Chena Hot Springs, Alaska: Ice Castles, Renewable Energy & Moose Amid The Hot Springs

Today we drove through the Chena River State Park on the way to the Chena River Hot Springs Resort. The drive consisted of at least 30 miles of muskeg and stunted spruce forests followed by a 10 miles or so of the beautiful Two Rivers & Chena River Hot Springs. At the end of the drive, roughly an hour outside of Fairbanks you come to the Chena River Hot Springs Resort.

The hot springs have been opened commercially for over 100 years however there is plenty of evidence the hot springs were used by generations of Native Americans before the first miners soothed their aching bodies in the 105 degree mineral waters.

On the drive out we saw a moose however our attempts to get a few pictures were foiled by hordes of ravenous mosquito's. Mary Lynn got a real kick out of watching Dave and I trying to use our cameras while swatting wildly at the buzzing menace.

Turns out the moose was too far away to be seen clearly in the photos -- all those bites for nothing. Well, not for nothing really, we still had a chance to see a wild moose knee deep in the swamp contentedly munching on the lake bottom's vegetation. Truly a beautiful sight.

We jumped back in the car and from then on we explored the various turn outs and sights from the car with the windows tightly closed against the little blood suckers. For some reason these particular mosquito's bite itched more than usual.

Eventually we reached the Chena Hot Springs Resort. As I said it's been in operation for over 100 years (at least the hot springs portion), for many years it was operated by the state of Alaska. Turns out the state was losing over $1M a year operating the resort. About 11 years ago the hot springs were purchased by Bernie Karl, a man with big dreams and ambition.

He immediately began improving the 450 acre property, building a hotel, restaurant, runway and made the resort a base for many activities: flight seeing, dog sledding, Northern Lights Viewing Tours, Arctic Circle Tours, horseback riding, hiking, biking, etc. In fact they market themselves as "One location; 100 activities". I'm not sure if it's 100 activities however the variety of choices are enormous.

One of the main attraction is an Ice Museum that, using geothermal energy production and cooling is preserved year round, even during the Alaska interior's warm (80 degrees is not uncommon) summers.

The Ice Museum is really an Ice Hotel, Wedding Chapel, Ice Sculpture display (including an unbeleivable sculpture of two knights jousting), and a bar that serves Appletinis in solid ice martini glasses. They can't call it a hotel since Alaska state law requires all hotel rooms to have a fire sprinkler system. Not practical (or needed) in an all ice hotel. Everything is made from ice. Beds, tables, chairs, alter, castle, hotel rooms, martini glasses; even the fireplace and mantle are carved from ice. What's going to burn? But the law is the law and so it's called the Ice Museum...

We really enjoyed exploring the ice museum/hotel. The pictures are only OK. If you use a flash you lose all the fantastic colors. Without a flash you lose the sharpness. I included both so you get an idea of both what it looks like and how its made.

Dave & I took the Geothermal Renewable Energy Tour, where you get a behind the scenes view of how the resort uses the 165 degree hot water to create electricity. This is one of Bernie Karl's biggest innovations and is a model for self sufficient energy generation. In fact, the resort plans to sell excess energy in the future.

Oh yeah, did I mention they have hot springs. MLA and I grabbed our swimsuits and towels from the car, paid $10 each for access to the hot springs, quickly changed in the locker room, and within minutes we were enjoying the luxurious warmth of the Chena Hot Springs. Felt especially good after spending about half an hour in the Ice Museum, which is maintained at a constant 20 degrees.

In any case, the hots springs quickly brings your core temperature up and the mineral waters will sooth whatever aches and pains you might have. What a great place. I highly recommend you visit the Chena Hot Springs. They live up to their tag line of "Alaska's Premier Pristine Wilderness Resort For All Seasons".

BTW - on the ride home I told MLA I would take her to dinner iF she found a moose and I was able to get photo's of said moose. We have found a great restaurant that the Fairbanks locals frequent called The Cookie Jar. Needless to say, MLA was determined to find us a moose so I would take her to dinner (and she wouldn't have to cook!).

Sure enough, about 15 minutes up the road we found another moose in a different creek, about 40 yards from the road. I was able to get the pictures I wanted and MLA was able to get dinner out on the town. Ain't life grand!

See Ya!