We had a wonderful overnight visit to Chena Hot Springs Resort located an hour northeast of Fairbanks, Alaska, near the Arctic Circle.

The water flows out of the underground wells at about 170 degrees but it's cooled to 140 or so by the time it reaches their soaking pool. They have a wonderful outside Rock Pool that is so large you can soak at 117 degrees at the end near the inflows or find cools spots in temperature at about 105 degrees at the other end. We enjoyed soaking and lounging on the rocks in the afternoon sun and again the following morning.

Our housing for the night was a yurt! Bear-proof, we hoped! (Those vegetarian bears might want our bag of carrots.)

As we were eating dinner at our picnic table, a walking tour approached and stopped at the huge pipe right next to us (turns out it was one of the wells) and we were able to listen to the director of the energy projects describe details. It was so interesting we tagged along with the rest of the tour and learned about the amazing programs of renewable energy in place and under development at Chena utilizing the geothermal hot water source. Neil loves to describe it to friends but I am just going to point you to their web page on renewable energy to learn about their innovative projects to make the Chena Hot Springs resort completely self-sufficient and independent of fuel oil sources. They have recieved world-wide recognition and awards for their amazing accomplishments.

 

The tour included a glimpse inside their ice museum full of incredible ice sculptures and “rooms” including an ice bar that serves vodka in ice glasses. The inside stays below freezing year round even in the 90 degrees summer heat, and it's cooled through the use of the hot water! At the entrance we passed the ice carver's workroom and then proceeded inside to view the works of art. The ice sculptures are lit from within, photos do not do them justice.

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