Pioneer Park, Fairbanks, Alaska - July 31st to August 1st, 2022
Pioneer Park was our first visit to Fairbanks in Season Four. It was a quick stop on our way to Denali National Park. We would return to explore more of the Fairbanks area later.
It rained during the night and was still raining Sunday morning when we woke up. However, the sound of the rain on the roof of the van was a pleasant sound to sleep with. Our destination for the day was Pioneer Park in Fairbanks. It rained during most of our drive, so we didn’t see much scenery. However, the rain stopped by the time we arrived.
Pioneer Park is a large, historical theme park. They allow RV overnight parking in their lot for $12 per night. There is potable water available, but no dump station or any other amenities. However, there are flush restrooms inside the park which they leave open all night. That worked perfect for us. The parking lot is paved, so it is pretty level. The RV parking spots are generously spaced, so you have a little bit of space between RV’s. When we arrived, there were plenty of places to park for the night. You can pay cash at the self pay stations, or go online to use a credit card.
We were only staying two nights, but we’ll be returning to Fairbanks in less than two weeks. The Tahana Valley State Fair was currently going on at the fairgrounds. There are three state fairs in Alaska. The Tahana Valley State Fair in Fairbanks, the Southeast Alaska State Fair in Haines, and the Alaska State Fair in Palmer. The first two run about the same time in late July and early August while the Alaska State Fair in Palmer runs near the end of August and seems to be the largest fair of the three and lasts longer.
Since rain was in the forecast for Monday, we decided to head over to the Tahana Valley State Fair for lunch and a stroll around the grounds. We were excited that we qualified for the senior discount entry fee. It’s nice to have some advantages to being old. We filled up on fair food, then toured the barns and exhibit halls. It was a typical fair with goats, sheep, pigs, cows, bunnies, and guinea pigs. There were no chickens because of the fear of spreading the avian flu. The 4H club had all kinds of exhibits, from vegetables to arts and crafts.
We sat and watched dancers from the local world dance classes. There were other stages with small bands, a sculptor carving bears from tree stumps with a chain saw, and one with a group of aerial silk performers. Our favorite show, however, was the Canine Stars Stunt Dog Show, the same group that was on the 2021 season of America’s Got Talent. It was very entertaining while also being informative on how to train your dog to catch flying discs.
After spending the whole afternoon at the fair, we returned to Pioneer Park to make dinner. Since the weather was still nice, we took a stroll around Pioneer Park. The park is free and open from noon to 8 pm. It covers about 44 acres. There are historic cabins from the area, a paddle wheel boat, a train car, a carousel, an air museum, old mining equipment, an art gallery, shops, restaurants, a playground, sand volleyball, picnic shelters, miniature golf, and the Palace Theatre Show ($26.95 per adult) which runs every evening. There are also train rides around the park on Saturdays. But the busiest place in the park is the Alaska Salmon Bake, which is open for dinner every evening from 5 pm to 9 pm.
Monday was a chore day. In the morning we went to a laundromat. In the afternoon we went to the grocery store. There was a RV dump station at the Sourdough Fuel gas station just a mile down the road where we dumped our gray water tanks. They also had potable water, but the hose was right next to the dump. We never trust fresh water that is that close to the dump, because we know there are people who would use that same hose to rinse out their stinky slinkies (black water hoses). No thank you. There was potable water back at Pioneer Park, so that’s where we filled up our fresh water jugs.
The day before, we helped jump start a young couple’s truck who couldn’t get their vehicle started in the Pioneer Park parking lot. We used our portable jump starter (paid link). It was so much easier to pull that out and walk it over to their truck than trying to maneuver our van over close enough to run jumper cables. The portable jump starter worked like a charm.
However, the cloth bag it was in was soaking wet. We had it stored in the trunk organizer next to a jug of windshield washer fluid. The jug must have leaked. Well, on Monday, we thought we should investigate if anything else was wet and how bad the leak was. It was a good thing we checked. The almost full jug of washer fluid was now an almost empty jug. Our guess is that the jug developed a leak during our drive on McCarthy Road (McCarthy, Alaska - July 25th to 28th, 2022). Where did all the liquid go? A few things were wet in the trunk organizer, but where did the rest of it go? The trunk organizer was sitting on top of a couple of plastic totes. We pulled everything out. Our spare blankets and clothing in the one tote were drenched. Ah, that’s where it all went. So back to the laundromat we went to wash the blanket and clothing. Close to $12 later, everything was good again.
It was late afternoon by the time we finished all our chores. The weather actually turned out to be pretty nice. It was cloudy, but the sun was shining and the temperatures climbed into the mid 70’s. We decided to take a walk. There is a paved trail that runs along the Chena River from Pioneer Park to downtown Fairbanks. We walked for half an hour then turned around and headed back. We didn’t make it all the way to downtown. The trail was not as scenic as we were hoping, but it was still a pleasant walk. We counted it as hike number 27 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2022: 3.5 miles with a 600 foot elevation gain in one hour.
It was after 5 pm by the time we returned from our walk, so we went over to the Alaska Salmon Bake to give it a try. Ann had the Alaskan halibut dinner while Keith tried the Alaskan salmon. Dinner came with a choice of hot side, a nice salad bar, a biscuit and lemonade or iced tea to drink. The food was pretty tasty. We even opted for dessert, chocolate mouse and key lime pie. We also discovered why there were so many people at the Salmon Bake. It seems to cater to tour groups. The place is set up to handle large groups of people and get them served quickly. Our main courses were ready before we had barely started eating our salad. Bus loads of people kept arriving the whole time we were there.
The rain held off until we got back to our Red Tail Lodge, then the sky let loose. It poured and hailed along with thunder and lightning. It was rather noisy, but we were glad we were back in the van in time. By the time we went to bed, the storm calmed down so we had no trouble sleeping. There still was road traffic noise, since the parking lot is right next to a busy road, but it was not too bad.
Pioneer Park was a quick and short, but nice stop in Fairbanks. We had been looking forward to our next destination, Denali National Park, all season, so we were anxious and excited to get there. Denali, here we come!
Check out our related video: Pioneer Park, Fairbanks, Alaska
(Ann)