Photo by Rackmount-guy, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
🇺🇸 USA · Fairbanks, Alaska
Photo by Rackmount-guy, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
🇺🇸 USA · Fairbanks, Alaska
♨ Temperature
40°C
⛰ Altitude
370 m
⚗ pH
7.5
💧 TDS
1180 mg/L
🌊 Flow rate
18 L/s
📅 Established
Discovered 1905; resort established 1946
✓ Verified on 2026-07-22
Chena Hot Springs sits in the boreal forest of interior Alaska, 97 kilometres east of Fairbanks along the Chena River drainage. The springs were discovered by gold prospectors in 1905 and quickly became a retreat for miners and settlers in what was then one of the most remote inhabited regions of North America. The water is moderately mineralized — warm sodium-chloride-bicarbonate water at a consistent 40°C — and the resort pools remain unfrozen through Alaska's brutal winters, when temperatures outside can reach -40°C or lower. This contrast between ice and thermal water, combined with the site's position in one of the highest-frequency aurora borealis zones in the world, makes Chena one of the planet's most extreme bathing environments. The outdoor Rock Lake pool — an artificial pond kept at around 40°C — allows bathers to watch the northern lights from the water during the long winter darkness. The resort has also developed the world's most northerly geothermal power plant, using the hot spring water to generate electricity for the facility.
| Sodium | 228 mg/L |
| Chloride | 158 mg/L |
| Bicarbonate | 410 mg/L |
| Calcium | 48 mg/L |
| Silica | 38 mg/L |
| Sulphate | 28 mg/L |
The Chena River valley is the traditional territory of the Chena Athabascans, an Interior Alaska people whose subsistence patterns centred on the Tanana and Chena river systems. The hot springs were known to Indigenous peoples long before the 1905 gold rush brought the first wave of outside settlers. The Tanana Chiefs Conference represents Interior Alaska Native nations, including those with historical ties to the Chena drainage.
The discovery of Chena Hot Springs in 1905 came at the height of the Fairbanks gold rush, and the springs rapidly became one of the most popular destinations in Alaska's interior, reached by riverboat and sled dog in the early years. The resort has cultivated a dual identity as a year-round wellness destination and an aurora tourism hub, attracting Japanese visitors in particular — Japan has one of the world's strongest cultural interests in aurora viewing, and Chena has become one of the top aurora destinations for Japanese travellers.
Chena Hot Springs has developed a geothermal binary power system that generates electricity from the thermal water — one of the most innovative small-scale geothermal power applications in the United States. The system powers the entire resort facility, reducing diesel dependency significantly in a location where fuel delivery is logistically complex and expensive.
Phone+1 907-451-8104
Websitewww.chenahotsprings.com
Address56.5 Chena Hot Springs Road, Fairbanks, AK 99712, USA