Fairbanks Parks & Trails

The Chena River­walk makes for a relax­ing self-paced stroll along the Chena Riv­er and through the most scenic parks and plazas of his­toric down­town. It’s best when flow­ers are in full bloom (July-August). The path stretch­es approx­i­mate­ly 3.5 miles between Pio­neer Park and Air­port Way, with longer options avail­able. Or — park at Immac­u­late Con­cep­tion Church or in the Down­town Trans­porta­tion Cen­ter for a short­er jaunt.

Eas­i­ly one of the most scenic dri­ves in the Inte­ri­or, the trip out to Table Top Moun­tain from Fair­banks winds deep into the cen­ter of White Moun­tains Nation­al Recre­ation Area, ris­ing up hill­sides and dip­ping down into val­leys for a rolling pic­ture show of spruce for­est and snaking riverbeds. The hike to Table Top Moun­tain is just as spec­tac­u­lar, pro­vid­ing panoram­ic views of the White Moun­tains from the cen­ter of the range, and is a short ​“must  ...more

The White Moun­tains Nation­al Recre­ation Area is home to 200+-miles of trail tra­vers­ing a mil­lion acres of wilder­ness and a moun­tain range named for the dom­i­nant col­or of its lime­stone foun­da­tion. To get there, dri­ve 28 miles on the Elliott High­way from Fox (where it splits with the Steese) and look for signs mark­ing the trail­head. The trail­head is the start­ing point for both the Sum­mit Trail, and the Ski Loop Trail, a 5‑mile loop and a nice  ...more

This 15-mile loop is well worth the mod­er­ate to stren­u­ous hike. This trail pro­vides views of tors, unusu­al­ly shaped out­crop­pings that were formed 70 mil­lion to 90 mil­lion years ago when molten rock pushed upward and cooled before reach­ing the surface.

This path was con­struct­ed to pro­vide a place for hik­ers to view the plantlife around inte­ri­or Alas­ka. This is a unique trail that allows hik­ers to view things that would be impos­si­ble to hike with­out a trail. There are all types of wildlife and small plants. Water­boots are rec­om­mend­ed in spring.

This is a mod­er­ate­ly dif­fi­cult 5 mile long trail that begins and ends at the Wick­er­sham Dome Trail­head at Mile 28 Elliot High­way. This trail offers beau­ti­ful views of the Alas­ka Range and Denali (Mt. McKinley).

Mur­phy Dome is a recre­ation­al site most pop­u­lar with ATV rid­ers and hik­ers. It lies about twen­ty miles out­side of the Fair­banks, most of which are trav­eled on Mur­phy Dome Road off of Sheep Creek Road which can be accessed from the UAF cam­pus. This Dome is also a pop­u­lar place to watch sun­sets in the sum­mer and fall, or to observe the north­ern lights in winter.

A short or long day hike awaits at Angel Rocks, a scenic dri­ve out Chena Hot Springs Road and with­in easy range of the reju­ve­nat­ing waters that have drawn trav­el­ers for over a cen­tu­ry. The best option for a short day trip in this area is the 3.5‑mile loop that begins on even ground along the north fork of the Chena Riv­er and then sharply climbs up 900ft. For a longer hike to end with a refresh­ing dip in nat­ur­al hot springs, park at the same  ...more

This is an exten­sion from Low­er Angel Creek Cab­in and serves as the sum­mer access route to reach Upper Angel Creek Cab­in because the win­ter route is too wet to hike until the trail freezes.

This hike is great for the ear­ly-ris­ing fly fish­er­man. The lake is full of grayling and there are often cari­bou, moose and bears along the trail. The hike fol­lows an old min­ing trail that par­al­lels the Susit­na Riv­er to Snod­grass Lake. There are many active mines along this hike and be sure to keep an eye out for grizzleys.

Grow­den Park is an expan­sive park sit­u­at­ed in down­town Fair­banks. Growden’s play­ground and open play areas are pop­u­lar with Fair­banks fam­i­lies, and uti­lized for a vari­ety of recre­ation­al activ­i­ties rang­ing from fris­bee foot­ball to medieval arts and role playing.

Locat­ed on San­ta Claus Lane, the Ter­ry Miller Memo­r­i­al Park fea­tures a pic­nic area, chil­dren’s play­ground, a spa­cious gaze­bo donat­ed by the North Pole Rotary Club and an up close view of the Alas­ka Rail­road as it pass­es by.

A win­ter use trail that access­es two cab­ins; Angel Creek Low­er Cab­in and Angel Creek Upper Cab­in. It’s pos­si­ble to hike in dur­ing the sum­mer, but the ground is usu­al­ly very wet, so it’s advis­able to take the new sum­mer trail to the upper cab­in. It leaves from near the low­er cab­in and tra­vers­es the hill­sides for sev­er­al miles before descend­ing to the upper cabin.

This is the site of the orig­i­nal air­field in Fair­banks, from which the first air­plane to leave the ground in Alas­ka took flight in 1913. Today, res­i­dents often use the grassy open areas to fly kites, exer­cise their dogs, or have a pic­nic. School chil­dren walk between the library and ele­men­tary school that bor­der the park to the east and west. Wildlife sight­ings are always a pos­si­bil­i­ty, par­tic­u­lar­ly for birds and moose.

The idea of this down­town plaza stemmed from a cel­e­bra­tion of the sil­ver anniver­sary of Alaska’s state­hood in 1984. Through the work of Fes­ti­val Fair­banks, Inc. ​’84 Direc­tor, William R. Wood, the Fair­banks City Coun­cil sup­port­ed the cre­ation of the Gold­en Heart Plaza. Con­struc­tion was com­plet­ed in 1987 and fund­ed by dona­tions from Fair­banks cit­i­zens, fam­i­lies, busi­ness­es, and associations.

From the top of the domes, take the side trails to the south sides of the hills and look for both blue­ber­ries and cranberries.

Once a small dairy owned by a cou­ple named Cream­er, this land is now an extra­or­di­nary wildlife refuge. More than 100 species of birds and mam­mals call this wilder­ness home (sand­hill cranes and mal­lards show up all sum­mer), and there are miles of trails that mean­der through a vari­ety of habitats.

Grape­fruit Rocks is on the short list of favorite spots for local rock climbers, who make fre­quent week­end trips to these lime­stone for­ma­tions and boul­ders stand­ing 50 miles north of Fair­banks. Grape­fruit Rocks is both ​“off the beat­en path” and yet still acces­si­ble by road, and offers some of the best rock climb­ing in the Inte­ri­or. It makes for a great day hike to watch climbers attempt runs on a vari­ety of lime­stone facades. Feel­ing bold?  ...more

This pub­lic use area rough­ly 2,000 acres is sand­wiched between Sheep Creek, Gold­stream and Bal­laine roads. The area is criss-crossed with dog mush­ing, ski­ing, ski­jor­ing and snow­ma­chine trails. This is also is a pop­u­lar blue­ber­ry-pick­ing spot.

Recre­ation­al and com­pet­i­tive cross-coun­try skiers alike are pas­sion­ate about Birch Hill Recre­ation Area; a favorite among locals with its exten­sive and chal­leng­ing trails that are always well-groomed, for both clas­si­cal and skate skiers.

One of the ways in which the Uni­ver­si­ty of Alas­ka Fair­banks (UAF) dis­tin­guish­es itself is through an insti­tu­tion-wide affin­i­ty for the out­doors (their newest slo­gan is ​“Nat­u­ral­ly Inspir­ing”). And much to the delight of stu­dents and res­i­dents, UAF main­tains an in-town trail net­work for ski­ing, hik­ing, snow­shoe­ing, bik­ing, and run­ning that is direct­ly acces­si­ble from cam­pus (also very pop­u­lar with dog walkers).

One of the best trips near Fair­banks fea­tures incred­i­ble views, excel­lent walk­ing, and easy logis­tics. For much of the route you’ll fol­low rock cairns accom­pa­nied by mileage posts as you cruise through undu­lat­ing alpine ter­rain. This is a suit­able trip for a begin­ner back­pack­er who has a high lev­el of fitness.