4/1. Late night flight to Fairbanks, AK. Lucky enough to have seats exchanged for exit row. Arrived at FAI shortly before 2am. Rental car counter of National was already closed, even though this is a prepaid reservation at 2am.
4/2, Saturday. Sunrise 7:05am, sunset 8:46pm. Moon rise 5:59am, moonset 1:45pm. Plenty sunshine with clouds. Fairbanks is quite ugly. Sprawling town with bad architecture. But the drive to Denali National Park is quite beautiful, especially as you approach the park. 
Alaska Range is right in front of you, Nenana River is often next to the road. This spring has been exceptionally warm. Water is flowing, yet plenty ice and snow for cover, providing a pristine landscape. Many roadside pullouts offer photo opportunities, with advanced (1500') signs. The only bad thing is that you'll find trash here and there. The tourist town at the park entrance is totally deserted, which looks quite prettier.
Drove the park road to Salvage River, where a bar blocked further access right at the bridge. The road is clear of snow for sometime. Not sure why it's still closed. Walked in a couple of miles to the next rest area with green roof toilets. Everything looks serene. Next, hike the little loop along Salvage River. Icy at times. Beautiful place. About 10 cars parked here, more than I expected.Increased cloudiness later in the day. Drove a bit more south, turned around when clouds blocked the top of mountains. Even snowshoed a bit. Snow here is deep and soft (even the very top is a bit crusty), or I'm getting too fat: I sunk to my hip a couple of times. So, didn't venture very far. Waited for the night to set. No sunset, grey sky until dark. No Northern Lights. It started snowing around 10pm, and didn't stop till ~5am the next day.
4/3, Sunday. Sunrise 7:01am, sunset 8:49pm. Moon rise 6:20am, moonset 3:14pm. Cloudy morning. Briefly visited Creamer's Field in the northern part of the town. A swap for birds. Now, it's flat and white. 
Visited the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline 10 miles north of Fairbanks, and the Gold Daughters across the road. Both Gold Daughters and Gold Dredge 8 are closed for the season. These are the two closest mining tourist attraction to Fairbanks. I like the old machinery lying about in their properties.
Last, visited Chena Hot Springs Resort, 1:15 hours east. The resort is like every place in Alaska, built without a plan. A cluster of buildings and huts, built each for its own purpose. The pool looks very nice, so is the ice museum (open for guided tour only). There's a free geothermal energy tour at 2pm & 4pm daily. We get to see the power house where the 2 in-house designed engines are running, and a new screw turbine using a 2000+' drill to tap hotter water (~195F, about 30F more than what's turning the two main engines, drilled at ~750'). Together, they are able to produce about 200kW electricity, about 40% of its consumption in peak season. The hot water also supplies the green house to produce "Chena-Fresh" lettuce and tomatoes, as well as absorption cooling of the ice museum.
The plane ride from Fairbanks to Anchorage is a visual feast. 
I seated at seat E by the right side window. I can see Mt McKinley's double peak through the badly scratched window. The left side is prettier (seat A). Endless snowy peaks of Alaska Range, then Talkeetna Mountains. 
4/4, Monday. The only flight to PDX is at 12:40am. Anchorage airport is a good layover choice. Big glass windows showing off the surrounding mountains. Seats without armrest, perfect to sleep on. On the plane, I tried to stay awake, staring out of my pot-hole window (seat A), but didn't see any Northern Lights. Yes, some stars, but the north / lower half of the sky is not dark, clouds? Arrived at PDX 5:20am!
