5 Best Sights in Fairbanks, the Yukon, and the Interior, Alaska

The 57-mile paved road, which starts 5 miles northeast of Fairbanks, leads to Chena Hot Springs Resort, a favorite playground of Fairbanks residents. From Mile 26 to Mile 51 the road passes through the Chena River State Recreation Area, a diverse nearly 400-square-mile wilderness. You can stop for a picnic, take a hike for an hour or an extended backpacking trip, fish for the beautiful yet gullible arctic grayling, or rent a rustic backcountry cabin to savor a truly wild Alaskan adventure. Grayling fishing in the Chena River is catch-and-release, single-hook, artificial-lure only. Several stocked lakes along the road allow catch-and-keep fishing for rainbow trout, well suited for the frying pan. Keep a sharp eye out for moose along the roadside.

The Trans-Alaska Pipeline is the main attraction for many who travel the Dalton. Thousands of 18-wheelers drive the formerly private highway each year, but since 1994 they've shared it with sightseers, anglers, and other travelers. That doesn't mean the Dalton is an easy drive, however. The road is narrow, often winding, and has several steep grades. Sections may be heavily potholed, and the road's coarse gravel is easily kicked up into headlights and windshields by fast-moving trucks. If you drive the Dalton in your own car, make sure you have windshield-replacement insurance because it's highly likely you'll need to make a repair when you return. There's mostly no cell service along the Dalton, few visitor facilities, and almost nowhere to get help if something goes wrong. With tow-truck charges of up to $5 per mile both coming and going, a vehicle breakdown can cost hundreds of dollars even before repairs. Before setting out, make sure everything in your car is working properly, and know how to change tires. Public access ends at Deadhorse, just shy of the Arctic coast. This town exists mainly to service the oil fields of Prudhoe Bay. The only lodging options are down-at-the-heels motels and camps that cater to truck drivers and other workers, or wilderness campgrounds.

The company offers single and multiday winter aurora tours going north to the Arctic Circle and the Brooks Range.

The 161-mile Steese Highway follows the Chatanika River and several other creeks along the southern part of the White Mountains. The highway eventually climbs into weatherworn alpine mountains, peaking at Eagle Summit (3,624 feet), about 100 miles from Fairbanks, before dropping back down into forested creek beds en route to the town of Central. From Central you can drive the 30-plus miles on a winding gravel road to Circle, a small town on the Yukon River. The highway is paved to Mile 81 and is usually in good shape. A possible exception is in winter, when Eagle Summit is sometimes closed due to drifting snow.

The 160-mile Taylor Highway runs north from the Alaska Highway at Tetlin Junction, 12 miles east of Tok. It's a narrow rough-gravel road that winds along mountain ridges and through valleys of the Fortymile River. The road passes the tiny community of Chicken and ends in Eagle at the Yukon River. This is one of only three places in Alaska where the Yukon River can be reached by road. The Top of the World Highway starts off the Taylor and leads to Dawson City in the Yukon Territory. The route is far more scenic, and shorter, than the alternative of taking the Alaska Highway to Whitehorse and then turning north, but it's another of those stretches for which it's good to make sure your insurance policy covers towing and windshield replacement. The highway is not plowed in winter, so it is snowed shut from fall to spring. If you're roughing it, know that the Bureau of Land Management also maintains three first-come, first-served campsites (as all BLM campsites are) on the Taylor Highway at Miles 49, 82, and 160; the last is located at the end of the road in Eagle.