North Pole & Fairbanks

~ 13.05.2019 to 14.05.2019 ~

Hello there,

After our first night in Alaska, we made our way to Fairbanks, a slightly 'bigger' city with about 30,000 inhabitants. Pretty early on the route, we saw our first moose: a single one and a moose cow with her calf. Both times, the animals were right on the side of the road and then fled into the forest shortly afterwards. It's amazing how big a fully grown moose can be!

Our first stop was in Delta Junction, where the Alaska Highway ended. So we made it and drove the entire 2200 kilometers or 1422 miles of the Alaska Highway! And that without any incidents ;-)
We continued on the Richardson Highway to Fairbanks. Just before Fairbanks, we passed the 'North Pole'. And no, we weren't really at the North Pole, but in a small town called 'North Pole'. This Christmas town was originally founded to attract manufacturers of Christmas products. However, this plan didn't really work out, so nowadays it's more of a tourist attraction. There is the Santa Claus House, a huge house with lots of Christmas decorations, clothing, chocolate, and more... You really got into the Christmas spirit there, even in mid-May :-D No wonder, when even Christmas music is playing in the background and everything is sparkling and blinking. I would highly recommend it to any Christmas lover to come here if they ever happen to be in Alaska. In front of the house, reindeer were also kept and an oversized Santa Claus figure stood next to the parking lot. In general, the whole town was completely geared towards Christmas all year round, which could also be seen, for example, in the street lamps.

After a two-hour stay in this Christmas paradise, we now headed to Fairbanks. First to the tourist information center to get some information about Alaska. And then we drove to our overnight location, a parking lot next to several baseball fields. And by chance, there were also two games going on, which we watched. Although we had absolutely no idea about the rules of baseball, it was really interesting to see this sport.

Not much happened the next day. We stayed in Fairbanks, used the WiFi at the tourist information center, and took a shower again after a few days. We also visited Pioneer Park, where there was a children's carousel and several food stalls, like at a mini-fair. But except for the carousel, everything was still closed, so we just sat on a bench. Afterwards, we wanted to visit the Gold Dredge a bit outside of Fairbanks. However, when we arrived there, the last guided tour had just ended and apparently, you couldn't visit the premises without a guide. So we went back to the parking lot in Fairbanks where we wanted to spend the night.