Chena Hot Springs…

The day after we went to the theater, we headed up to Chena Hot Springs. This place has been frequented by Fairbanksians for over a century. Since shortly after it was discovered that there was hot water bubbling out of the ground and flowing down a small stream here. The springs are and hour and a half out of town averaging 60 MPH so it was quite the hike for people years ago and for many years. And because of that fact, there are many buildings here that are filled with rooms for rent. If you hiked, buggied, took the public carriage, or rode a horse out this far, you wanted to stay for a while and rest before you had to hoof it back. These days you drive a car on a blacktopped highway at 60 MPH so it’s not as important to stay a few days. The hot springs themselves are upstream a ways from the swimming pond, we did hike up that way for a bit but turned back since there isn’t much to see anyway. Plus there were signs about the bears in the area everywhere.

When you stroll the grounds, you find these antiques about. They were all brought up here in the early 1900’s and the placards all say these machines were here to work, used until they couldn’t be fixed anymore and left where they broke. The new owners have tried to bring them out of the woods and from behind buildings and spruce them up:

This is a very old home made snow machine, now called a snowmobile:

At the back of the property, this large heated pond where you can soak your ills away:

Here’s the improved stream that comes from the hot springs. What they did years ago was to join the hot spring and a cold stream to mix the water and lower the temperature. Now they have a pipe run up to the hot spring and can store the hot water and use it to run turbines to generate electricity. There’s still enough hot water for the pool:

This carriage is used for weddings here, and has been for nearly a century:

Out front is a runway and these planes live up here:

This is a look southwest towards Fairbanks, those clouds are pretty typical many days of the summer, but we do get sunshine as well:

This old Cat type machine was kind of interesting:

After we wandered around for a couple hours, we bought tickets for a visit to the ‘Ice Place’. This is a year round freezer kept at either 20F or -20F, (I can’t remember which). This is the first year where the sculptures didn’t thaw. Took them a couple years to figure out how to insulate and cool the building efficiently. The biggest help was to start generating their own cold using hot water from the springs instead of using the typical refrigeration machines you might be use to.

This is just after we entered the building. See the chainsaws there on the wall? That’s what they use to start carving the sculptures. This area is the work area of the staff sculptors:

Then there is this table with glasses made of ice used by the folks that pay extra for a drink at the ice bar:

The whole building is made out of ice blocks like these (except the outer shell):

The fireplace:

The place is very large so my flash disappeared into the distance. If you look carefully, you might see all those people sitting at the bar (on the right) and the other sitting at the tables scattered around. This is where you would get a nice cold drink:

An ice sculpture:

Close up of the fireplace:

Hard to see but those lights are on the sculptures:

Here’s a very large knight sculpture attacking another knight:

There are rooms you can rent here if you want to spent the night in a big igloo. they provide all the furs you can use. There is even an ice ‘loo’ if you’re brave:

This was one of the igloo ‘rooms’ where you can spend the night, they aren’t very high and they’re round so it’s hard to get a picture that explains the room. This is the table and lamp:

An Ice Queen, I know some of you are saying, ‘Looks like my wife, same warmth too’. Stop it:

Last antique, outside the door and across the lot from the Ice Palace:

That’s our visit to Chena Hot Springs. I’d like to run up there one of these days and soak in the hot pool…maybe next week. See ya on the road!