Fairbanks is only the 2nd. largest town in Alaska but it’s a more popular destination than Anchorage among RV’ers. This May be because Fairbanks appreciates it’s RVing visitors. There are a lot of things to see & do & several RV parks.
We decided to stay @ the Elks lodge in Fairbanks. They had power hookups & we knew we would be doing some things that would keep us away from the coach most of the day. Now having a freezer with Salmon we wanted to have the power to keep it frozen 
We left Denali after going to the Sled dog demonstration. We only had 117 miles to travel. One of the first things we did when arriving in Fairbanks was to go to the Visitor center. There was a Native American Cultural center @ the Visitor center. Below is a pix of some of the beaded clothing displayed there.
Also was this information on some animals that hibernate. We knew about the bears but Squirrels and also these frogs. This frog is the only reptile that lives in Alaska.
The University of Alaska Museum of the North is a must see. The museum has the states largest public display of gold.
And this is Blue Babe, a 36,000 year old steppe bison mummy. An example if some of the furniture you could have found in some homes in the area during the gold rush era. And a modern art bear.
We took the Riverboat Discovery Cruise.It’s a family-owned, Fairbanks attraction that began in 1950. it’s a half-day cruise on the Chena & Tanana rivers. You go by some very nice homes along the river. You might notice these homes have a lot of windows considering how cold it gets there in the winter (-40). I guess they have multi pained windows. I think the narrator said 5 pains So they stay toasty warm.
And a bush pilot takes off & lands on the river in his restored 1955 Piper airplane.
It just happens that the Susan Butchers Iditarod dogs “Trail Breaker Kennels” is on the river. Her husband does a demo with the dogs & answers questions about the dogs & the kennel. Susan won the Iditarod four times @ finished in the top ten fifteen times. Susan lost her battle with Leukemia in 2006. Her husband & 2 daughters continue Susan’s legacy of raising & training sled dogs.
On the riverboat they give a narration of the native culture. And have a replica of a Chena Indian village that they stop @ & you get off to wander through the village with Native American youth telling you what life would have been like. It is well done & an enjoyable afternoon.
In this first pix the young lady talks about cleaning the salmon & preparing it to smoke & or dry for the winter. The other two are showing other things about there culture. We also learned that the Navaho in Arizona are cousins to the Alaska tribes. There was a young man @ the Anchorage center & one of these young women were up in Alaska to work @ these cultural centers.
Steve got a recipe here from the girl & found a book in Fairbanks with a native american smoking recipe. Now he needs to find some time to try them out.
There was more to see in Fairbanks but we decided to leave some to see on another trip up. But before we left Fairbanks we took a trip up to the Artic Circle in the Tahoe.
Next the Artic Circle…
Hmmm, next time we have to see the museum.
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