UPDATE 11/03/2025
I just found out there is a Denali Fat Truck Tours company based out of Healy. Not the same owner as mentioned below. The owner of the Denali company is former Alaska State Trooper Sgt. Joel Miner. The company website is HERE. Their Facebook page is HERE.
UPDATE 09/23/2025
As of September 22, the business owner has not pulled the permit application, according to Diana Lehman, the DNR Natural Resource Specialist dealing with the application and comments. The comment period still ends September 27.
Lehman also added some more information:
The applicant has not withdrawn, but he has indicted that he may provide supplemental materials. If he does submit supplemental materials, it may trigger a new notice period, it the supplemental materials significantly alter the original request.
If that happens, all commentors will be notified and all commentors will receive a copy of the supplemental materials to comment on-and be informed of the new notice period deadlines.
UPDATE 09/14/2025
I have submitted comments. They are at the bottom of this post.
UPDATE
The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner ran a story on Sunday, September 7, about this. According to the story, the business owner, Zachery Holmes, “plans to pull a permit application after facing backlash from trail users and residents in the area.”
Holmes said he measured the trail and found that they are “not wide enough to accommodate the fat trucks and other trail users.”
Holmes said that he made a mistake in filing the application and plans to file a second application in which he would ask DNR if he could widen the trails to accommodate multiple users.
Read more HERE.
ORIGINAL POST
A company has applied for permission to hold fat truck tours in the Tanana Valley State Forest on approximately nine miles of existing trails between Chena Hot Springs Road and the Chena River.
Tours would consist of two Fat Truck off-road vehicles conducting year-round tours, six days a week, with up to six tours per day.
According to the application:
The proposed activity involves operating guided off-road tours using a specialized amphibious all-terrain vehicle known as a Fat Truck (manufactured by Zeal Motor) on designated Alaska DNR trails.
The tours will provide visitors with a safe, educational, and unique opportunity to explore Alaska’s natural landscapes year-round. The tours will be Monday-Saturday from 8am to 5pm with a total of 6 potential tours a day.
The Fat Truck’s low ground pressure tires are designed to minimize impact on trail surfaces while providing safe access over a variety of terrain, including snow and water. All operations will comply with DNR trail use requirements. The Fat Trucks have flashing safety lights that will be turned on if and when needed. The tour operator will make sure to allow other public or commercial users of the trails to pass safely and not interrupt that activity.
Here is the manufacturer WEBSITE for the Fat Trucks.
The Two Rivers Dog Mushers Association submitted extensive comments outlining the group’s concern with the tours. From the end of the comments:
Our organization is at the highest levels extremely opposed to such a tour company moving into the area to run tours on local trails. The effects to local tourism and recreation usage would be devastating and the potential for damage to the trails and environment as well as potential harm to wildlife and human/K9 athletes is great in our opinion. We are happy to discuss concerns further if desired.
You can see the entire comments on the group’s Facebook page HERE or in this PDF DOCUMENT.
The public can comment on this application. The deadline for comment is September 27.
For more information, including how to comment, see this PAGE. (Links at the bottom of that page have more information.)
Attached is an image from the links that show where the tours would be held. It’s a bit hard to tell where the map is located, but this Google Maps LINK will take you to the open field on the image where the yellow line starts (presumably where the tours would start and end).
MY COMMENTS SUBMITTED 09/14/2025
To whom it may concern:
I am opposed to the applications by Arctic Fat Truck Tours to hold tours on Two Rivers area trails for several reasons.
–The trails are too narrow to allow for safe passage of other trail users when the trucks are on the trails.
–The owner of the company measured the trails only after submitting the application which shows a lack of knowledge of the local trails for which he hopes to use. Does he even have any idea of how much use the trails get and what types of users are using them? An extensive knowledge of the area and proposals to mitigate possible negative consequences from use of the trucks should be submitted with the application.
–The application states that the “Fat Truck’s low ground pressure tires are designed to minimize impact on trail surfaces.” However, the company’s website (https://www.fattruck.com) shows that the truck has significant treads, which would focus the truck weight on those points rather than spread the weight out like it would over a tire with minimum tread.
–If not carefully controlled, the tires of the trucks could do significant damage to the trails, both when snow-covered and not. Will the company be required to run the truck tires at no more than a certain maximum tire pressure? If so, who will monitor that?
–Will the trucks be allowed to run when trails are soft, such as after a significant snowfall or in the spring during break up? If so, what further measures will the company take to reduce the impacts on the trails when they are particularly vulnerable? Who will monitor that?
–Will the trucks be required to travel no more than a certain maximum speed to avoid possible collisions with other trail users, especially on blind corners? If so, who will monitor that?
While I appreciate the desire of the company to run a business and show off the beauty of this part of Alaska, I feel that the size of the trucks are not compatible with the area’s trails. Also, I feel that holding the tours year-round, six days a week will have an immediate, and most likely negative, impact on the trails and other users.
I suggest that the company owner consider other options such as:
–Use vehicles that are already used on the trails, such as snowmachines in winter and ATVs in summer
–Start small with just a few tours over a limited amount of time to be able to gauge the impacts of the tours on other trail users.
–Connect with the local trail-using public to have discussions on how tours and other trail-users can share the trails in a compatible manner.
A genuine effort at outreach along with a willingness to adapt operations to fit the community will make a huge difference in how such a tour operation will be met by other trail users in the community.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment.
Eric Troyer
Please do not allow this activity to occur on our trails. The trails are for people and dogs and non motorized activities. These large vehicles should stick to roads or mud bogging on private land. They are not a co existent activity to mushing, skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, running, birdwatching, wildlife, and many other non motorized activities. The noise and trail destruction would be devastating. This is a huge safety issue. Please stop the nonsense and block this permit.
Remember to submit your comments:
Comments or questions about this activity should be directed to Diana Lehman, 907-451-2722; Fax: 907-451-2751 or e-mail: diana.lehman@alaska.gov.
What is the actual ground pressure with the trucks fully loaded. Easily determined. Saying it’s “Low” is meaningless.
Use during inclement weather is not addressed. How about during breakup? Also not addressed.
Worst of all, if this company doesn’t even know the existing trail width that tells me they have never been there and know nothing about the area.
Stay in Anchorage. We don’t want you tearing up our land.
Randall Fletcher
Good points. It’s especially important to address how things will be dealt with when trail conditions are not ideal.
The applicant said that he does not plan to alter his tours for break up or other weather conditions because of the “low impact” of the vehicle. The tires run at a reported 6PSI and can go as low as 0.2PSI from what I have found on my research. He also said in the News Minor that he would be happy to contribute to trail maintance but failed to mention this in his application.
Thanks for that info.
In regard to the comment that he work with local trail-using public- I am told he was given my number and told where I live and to reach out to coordinate information with me and to connect to the public in regard to his tours. He has chosen not to engage with the public and has made it clear through the discrepancies in his application and lack of forethought to work with local trail users that anything beyond his personal needs and business are irrelevant.