Fairbanks to Denali

Depot Locations

Fairbanks Train Depot
1745 Johansen Expressway
Fairbanks, AK 99701

Denali Park Train Depot
310 Railroad Depot Road
Denali Park, AK 99755

Route Details

Schedule:
8:20 AM – 12:10 PM
(~3 hours, 50 minutes)

Distance:
 122 miles

Rates & Services

all Rates

Alaska Railroad Fairbanks to Denali Park

The train depot in Fairbanks is located off the Johansen Expressway about eight miles from the airport. Many local hotels, including the Springhill Suites, River’s Edge Resort Cottages, and Pikes Water Front Lodge, offer shuttles. Plan to be at the depot about an hour before your 8:20 AM departure. If your final destination today is one of the main hotels in Denali Park, you will likely find that you can check your bags directly to your hotel. 

As you roll out of Fairbanks, you’ll pass by College, which is home to the University of Alaska Fairbanks, as well as the school’s Experimental Farm. UAF is Alaska’s oldest operating university, and said that it is also the furthest north of any university in the world. The first part of your rail journey will also take you through part of the historic gold mining district that surrounds Fairbanks. Much of this area was served by the original Tanana Valley Railroad, a narrow gauge railroad that operated near Fairbanks from 1905 to 1917 before being purchased by the Alaska Railroad.

About 50 miles south of Fairbanks you’ll come to the town of Nenana at the confluence of the Nenana and Tanana Rivers. As you approach town you’ll cross over the Tanana River on a 700-foot-long steel bridge, one of the longest single span bridges in the world, as well as the site where President Warren G Harding drove in the final ceremonial gold spike for the completion of the Alaska Railroad in 1923. Nenana was originally an Athabascan village, later an Alaska Railroad construction camp, and today remains an important hub for delivering goods up and down the region’s waterways. As you roll through town, you can see the black and white striped tripod used in the Nenana Ice Classic, a popular contest to guess when the river ice will break free in the spring. It’s not just a little entertainment for locals after a long winter! In recent years, winners have split a pot of over $200,000.

After departing Nenana and traveling another 20 miles or so south, you will approach Clear and notice what could be described as large outdoor movie theater screens. These are part of the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System at Clear Air Force Base, one of only three in the world. The train track follows along the Nenana River for much of the next 30 miles, crossing the river near Ferry before arriving at the small Alaska mining community of Healy.

Healy has just under 1000 residents and the main employer is the Usibelli Coal Mine, the only active coal mining operation in Alaska, which produces over two million tons of coal annually. About half of this is shipped to Seward via the Alaska Railroad for export, while the rest is used in the state

Heading south from Healy, you’ll quickly cross under the Parks Highway at Windy Bridge. This 215-foot-long highway bridge is the highest in Alaska, and sets the stage for an especially dramatic stretch of rail. You are now entering the Nenana River gorge, one of the most scenic portions of the train trip from Fairbanks to Denali. Rafters from Denali Park who opt for a whitewater run travel down this exciting canyon section with class III and class IV rapids.

Just before you arrive at Denali Park, you’ll pass several lodges just across the Nenana River, which at this point serves as the eastern boundary to Denali National Park. The first large property you pass is the Holland America Denali Lodge. The next is the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge, the largest hotel in Alaska, located in the foreground on the banks of the Nenana River with red roofs. If you look high up on the hillside across the river and highway, you’ll see the Grande Denali Lodge, with its sister property, the Denali Bluffs Hotel, lower and to the right. Finally, you’ll pass Horseshoe Lake on your left before pulling into the Denali National Park depot.

Hopefully you have at least two nights in Denali Park, there’s so much to do. You can’t see much of the park from the entrance area, so you take a day and enjoy a guided bus tour on the park road. Beyond that, some of the most popular activities include rafting, flightseeing, hiking, sled dog kennel tours, and ATV tours. You can read more about Denali National Park here. If you need help booking Denali National Park hotels, tour or activities, we can help with that too.

Next Stop: Talkeetna Route Guide