It was about midnight when we arrived in Fairbanks from our amazing day in Seattle. Stacey and Derek picked us up from the airport and after lots of hugs and smiles, they noticed our (lack of) luggage. Sean had the backpack he took to Southeast Asia, and I had a rolling, carry-on size suitcase and a purse. They praised our ability to pack light. We LOVE getting compliments like that – it’s not always easy to pack light but it IS rewarding.

This is their home about 20 minutes outside of Fairbanks. It’s an 800 square foot dry cabin. Yes, you read that right. No running water. Electricity, yes. Outhouse, yes. Showers, no. We knew this ahead time and knew it was all going to be part of the adventure!

This was our tent for the week. It was large inside – we cold both stand up and there were two cots, a small table, a chair and plenty of room for our bags. Oh – and this was also taken around midnight. The sun never sets – which led to many fun nights of staying up way too late! 

Sunday morning we headed out to Parks Monument for a view of the valley, surrounding domes and the Tenana River. It wasn’t very clear due to the smoke drifting in from forest fires in other areas but it was still pretty. On a clear day, you can see Mt. McKinley (Denali).

Stack then took us to a local botanical garden. With nearly 8 months of winter, I wasn’t expecting much in the way of blooms in Fairbanks but I was wrong. Look at all those colors! They get plenty of wonderful flowers and plants – they just have a very short season.

Look at this peony! The gardens were FILLED with all different colors of them. Stunning.

We went back to the cabin and then went to a local sushi restaurant for Sean’s birthday. 

We all had saki AND saki bombs, which the waitstaff painstakingly prepared for us as the entire restaurant watched and then laughed with us. So fun!

Stacey went to work Monday morning and our plan was to kayak on the Chena River in the afternoon. Derek and Stacey were in the midst of building their log cabin home on their property (the cabin was always intended as a temporary home while they built their larger one with plumbing, etc.) Sean helped out by chopping some firewood for Derek. That is, until he knicked his foot with the axe and we had to go to urgent care. Oy. I was very scared at first, but once I realized it was, in fact, a knick and his foot and toes were in tact I knew it would be fine. Sean chops wood at home often, but accidents happen no matter how experienced you are. So thankful it wasn’t worse.

It ended up being a very small (although deep) cut and with three stitches, some waterproof bandages and a plan to keep it out of the water we were pretty sure the rest of our plans wouldn’t be adversely affected. This picture was taken as I was making fun of him, duh. 😉

Our kayak ride down the Chena River with Stacey, Derek and Derek’s mom Joy was quite enjoyable. Up until Stacey and Derek realized how much further we had to go till the pick-up point (we were under a time constraint). We were paddling like maniacs to get to the Pumphouse, but we made it just in time! Whew!

Sean entertained everyone with all of his awesome magic tricks that night. Stacey, Derek and Joy all talked to us about our trip to Denali National Park the next day and made sure we had extra windbreakers, hats, etc. in case it was cold.

We left for Denali on Tuesday, crossing the Jack Coghill Bridge to the Interior on the way.

There was some construction on the road which made sense given their short season for doing road work. I was amazed on the drive by how truly untouched many parts are – not like that in the lower 48. It was true, undisturbed wilderness all around us.

Once at Denali National Park, we decided to go on our own and drove about 15 miles into the park to Savage River, which is the last stop that cars can go. The rest of the park has to be explored on a bus or bike or on foot. We found out the park takes up a similar land mass to the ENTIRE state of Massachusetts and that Mt. McKinley (Denali) was more than 200 miles inside the park from where we were. WOW.

The parts of the park we saw had a similar look – scraggly brush and trees, low rivers and streams, and brown hills/mountains. It’s the tundra and we were pretty pumped to be exploring this unique type of environment.  I remember studying the tundra in school an never thought I’d get the opportunity to see it. 

The Savage River Loop was a beautiful trail, allowing us to walk in the low hills and tundra, but also wander down to rushing water. 

We found a point that veered off to higher ground and climbed up. The views were incredible and the majority of the clouds had moved on, giving us a perfect blue and white sky as a backdrop.

On our way out of the park, we saw some of the taller, white-capped mountains peeking out from behind that first brown range. It was beautiful!

This *might* be my favorite picture of the entire trip. Haha!!

After the park, we ventured into the town of Denali, which was touristy but charming. There was a long boardwalk and bridge over the Nenana River. This river was INTENSE, y’all. First of all, it was moving so fast. A few miles up from where we were the mountains narrowed into a gorge and the river was gushing with huge rapids. 

The river is also this very strange milky, silver color – sort of like liquid metal. The river comes from glacial melt and picks up tiny flecks of stone along the way that are the consistency of flour, giving it that grey color.

We had lunch as Prospector’s Pizza where we had elk meatballs, a yummy pizza and great service. After popping into a few gift shops, we headed back to Fairbanks, making a stop at 49th State Brewery along the way. It had seemed unassuming from the road, but had an entire courtyard with outdoor games like cornhole and horseshoes, a large restaurant, bar and fire pit inside, a gift shop and some really good beers. We love being pleasantly surprised and y’all know we love to support local businesses. We’d brought some growlers and filled them up with Baked Blonde and Mosaic IPA. 

It was about 9pm when we arrived at the cabin. We had fun telling Stack and Derek of our fun day and all the beautiful things we saw. We’ll remember it forever.

Coming soon: More highlights from the rest of our time in Alaska.