North Pole & Chena Hot Springs Trip Report

We drove north from Chugiak at 10:30am on Friday morning. The sun was just risen in the cold winter sky.

Tess's friend Morgan had arrived at 8am to join us on the ride to North Pole for the weekend. We loaded up the van and the topper with firewood, air mattresses, sleeping bags and flashlights, and then we hit the road.

We stopped briefly in Wasilla to fill the gas tank and get some Starbucks.

My plan had been to leave around 8am so that all driving done in unfamiliar territory would be done during the daylight hours. But since we got a late start, the sun set by the time we got to Healy, just north of the entrance to Denali National Park, about two hours south of Fairbanks.

We arrived at North Pole (just past Fairbanks) at 5:25pm. Just enough time to visit Santa and the reindeer before he took a break for the night (at 6pm).

We followed the visit with Santa with some delicious chinese food at the Pagoda Restaurant nearby.

Then we headed back through Fairbanks, where we picked up another of Tess's friends, Melissa. She'd driven up with her sister earlier that day.

By 9:00 or so, we arrived at our cabin 32 miles out the Chena Hot Springs Road. We made quick work at starting a fire to drive out the cold inside the cabin. The temperatures outside were around 18 below 0 and dropping. The girls stayed in the warm van while the fire got going in the wood stove. I unfurled the air mattresses and sleeping bags. We loaded everything from the van into the cabin, including Little Bit who assumed her position on her bed in front of the wood stove.

Alicia was already asleep, so we tucked her into her sleeping bag next to Sissy's and she slept on.

The cabin was cozy with the woodstove. But the temps fluctuated between freezing and roasting. Some of this depended on which bunk you had. I was freezing for much of that first night. But most folks were warm. The second night we were all roasting most of the night.

We searched in vain for the styrofoam seat cover which usually hangs in the outhouse to keep the chill off your tush from the freezing toilet seat. So on Saturday, when I took the older girls into Fairbanks, I purchased a sheet of foam rubber and concocted two new seat covers which helped immensely!

After returning from Fairbanks, we packed our swimsuits and towels and headed further up the Chena Hot Springs Road to the resort at mile 57 (end of the road). We had dinner at the restaurant there, which is pricy, but good food. Then we walked across to the swimming building.

The door exiting to the outdoor rock lake was completely encased in ice, like a freezer that needs defrosting. Donned in only a swimsuit, we pushed the icy door open and exited onto an icy path across which we dashed to get into the piping hot rock lake. The outdoor temp was 25 below 0. Our bare feet stuck to the super cold ice on the path. Sort of an Alaskan foot spa.... exfoliation.

Soaking in the hot springs was very pleasant. However, our hair froze immediately. I heard two women talking in the locker room who said they'd both had their hair break off in such conditions in the past. Yikes.

Alicia spent most of her time playing in the indoor heated pool. She did venture outside once to a nearby hot tub briefly. But she did not like her hair freezing, so we made a rapid retreat. You have to be "18 and older" to go in the rock lake. We claimed the older girls were all 18.

We had stoked the woodstove prior to leaving for the hot springs. And we arrived back to find Little Bit still toasty warm on her sleeping bag.

The girls worked on a 700 piece puzzle late into the night and finally finished it entirely by lantern light.

In the morning, we packed up before the sun rose and headed into Fairbanks. We dropped off Melissa with her sister, rearranged the overloaded van, and headed south toward home. Alicia had to be back before 6pm when she was playing the role of an angel in the church Christmas Pageant.

During the ride home, the girls watched movies on the portable DVD player and Tess's laptop. I listened to Christmas music.

The drive home took about 7.5 hours with a couple brief stops along the way. The roads were good and the temperatures rose as we got closer to home. It was about 25 degrees above zero at the house.

We had a great time on the weekend trip and we look forward to doing it again next year.

Here's a link to more photos from the trip:

www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=132014&id=523908158&I=a253da5eba