A product of the Gold Rush, Fairbanks has grown into a bustling trade and transportation center for Interior and Far North Alaska.Fairbanks enjoys more than 20 hours of daylight from mid-May through July.Popular regional activities include cruising the Chena and Tanana rivers on an authentic sternwheeler, canoe, or raft; observing musk oxen, caribou, and reindeer at the university's Large Animal Research Station; and visiting Alaskaland, a frontier theme park.
You can also drive to bubbling mineral waters at Manley, Circle, and Chena Hot Springs; view a portion of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline; and visit the community of North Pole, where the U.S. Post Office traditionally sends Santa's mail to be answered by his elves.
A fly-in excursion to Fort Yukon on the Arctic Circle gives you a sampling of life on the Yukon River, in Alaska's largest Athabascan village.
