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Overview of Chena River State Recreation Site- Facts, Trivia,and Historical Information : Chena River State Recreation Site (also known as Chena Wayside) is located in Fairbanks on University Avenue. This 29-acre park sits on the banks of the Chena River. Facilities include over 60 campsites for vehicles, 11 have electric and water hookup, five walk-in campsites, picnic sites along the river, drinking water, restrooms with flush toilets, dump station, boat launch, and river-side walking trails. For group use by reservation, there is a playfield with a shelter.Camping is limited to five consecutive nights from June 10 through August 10. For the rest of the season, the limit is 15 days. Some of the campsites and picnic sites, as well as the restrooms, drinking water, and shelter, are ADA accessible.The park is operated by a private company, Northern Parks Management, LLC. For more information about the park: http://www.chenawayside.com/.There is state park called Chena River State Recreation Area, not to be confused with this park, Chena River State Recreation Site. Chena River State Recreation Area is over a quarter million acres, approximately 30 miles northeast of Fairbanks.More than ever, Chena River State Recreation Area is a park for all seasons. Are you interested in a day of hiking and rock-climbing at Granite Tors? Or would you prefer to harness up the dog team and escape into the snowy horizon, or perhaps ride a 4-wheeler along a forest trail? With 397 square miles of forests, rivers, and alpine tundra, the recreation area has something to offer everyone. The variety of activities draws more than 150,000 people to the Chena River State Recreation Area every year.Campgrounds in the area can accommodate all sorts of outdoor enthusiasts, from tent campers to those with deluxe recreational vehicles. Three developed campgrounds exist in the recreation area: Rosehip Campground at milepost 27 Chena Hot Springs Road, Tors Trail Campground at milepost 39, and Red Squirrel Campground and Picnic Area at milepost 43. More Fairbanks area campground information. Opportunities for camping in undeveloped areas can be found along the many gravel bars and river access roads.The park follows the Chena River, a clear flowing, class I-II river ideal for kayaking, canoeing, or fishing for abundant arctic grayling. Chena Hot Springs Road parallels the river, providing boaters and anglers many entry and exit points from which to choose. River level information: USGS Real-Time Data for Alaska Streamflow.Dipping the hook for grayling can be an invigorating experience in the summer. In addition to the river, three small ponds have been stocked at mileposts 30, 45.5 and 47.9. The river is catch and release only, but fish caught in the gravel ponds may be kept.In winter months, two major dog sled races use portions of the old Chena Hot Springs Winter Trail. Ski touring and snow machining are also popular. The recreation area contains numerous winter trails, providing opportunities for motorized and nonmotorized recreation.Wildlife is abundant in the Chena River Recreation Area. Visitors frequently find moose munching in the beaver ponds and sloughs along Chena Hot Springs Road. Black and grizzly bears also inhabit the area, though they are seldom seen. Grizzly bears have been spotted by backcountry hikers in alpine areas and along the river. Black bears are found in areas with abundant vegetation.In 1905, just four years after Fairbanks was founded, Thomas and Robert Swan paddled a canoe up the Chena River. On their journey they encountered miraculous hot springs that cured Robert Swans rheumatism. The Swans also found the remnants of a campfire. They learned later that the campfire had been made by Felix Pedro, the prospector who discovered gold in the local hills.While Pedros gold strike led to the founding of Fairbanks, the Swans discovery of the hot springs healing powers may have led to the founding of Chena River State Recreation Area. As soon as the Swans returned to town, Robert Swan told his story of soaking in the waters and curing his rheumatism. Soon, other ailing Fairbanksans headed for the restorative hot springs. The waters cured their ills too, according to testimonials filed in the National Archives in Washington, D.C.In 1913, at the request of local residents, the U.S. War Department built a trail to the hot springs. The trail was to have been an actual road, but funding ran short, and a trail - a winter only trail at that - was all the department could afford to build.Today, people still travel the old trail in the cold and dark of winter--and without cars. Some hike, some ski, and some travel by dog sled. About ninety miles of the Yukon Quest, an annual 1,000-mile sled dog race between Fairbanks and Whitehorse, is run on the old winter trail. But traveling the trail is no longer a necessity. A paved road parallels the old winter trail and provides easier access to the hot springs.Health-seekers were not the only Alaskans drawn to the area. In the early 1900s, the area around the springs attracted a great deal of attention. Once word got out about gold in the hills of Fairbanks, many more prospectors came to seek their fortunes. The bustling new town of Fairbanks needed wood--lots of it--and along the Chena River stood some of the largest trees in interior Alaska.Loggers quickly learned about the forested lands between town and the hot springs. Wood from those trees became the walls and roofs of local buildings and houses. This timber fueled the fires that produced electricity. The train engines carrying miners and supplies to all the mining districts around Fairbanks relied on wood as a source of fuel as did the engines of the river steamers that carried people and supplies to Interior Alaska.The Chena River itself was central to the use of these lands. The waterway provided summer transportation to the hot springs and served as a route by which loggers could reach the timber, and logs could be transported into town. Loggers rolled the cut trees down the hills into the river, and the river floated the logs to sawmills in Fairbanks.Fairbanks grew in spurts. First came the gold rush, then the military. World War II and the Cold War made Alaska a strategic location for American military interests. Large numbers of servicemen came to Fairbanks prompting the growth of new stores, schools and other amenities to serve the burgeoning population. Alaskas wild lands were rapidly being tamed.By the 1960s, shortly after Alaska became a state, people began to fear that all of Fairbanks wild lands would be covered with concrete and condos. Concerned Fairbanksans took action. Groups ranging from the Fairbanks Garden Club to the Tanana Valley Sportsmen Association and the Alaska Conservation Society asked Alaska legislators to save some of the wilderness close to town. The legislators granted this request in 1967, designating 15,360 acres for the Chena River State Recreation Area.Just one year later came the greatest challenge of all to Alaskas wilderness: the discovery of oil in Prudhoe Bay. As lands were rapidly parceled out and developed, Alaskans fought to preserve a way of life deeply interwoven with the land and its natural resources. The Alaska Legislature helped Fairbanksans meet this challenge in 1975, designating an additional 240,000 acres for the recreation area. This action brought Chena River State Recreation Area to its present size.At the Chena River State Recreation Area you may hike, ski, snowmachine, dog mush, horseback ride, canoe, hunt, fish, camp and experience nature as the early settlers did--all within these 254,080 acres. You can still enjoy the wilderness in this beautiful area, a goal the Alaska State Park system worked for in setting up the park.
Services, Activities, Amenities, Attractions in (Chena River State Recreation Site): Facilities include over 60 campsites for vehicles, 11 have electric and water hookup, five walk-in campsites, picnic sites along the river, drinking water, restrooms with flush toilets, dump station, boat launch, and river-side walking trails. For group use by reservation, there is a playfield with a shelter.Camping is limited to five consecutive nights from June 10 through August 10. For the rest of the season, the limit is 15 days. Some of the campsites and picnic sites, as well as the restrooms, drinking water, and shelter, are ADA accessible.
Contact Information:
Address:PO Box 83989 Fairbanks, AK
Phone No:(907) 451-2705
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