The hot springs are an 11 mile hike from the Elliot Highway, north of Fairbanks. It is a difficult hike due to the large amount of elevation change, the typically cold and windy weather conditions, and the distance, but at the end lies a warm cabin and hot springs! In the image below, the trail goes down this hill and across the bog flats before climbing over the dome on the right. Descending the other side of that dome will take you to the valley where the hot springs are. We started snowshoeing at about 2 pm on Saturday. Luckily, there was little wind and the temps were relatively warm (-10F).
A recent ice storm transformed the birch forest into chandeliers!
When we had a long downhill, we tried to sled. Based on milepost markers, our longest continuous sled was well over a mile!
Looking towards Tolovana Dome while walking through the black spruce bog. These trees were dead because they were burned in a fire.
The last few sunset streaks in the sky as we approached the other side of the bog, preparing to ascend the dome. It was COLD down in the low spots! After this point we were hiking for about 2 hours at night, but the full moon rose just as the sun set, so we had plenty of illumination along the way!
Our cabin at the hot springs was surrounded by a snowy fog Sunday morning.
One of the three hot tubs along the creek. Which was basically a big wooden box. Awesome.
The most difficult part of the trip was just extracting yourself from the hot tub and then being conscious enough to hike back out! We made sure to fill up the thermoses with hot tea to ease the return trip. It was much colder the day we hiked back, though I got well frosted hiking up the dome! Now I'm cryptic with the alder.
Approaching the top of the dome
The evening light transformed the world into black and white!
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