of our 49 day journey, we've driven 5300 miles at this point more than half of what we are expecting to drive. Today we drove from Healy, just north of Denali National Park to Fairbanks. It was a short drive, relatively speaking. But nothing here is a short drive!!

I have heard mixed reviews of Fairbanks, but so far I really like it here, much more than Anchorage. We are in the best campground of the trip so far, that's a blessing considering 2 of the campgrounds that we were in this week in Anchorage and Wasilla that were absolutely horrid.

We went to the Chena Hot Springs, about 60 miles northeast of Fairbanks. These were the best of the 3 hot springs we have visited so far. Chena is a very cool place. Not only do they have the hot springs pools, but they also harness the thermal energy to heat greenhouses to grow all of the vegetables for their resort year round. They get so much sunlight here, much more than the southern part of the state, that the flowers and the summer crops are huge!! They have a lodge that is over 100 years old. It's an absolutely beautiful place. It was a perfect day for the hot springs at 45 degrees.

Tomorrow, we are going to spend a little time in Fairbanks then head back out on the last stretch of the Alaska Highway (Fairbanks to Tok) that we skipped on the way up when we headed off to Wrangell-St Elias NP. We are hoping to make it to the Tok area tomorrow.