Experience the Chena Hot Springs
About 57 miles outside of Fairbanks, you’ll find the Chena Hot Springs, located in the Chena River State Recreation Area. The road is about 57 miles long and traces the Chena River, which runs through the hills east of Fairbanks. The Chena Hot Springs make an excellent side trip from Fairbanks or you can stay at the Chena Hot Springs Resort.
The Chena Hot Springs has been popular since the 1900s when gold prospectors would make their way to the springs to cure their bodies of their aches and pains. The springs are the most accessible and developed hot springs in the interior of Alaska. In 1904, Robert and Thomas Swan heard that a U.S. Geological Survey Crew had seen steam rising from the Chena River. Swan suffered from rheumatism and set out with supplies to reach the hot springs. A month later, the two brothers were at the North Fork of the Chena River and had to work their way up a tributary where they found the hot springs on August 5, 1905. As the popularity of the springs grew, the water was analyzed and the Bureau of Chemistry that there were three components in the water that made it different from American hot springs. These included bicarbonate sodium, chloride and sulfate. Today, you can easily reach the hot springs by visiting the Chena Hot Springs Resort.
The Chena Hot Springs Resort provides you with accommodation options year round, so you can enjoy the springs, whether you’re coming to the area in the summer or winter. You can soak in the hot springs at any time of the year.
In the area, you will also find many summer and winter outdoor day activities. You can go horseback riding, snowmobiling and cross-country skiing. The Chena Hot Springs Resort also features the Aurora Ice Museum. You may have once heard of the ice hotel on the Travel Channel. Well, unfortunately the hotel melted, but the owners have not created the Aurora Ice Museum, which features an ice bar where you can have a cocktail in a glass made of ice. The museum is open in both the summer and the winter.
The resort is also doing its part in helping the environment. The resort makes use of the first low-temperature binary geothermal power plant that was built in Alaska and they are working on several different alternative energy projects. These include using hydrogen and vegetable oil as fuel. They have also been conducting greenhouse production of vegetables with the University of Alaska Fairbanks Agricultural and Forestry Experimentation Station.
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