Fairbanks calls itself the Golden Heart of Alaska, a nod to its gold-rush past, its geographic placement deep within Interior Alaska, and presumably its demeanor. It’s the second largest metropolitan area in the state but it also feels like a small town. And that’s to be expected because even though it’s Alaska’s second largest metro, only ~30k live in the city and 100k in the borough. Everybody seems to know everybody.
We spent ten days in Fairbanks in late September / early October, using it as a convenient home base, radiating outward for day trips to much smaller places. Even so, we barely scratched the surface of this massive expanse.
Shoulder Season
Autumn isn’t the usual tourist season in Alaska, and yet it offers benefits. It’s a shoulder season. Summer daylight and warmth wanes along with the crowds. Winter activities haven’t begun. But visitors can get a little taste of both. I experienced my very first September snowfall although it melted quickly, and then a few days later it hit 60° Fahrenheit (15° Celsius).
We experienced a whole range of weather including a lot of gray skies, patchy drizzle, some rain, a little wet snow, and yes even clearing and sunshine. Our visit also fell about halfway between Midnight Sun and Polar Night, so sunrise and sunset felt practically “normal” for someone coming from the Lower 48. At the same time, we lost about 6 minutes of daylight every day, or about an hour during our brief visit. Winter loomed around the corner.
Keep in mind that a lot of attractions close during this period. The summer ones are finished and the winter ones haven’t yet begun. We understood this ahead of time and found plenty to do anyway, and we had pretty much everything to ourselves.
Aurora Borealis Season
Like any natural phenomenon, the Aurora Borealis appears on its own schedule. Nobody can predict exactly when the Northern Lights will occur but some parts of the year are better than others and the extra nighttime helps. So lots of people come to Interior Alaska during deep winter to increase the odds.
However, aurora season actually starts earlier, and we were already in it. I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best, but it wasn’t a primary requirement.
Well, we got spectacularly lucky. Spotting an aurora requires two factors aligning: solar flares and clear skies. That’s a gross oversimplification although I think it gets the point across. The first widespread aurora of the season arrived on September 30, 2025, while we were driving near the Arctic Circle for a completely different purpose. Of course we stopped at a pullout and enjoyed the show.
HooDoo Half Marathon
So this was actually the stated reason for the trip. Yes, we traveled all the way to Fairbanks to run a half-marathon, although we stayed much longer and did a lot of other things. It was a point-to-point race that started outside of town, wandered onto the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus, and finished at the HooDoo Brewing Company. This is the biggest half-marathon in Interior Alaska and a record setting crowd of more than 500 people participated this year. We got ceramic beer mugs commemorating the 10th anniversary of the race instead of yet another finisher medal. That was a nice change.
It was a tough course. Well, the first four miles were particularly challenging, the rest was pretty easy. It started by dropping down into a hollow onto a wet, barely gravel road. It wasn’t raining but it had rained all night. So it became a mud slog with minimal traction including a slippery uphill section that sapped much of my energy early in the race. By the fourth mile it turned to pavement and a net downhill, and it got much better.
I managed to finish first in my age category, which wasn’t as impressive as it sounds: there were only six of us. That’s what happens when you age. Much of the competition gave up years ago.
Boroughs
Naturally I wasn’t going to slack on my County Counting pursuits either. But I’ll also note, Alaska doesn’t have counties it has boroughs, even though they’re considered “county-equivalents” for this purpose. I captured two new boroughs: Fairbanks North Star and Denali. But wait! Alaska also has the unique Unorganized Borough (which isn’t actually a borough) that further subdivides into county-equivalent census areas. So I also captured two of the census areas of the Unorganized Borough: Southeast Fairbanks and Yukon-Koyukuk.
I’ve now visited a bunch of Alaska — marked in blue on the map — after my fourth trip to the state. I particularly relished Yukon-Koyukuk, the largest county or county-equivalent in the United States, even larger than the state of Montana! Unfortunately, now I’ve done all the “easy” places in Alaska. Finishing the state will get a lot more expensive and time-consuming going forward.
On With the Show
But that was a concern for another day. We landed in Fairbanks and knew adventures awaited as soon as we saw the stuffed bears at the baggage claim area in the terminal. This wouldn’t be a normal vacation.
Articles in the Interior Alaska Series
- Golden Heart
- Downtown Fairbanks
- Greater Fairbanks
- Parks Highway
- Coldfoot
- Dalton Highway
- Richardson Highway & More
- Memorable Signs
See Also: The Complete Photo Album on Flickr.
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