Alaska Float Trips

The Chulit­na Riv­er flows to the south out of a huge val­ley from Broad Pass, one of only two breaks in the Alas­ka Range Moun­tains, where the high­way, the train, the geese, and the riv­er, all pass on their way to Cook Inlet. It offers a chance for a float of 75 miles and can take as lit­tle as 3 days in kayaks but can be a nice 4 or 5‑day trip. Canoes and kayaks are fun on the upper but tip­py on the low­er sec­tion. There are three forks of the…  ...more

Overview The Salmon Riv­er, a des­ig­nat­ed Nation­al Wild and Scenic Riv­er, locat­ed in the Kobuk Riv­er Nation­al Park is a clear water­way with excep­tion­al scenic attrib­ut­es tra­vers­ing a vari­ety of veg­e­ta­tive zones as it flows south out of the Baird Moun­tains to its con­flu­ence with the Kobuk Riv­er. Gin clear and with­out any obsta­cles, it is a Class I riv­er for the 45 miles to where it joins the Kobuk Riv­er. There is an addi­tion­al 48 miles of…  ...more

Overview The Nabesna Riv­er is a glacial­ly fed Class I and II riv­er that flows north out of the heart of the Wrangell-St Elias Moun­tains and cuts through a shal­low canyon between the Men­tas­ta Moun­tains and the Nut­zotin Moun­tains of south cen­tral Alas­ka. It joins the Chisana Riv­er and, togeth­er, they form the mighty Tanana Riv­er, which flows through inte­ri­or Alas­ka to its con­flu­ence with the Yukon. The riv­er has 80 miles to float through, in an…  ...more

The Chena Riv­er begins in the White Moun­tains and is fed by five trib­u­taries, the North Fork, South Fork, West Fork, Mid­dle (East) Fork and the Lit­tle Chena. All the forks emp­ty into the Mid­dle Fork, which is the main sec­tion of the Chena Riv­er. The spring-fed Chena Riv­er runs right through down­town Fair­banks and is a Class II riv­er with many inter­est­ing fea­tures along its length. There are some des­ig­nat­ed camp­grounds in a few loca­tions. In…  ...more

The Gulka­na Riv­er is an approx­i­mate­ly 80-mile long riv­er that can be done in 5 to 7 aver­age length days. It is a Nation­al Wild and Scenic Riv­er and one of Alaska’s most pop­u­lar white­wa­ter riv­er trips. It is an excel­lent fish­ing riv­er trip, as well, with a large King Salmon run and lots of small­er sport fish to try for. The first three miles are, gen­er­al­ly, Class II with 4 mph cur­rent and some Class III. The next 13 to 15 miles to canyon…  ...more

The Cop­per Riv­er and its many trib­u­taries drain one of the great­est regions of moun­tain, ice, snow and for­est in North Amer­i­ca. It is a giant riv­er in its low­er reach­es, often flow­ing at rates over 200,000 cubic feet per sec­ond, while its head­wa­ter trib­u­taries flow down steep, rocky gorges and through wide, braid­ed glacial val­leys. It is in a region that encom­pass­es sub­arc­tic to tem­per­ate zones with­in a lat­i­tude range of 60 to 62 degrees. It…  ...more

The Chiti­na Riv­er flows down a huge val­ley that traces a path sep­a­rat­ing the Wrangell Moun­tains and the St Elias Moun­tains of Alaska’s south­east­ern moun­tain region. This riv­er trip can be done in 4 to 8 days depend­ing on where you start your trip. This val­ley sits astride a giant fault line that runs through a region that has formed as col­lid­ing tec­ton­ic plates have pushed up some of the high­est moun­tains in North Amer­i­ca with Mt Logan…  ...more

The 95-mile long Ivishak Riv­er flows north, through the Philip Smith Moun­tains and the north­ern foothills of the Arc­tic Nation­al Wildlife Refuge, to join the Saga­vanirk­tok Riv­er on the coastal plain, 50 miles south of Prud­hoe Bay. Fed by glac­i­ers in the head­wa­ters area, the Ivishak starts at a lake in a glacial trough and flows quick­ly through rocky rif­fles for 8 miles, then forms a sin­gle chan­nel for a third of its length before becom­ing an…  ...more

The Ambler Riv­er is a small, clear riv­er with numer­ous small rocky rapids in its upper reach­es and flows out of the Schwat­ka Moun­tains of the west­ern Brooks Range. It has an 80-mile stretch of riv­er to where it joins the Kobuk Riv­er near the town of Ambler with 15 miles of rocky rapids in a sin­gle chan­nel at the start, 35 miles of braid­ed chan­nels in its heav­i­ly forest­ed mid­dle region and, final­ly, anoth­er 30 miles of sin­gle chan­nel all the…  ...more

Expe­ri­ence the back­coun­try of Denali Nation­al Park in a way few oth­ers do. You’ll board a bus from the Vis­i­tor Cen­ter and dis­em­bark just before Sable Pass and then immerse your­self in the wild Alas­ka land­scape. Rec­om­mend­ed for inter­me­di­ate back­pack­ers and begin­ner packrafters.

While the North Fork of Eagle Riv­er is only 40 min­utes from Anchor­age, it has as much beau­ty and some of the haz­ards of much big­ger, more remote Alas­ka rivers. Class I and only 7 miles long, this float is still fair­ly-com­mit­ting, espe­cial­ly dur­ing low water when the entire trip from the mile 7.4 put in to the take out can take 4 – 5 hours on the water. The riv­er isn’t braid­ed so you’re in one chan­nel the entire float, but there are a lot of…  ...more

This is an easy float (Class I & II) on the largest trib­u­tary of the Holit­na Riv­er. Like the Holit­na this is a world class fish­ing des­ti­na­tion. The riv­er begins at the large White­fish Lake and pass­es through a lot of windy, slow turns mov­ing on its long trip down to meet the Holit­na Riv­er and even­tu­al­ly to the Kuskok­wim Riv­er. It is a remote, rarely trav­eled riv­er, and it is very unlike­ly that you will see any oth­er peo­ple. The upper…  ...more

Overview The Tana Riv­er is a short, chal­leng­ing Class IV+ stretch of riv­er that leads to the Chiti­na Riv­er. It flows out of the Chugach Moun­tains direct­ly towards the Wrangell Moun­tains and has a rep­u­ta­tion that deserves skill and expe­ri­ence pad­dling along fast, cold glac­i­er water. It starts as a medi­um size riv­er flow­ing out of the Tana Glac­i­er that is an ice trib­u­tary of the giant Bagley Ice Field. The Tana Riv­er alone is only 36 miles…  ...more

A major trib­u­tary of the Yukon Riv­er, the Fortymile is a clear water stream that has 6 main forks flow­ing east of the Mer­tie Moun­tains and north of the Tanana State For­est area, out of the Yukon-Tanana Uplands, not far south of the Arc­tic Cir­cle. To the west of the Mer­tie Moun­tains is the Charley Riv­er and the moun­tain ridge­line is the bound­ary for the Yukon-Charley Rivers Nation­al Pre­serve to the west. Both the Charley and the Fortymile are…  ...more

The Chatani­ka Riv­er, a Class II riv­er, is a part of the Yukon Riv­er drainage and is a clear or light­ly tan­nic stained rapid-runoff stream. It has its head­wa­ters in the moun­tains of the north­east­ern por­tion of the Alas­ka Range and flows west­ward through val­leys between sum­mits and uplands for about four-fifths of its length before it enters Minto Flats, even­tu­al­ly join­ing the Tolo­vano Riv­er. It is most suit­ed to small craft such as canoes or…  ...more

From the Tanana uplands and The Mer­tie Moun­tains above 64 degrees north lat­i­tude, the Charley Riv­er is a Nation­al Wild and Scenic water­way and flows north­ward about 108 miles to the Yukon Riv­er. It is often thought of as one of the pre­mier wilder­ness white­wa­ter trips of the state and flows through three dis­tinct topo­graph­ic regions – open upland val­ley, cliff bound riv­er, and open flood­plain – offer­ing var­ied, and spec­tac­u­lar scenery as well…  ...more

Overview With­in the Brooks Range lies the Endi­cott Moun­tains and in the heart of these moun­tains is the Gates of The Arc­tic Nation­al Park and Pre­serve. Where the moun­tains rise to meet the sky the begin­nings of the North Fork of the Koyukuk Riv­er lie. This is a riv­er that begins in these moun­tains and even­tu­al­ly flows into the giant Yukon-Kusko delta region. But at its start are the 7000-foot high moun­tains of the Gates, with Mt Doon­er­ak the…  ...more

Overview The Tal­keet­na Riv­er is, accord­ing to almost every guide­book or ref­er­ence you may con­sult, the most clas­sic, wilder­ness, white­wa­ter trip in Alas­ka. Its remote loca­tion, steep, fast-water canyon, abun­dant fish­ing and wildlife view­ing make it one of the true clas­sics for sure. It requires a bush plane to fly into the Tal­keet­na Moun­tains where there are huge views of the high­est peak in North Amer­i­ca, Denali, and in the head­wa­ters area…  ...more

Overview The Talachulit­na or ​“Tal” as it is com­mon­ly referred to, is locat­ed total­ly with­in state patent­ed lands. When peo­ple talk of float­ing the Tal it is usu­al­ly a 5 to 7 day trip, down Talachulit­na Creek and then down the Talachulit­na Riv­er to the Skwent­na Riv­er. From the start at a head­wa­ter lake there are 16 miles of shal­low Class I creek and then 32 miles on the Tal with Class I to IV rapids, depend­ing on water lev­els, and an additional…  ...more

The Trip Drain Creek to the Gorge: 16 miles The upper sec­tion is all shal­low braids where the riv­er winds its way through the British Moun­tains, an area of beau­ti­ful lime­stone cliffs rich with fos­sils. This is an area of some of the best high ridge hikes that are acces­si­ble from most camps. There are sev­er­al good camp­sites that are just down­riv­er of the land­ing strip mak­ing it fair­ly easy to launch the same day if there is another…  ...more

This bit of riv­er sys­tem is a crys­talline, spring-fed water­shed that flows into the Tanana Riv­er and is famous as being the largest doc­u­ment­ed spawn­ing area for Coho Salmon of the entire Yukon Riv­er sys­tem. It is a fair­ly short riv­er of 20 miles with 12 miles you can float, but when com­bined with the 30 miles of Tanana Riv­er down to the Alcan High­way Bridge, a long week­end or up to a 3 day trip is pos­si­ble and is entire­ly acces­si­ble by car.…  ...more

The Colville Riv­er ris­es in an iso­lat­ed area of the DeLong Moun­tains, at the west­ern end of the Brooks Range, north of the con­ti­nen­tal divide in the south­west­ern cor­ner of the Nation­al Petro­le­um Reserve. It flows ini­tial­ly north, then gen­er­al­ly east through the foothills on the north side of the range, broad­en­ing into a wide tun­dra expanse as it receives the inflow of trib­u­taries that descend from the mid­dle Brooks Range. It is a major river…  ...more

Float Through Anchor­age Neighborhoods

At the very west­ern edge of Alaska’s moun­tain­ous inte­ri­or and adja­cent to the giant delta region of the Yukon Riv­er is the lit­tle known, fed­er­al­ly des­ig­nat­ed Wild and Scenic, Andreaf­sky Riv­er and its trib­u­tary, the East Fork Riv­er. Flow­ing south west away from the Nula­to Hills, the Andreaf­sky Riv­er and its trib­u­tary the East Fork, run for 105 miles and 122 miles as clear streams flow­ing out of alpine tun­dra and into the spruce and birch…  ...more

Issu­ing out of the aqua­ma­rine waters of Twin Lakes, the Chi­likadrot­na Riv­er, a Wild and Scenic Riv­er, flows past the high peaks of Lake Clark Nation­al Park and Pre­serve and speeds the 60 miles to its con­flu­ence with the Mulchat­na Riv­er. The riv­er runs an aver­age of 5 miles an hour through birch and spruce for­est with the jagged peaks of the south­ern Alas­ka Range stand­ing above it. It can be run in as lit­tle as 4 days but a longer trip is…  ...more

Overview With the Tal­keet­na Moun­tains to the north and the Chugach Moun­tains to the south, the Matanus­ka Riv­er pours forth from the large Matanus­ka Glac­i­er in a swift, freez­ing cold, tor­rent of Class II to Class IV white­wa­ter for near­ly 70 miles before it meets the sea where the Knik Arm of Cook Inlet reach­es into the inte­ri­or. The riv­er runs down the trench formed where the Bor­der Ranges Fault line sep­a­rates the two mighty moun­tain ranges,…  ...more

Overview The Por­cu­pine Riv­er begins in the vast reach­es of inte­ri­or Cana­da in the Ogilvie Moun­tains and trav­els 300 miles of Cana­di­an water­way and 200 miles of Alaskan water­way, to where it joins the Yukon Riv­er near Fort Yukon. It is a Class I wilder­ness trip that is suit­able for any­one com­fort­able with camp­ing in mos­qui­to and bear coun­try and flows through the bore­al for­est of spruce, birch, poplar and wil­low. It has head­wa­ters that join…  ...more

The Hula Hula Riv­er is some­times referred to as the quin­tes­sen­tial arc­tic riv­er trip. It has a gen­er­ous amount of white­wa­ter and moun­tain scenery as well as sev­er­al days of the arc­tic coastal plains where the riv­er plunges through the often dis­cussed 10 02 Land, the calv­ing grounds for the Por­cu­pine Cari­bou Herd. This is the con­tro­ver­sial land that is part of the ​“drill for oil on the calv­ing grounds” debate that we hear about. The trip…  ...more

Overview This inter­est­ing com­bi­na­tion of rivers and lake is a rarely done cir­cuit that would be a great mul­ti-day wilder­ness float trip for kayaks and rafts. With good fish­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties and only Class III at times, it is most­ly a Class II trip and for 80 miles it trav­els through an amaz­ing land­scape. The Nelchi­na Riv­er sys­tem is a rocky glacial riv­er with dai­ly water lev­el fluc­tu­a­tions amid a forest­ed val­ley and with spec­tac­u­lar views of…  ...more

A com­bi­na­tion of clas­sic Alaskana: float planes, big moun­tains, crys­tal blue lakes, and home­steading his­to­ry. This ​“route” is unique­ly freeform. You’ll be able to choose from hun­dreds of avail­able hik­ing options. With the vast major­i­ty of the pad­dling being on flat water this is a great option for a novice packrafter.

Flow­ing out of the west­ern edge of the Chugach Moun­tains, the Kenai Riv­er runs turquoise blue from Kenai Lake through canyons and white­wa­ter till it spills out onto the low ele­va­tion wood­lands to where it final­ly meets the salt water of Cook Inlet near the town of Kenai. For almost 80 miles the riv­er frol­ics through 3 sets of white­wa­ter and forms 7‑mile long Ski­lak Lake. A trip of 4 to 5 days is an ide­al time to spend on this world-class…  ...more

The Alagnak riv­er, a fed­er­al­ly des­ig­nat­ed Wild and Scenic Riv­er that orig­i­nates in Kat­mai Nation­al Park and Pre­serve, is a fish­er­man’s par­adise and the most pop­u­lar fish­ing float trip in the Bris­tol Bay region. From it’s head­wa­ters at Kukak­lek or Non­vianuk Lake, it is a 75 mile Class I and II riv­er with one Class III canyon that is a mile long and has a short falls, not eas­i­ly portaged or lined due to the steep walls. The riv­er is a good…  ...more

Overview Flow­ing south away from the Kuskok­wim Moun­tains and out of the Nusha­gak Hills and into Nusha­gak Bay of the world famous Bris­tol Bay region, this riv­er rep­re­sents one of the most impor­tant fish­ery habi­tats in south­west Alas­ka. For 275 miles this riv­er runs as a Class I riv­er that is well suit­ed for fam­i­lies that have good wilder­ness camp­ing skills and enjoy inter­ac­tions with local native peo­ples as it flows past sev­er­al native…  ...more

Overview This riv­er is a lit­tle known riv­er, short in length but long in attrib­ut­es, that flows in one of Alaska’s pre­mier wilder­ness park­lands, Lake Clark Nation­al Park and Pre­serve. With the Neo­co­la Moun­tains to the north and the Chig­mit Moun­tains to the south, the riv­er sits in a geo­graph­i­cal­ly impor­tant site where the Alas­ka Range ends and the Aleut­ian Range begins. The scenery along the river’s nar­row moun­tain lined val­ley is the river’s…  ...more

The Hap­py Riv­er is a gem of an Alas­ka Range Riv­er. Locat­ed in a vast wilder­ness and drain­ing the south slopes from Rainy Pass, and flow­ing into the much larg­er Skwent­na Riv­er, it is a swift, rocky riv­er of mod­er­ate to slight­ly above mod­er­ate dif­fi­cul­ty. Kayak­ers find it an easy run, while it presents sev­er­al chal­lenges to raft­ing par­ties. In the upper val­ley the riv­er is with­in a most gor­geous loca­tion with swift, con­tin­u­ous but small rapids,  ...more

The upper Kobuk Riv­er tra­vers­es a wide, for­est-cov­ered val­ley with sweep­ing views from the riv­er of near­by moun­tains. From its start at Walk­er Lake the riv­er is in the Gates of the Arc­tic Nation­al Pre­serve and it has sev­er­al Class IV chal­lenges as well as miles of Class I riv­er. A wilder­ness envi­ron­ment exists down­stream to approx­i­mate­ly the Pah Riv­er area. Fur­ther down­riv­er, the Kobuk is a major trav­el cor­ri­dor for local inhab­i­tants and…  ...more

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Overview Locat­ed in south­west­ern Alas­ka, in one of the rich­est fish­eries in the world, the Wood-Tikchik State Park has a great, easy to mod­er­ate float trip that is per­fect for fam­i­lies with wilder­ness camp­ing expe­ri­ence and for diehard fish­ing enthu­si­asts. From the fur­thest inland lake to Dilling­ham, Alas­ka is a 130-mile trip that involves pad­dling your way the length of 4 large lakes and down the three rivers that con­nect the lakes and then…  ...more

The Kil­lik Riv­er begins in the north­ern por­tion of Gates of the Arc­tic Nation­al Park and flows north 135 miles to where it joins the Colville Riv­er at what is known as the Kil­lik Bend. There is a 105-mile and a 90-mile sec­tion of riv­er acces­si­ble to rafters and makes for a good 7 to 10 day trip. The riv­er starts in the Endi­cott Moun­tains, in the region of Sur­vey Pass at about GPS N 67 degrees and W 46.5 min­utes, and flows through a broad,…  ...more

The Win­ner Creek to 20 Mile Riv­er loop is a great first pack­raft­ing trip. For those with pack­raft­ing skills, this route offers a quick, easy-to-access, mul­ti-sport adven­ture. The hike up to Berry Pass is seri­ous­ly under­rat­ed, and the views of the 20 Mile water­shed are absolute­ly stunning.

Overview Begin­ning far up into the moun­tains of Lake Clark Nation­al Park, the Stony Riv­er is a lit­tle known but beau­ti­ful glacial riv­er that flows south away from the Rev­e­la­tion Moun­tains and out of Sled Pass to a point where it then flows north­west through the rolling foothills to where it even­tu­al­ly joins the Kuskok­wim Riv­er near the vil­lage of Stony Riv­er. The upper 50 miles of riv­er are inac­ces­si­ble and rarely see sum­mer­time traffic.…  ...more

Overview The Yan­ert Riv­er is a lit­tle known gem that is the largest trib­u­tary of the quite pop­u­lar Nenana Riv­er, which forms the east­ern bound­ary of Denali Nation­al Park. It flows rapid­ly through a braid­ed glacial out­wash plain that fills a sec­tion of the ancient Hines Creek Fault line, and marks the zone of col­li­sion between ancient and new­er tec­ton­ic plates. There is a short but deep gorge and the riv­er is only 20 miles in length but by…  ...more

The Alsek is one of the great rivers of the world. It has been a water­way for hun­dreds of thou­sands of years and its mouth has the fifth largest dis­charge of water on the west coast of North and South Amer­i­ca. It flows down through the heart of Klu­ane Provin­cial Park in Cana­da and runs through the largest pro­tect­ed parklands/​biological pre­serves in the world. It cross­es 4 major tec­ton­ic fault lines. It is part of a UNESCO World Her­itage Site…  ...more

Overview The Wild Riv­er is not as wild as the coun­try around it. In fact, it is one of the best fam­i­ly float trips that is avail­able to those who want a dose of wilder­ness that is far from the secu­ri­ty of the neigh­bor­hood watch group. It is a 63-mile trip from where it heads in a lake nes­tled in a love­ly forest­ed val­ley to where it joins the Koyukuk Riv­er and flows past the town of Bet­tles, and is eas­i­ly float­ed in 6 days time. It is a Class I…  ...more

Overview The Noatak Riv­er flows through the largest undis­turbed water­shed in North Amer­i­ca and is list­ed as an Inter­na­tion­al Bios­phere Reserve as well as hav­ing a Nation­al Wild and Scenic Riv­er sta­tus. It starts in the dra­mat­ic, granitic, Endi­cott and Schwat­ka Moun­tains in the Gates of the Arc­tic Nation­al Park of the Brooks Range, flow­ing along at a leisure­ly pace in a west­er­ly direc­tion for 300 miles, then turn­ing to the south for anoth­er 100…  ...more

Overview The Sheen­jek Riv­er begins in a near arc­tic envi­ron­ment and trav­els hun­dreds of miles into the sub­arc­tic, flow­ing a souther­ly route out of the Roman­zof Moun­tains, with­in Alaska’s Brooks Range. It car­ries a Nation­al Wild and Scenic Riv­er dis­tinc­tion and offers sev­er­al options for extend­ed trips into a vast wilder­ness. The great­est dis­tance one can trav­el is about 290 miles from its head­wa­ters to the town of Fort Yukon along the…  ...more

Overview The Niz­ina Riv­er flows out of the Niz­ina Glac­i­er and into the heart of the Wrangell Moun­tains from a point not far from the divide with the St Elias Moun­tains to the east. This area is a part of the largest pro­tect­ed park­lands in the world and from near its source, it offers a 45-mile or 90-mile trip with mod­er­ate Class III dif­fi­cul­ties. It is a trib­u­tary of the Chiti­na Riv­er that flows into the even larg­er Cop­per Riv­er. The…  ...more

The Holit­na Riv­er is an easy flow­ing riv­er in south­west Alas­ka, run­ning through a vast wilder­ness area. Flow­ing north along the base of the Kuskok­wim Moun­tains and out of the Tay­lor Moun­tains, the Holit­na is the largest riv­er sys­tem in the low­er Kuskok­wim Riv­er basin and offers a great fam­i­ly and friends trip in a true wilder­ness set­ting with a chance to meet local natives at the vil­lage of Kashegelok in the river’s head­wa­ter area. From the…  ...more

The Delta Riv­er, includ­ing Tan­gle Lakes to mile 212 on the Richard­son High­way, is an out­stand­ing riv­er to float, although there is a set of falls to portage around. It offers a vari­ety of water chal­lenges: qui­et lake, fast and rocky Class I to the falls, good Class II rapids fol­low­ing the falls, Class I mean­der­ing water to Eure­ka Creek, and fast glacial water to the take­out 7 miles below Eure­ka Creek. The scenery is superb with canyon,…  ...more

A trip down the Firth Riv­er, with its head­wa­ters in Alas­ka and most of the riv­er locat­ed in Cana­da, is a riv­er trip with no par­al­lel. It is said to be Canada’s old­est riv­er hav­ing been a refugium where the ice of the last ice age nev­er exist­ed. As a result, its land­scape is rugged and crag­gy and its riverbed with­out glacial out­wash grav­els. Locat­ed with­in Ivvavik Nation­al Park in Canada’s north­ern Yukon, the riv­er lies across the migratory…  ...more

Class III Pack­raft­ing Riv­er. Remote and exot­ic land­scape. 30 miles hik­ing, 30 miles float­ing. Fly-in to Port Hei­den, fly-out from Ani­akchak Bay. 

The Alat­na Riv­er is a fed­er­al­ly des­ig­nat­ed wild and scenic riv­er that lies, par­tial­ly, with­in the bound­aries of The Gates of the Arc­tic Nation­al Park. It orig­i­nates in the cen­tral Brooks Range and flows through the Endi­cott Moun­tains. It flows past Cir­cle Lake, has beau­ti­ful views of the Arrigetch Peaks and even­tu­al­ly flows through the Help­me­jack Hills. The low­er sec­tion of the riv­er flows in a SSE direc­tion through the Alat­na Hills to its…  ...more

The Kanek­tok Riv­er is locat­ed in the Togiak Nation­al Wildlife Reserve of South­west Alas­ka and flows west­ward 85 miles from Pegati Lake and into the Bering Sea at the city of Quin­hagak. It starts in the scenic Ahk­lun Moun­tains then spills out across the Kuskok­wim low­lands and is a fly fish­er­man’s par­adise. It is a world class fish­ing des­ti­na­tion and sees quite a bit of fish­ing from lodges near­by and from fish­ing camps along the river.…  ...more

Overview The Nigu and Etivluk Rivers, begin­ning in Gates of the Arc­tic Nation­al Park, are sel­dom-vis­it­ed riv­er val­leys in the high arc­tic at above 68 degrees north lat­i­tude and flow north out of the Brooks Range to join the Colville Riv­er. Begin­ning in the moun­tains, the rivers flow north from the Brooks Range, out of the east­ern edge of the DeLong Moun­tains into the Arc­tic foothills through rolling hills and tun­dra. Both rivers car­ry small…  ...more

Overview Six Mile Creek is, per­haps, Alaska’s most acces­si­ble tech­ni­cal white­wa­ter run, well suit­ed to kayak or pad­dle raft, most­ly Class IV and one class V canyon. Flow­ing in the rugged Chugach Moun­tains of the Kenai Penin­su­la, with­in Chugach Nation­al For­est, this stream has a rep­u­ta­tion of boom­ing white­wa­ter and fast gorge style rapids. A small vol­ume stream, it has 3 dis­tinct canyons, with each one more dif­fi­cult than the pre­vi­ous. At most…  ...more

The Aniuk Riv­er begins in the moun­tains north­west of Howard Pass, an easy pass full of lakes and was a tra­di­tion­al path­way for migrat­ing ear­ly native cul­tures. The riv­er flows south­west­er­ly for 80 miles to its con­flu­ence with the Noatak Riv­er. It is a small, clear water stream with numer­ous rocky rapids. For any­one want­i­ng to do the Noatak Riv­er, yet want an alter­nate, more remote start­ing place, this is an option and tra­vers­es a rarely…  ...more

Lake Creek is one of south cen­tral Alaska’s most famous streams, pri­mar­i­ly due to its supe­ri­or salmon runs. King Salmon use Lake Creek and Chelat­na Lake as a spawn­ing site and return in large num­bers and trout and grayling fol­low right behind them. Lake Creek is a clear, swift, and at times, very strong riv­er with two sec­tions of Class III+ and IV rapids and many tech­ni­cal boul­der gar­den rapids to get through. The two hard­est sec­tions can be…  ...more

The Can­ning Riv­er is an arc­tic riv­er that flows north out of the beau­ti­ful Phillip Smith Moun­tains and forms the west­ern bound­ary of the Arc­tic Nation­al Wildlife Refuge and is an ide­al riv­er for small boats and for those not inter­est­ed in chal­leng­ing white­wa­ter. It is a wide riv­er val­ley formed by the glac­i­ers that once flowed down from the high peak of Mt Cham­ber­lain, the sec­ond high­est moun­tain in the Brooks Range. It is a mean­der­ing river…  ...more

Overview The Marsh Fork is a trib­u­tary of the Can­ning Riv­er, an arc­tic riv­er that forms the west­ern bound­ary of the Arc­tic Nation­al Wildlife Refuge and flows through the dra­mat­ic Phillip Smith Moun­tains and past the Franklin Moun­tains. The trip we describe is a 35-mile sec­tion of the Marsh Fork and a 5‑mile stretch of the Can­ning Riv­er to the first take­out option that is a grav­el strip at Plunge Creek. The Marsh Fork requires some Class…  ...more

Overview The Lit­tle Su, as it is known, is a clear stream that flows out of the Tal­keet­na Moun­tains and through a con­strict­ed, boul­der-choked canyon before becom­ing a mild, mean­der­ing riv­er. It is a rel­a­tive­ly small stream, warmer than most Alaskan rivers and offers two dis­tinct type trips. One is a Class IV+, 7‑mile sec­tion of near con­tin­u­ous white­wa­ter suit­able, only for skilled kayak­ers, and is the upper most sec­tion of riv­er that you can…  ...more

The Chick­aloon Riv­er runs strong and fast out of the Tal­keet­na Moun­tains of cen­tral Alas­ka on its way to merge with the larg­er Matanus­ka Riv­er which runs into Knik Arm of Cook Inlet. There is a 33-mile sec­tion of riv­er that is Class II and III+ and could become a bit more with high water flows. This is not a trip for begin­ners! It is a superb week­end trip for groups with good raft­ing gear and good read and run skills, as the main stretch of…  ...more

Beaver Creek Nation­al Wild and Scenic Riv­er has its head­wa­ters in the White Moun­tains, north of Fair­banks, Alas­ka. The riv­er flows west past the jagged lime­stone ridges of the White Moun­tains before flow­ing to the north and east, where it enters the Yukon Flats and joins the Yukon Riv­er. It is one of the few road acces­si­ble streams in Alas­ka with a Wild and Scenic des­ig­na­tion. The first 127 miles of Beaver Creek were des­ig­nat­ed a National…  ...more

Overview The Squir­rel Riv­er is a very clear, small vol­ume arc­tic riv­er flow­ing south out of the foothills of the Baird Moun­tains to where it joins the Kobuk Riv­er at the vil­lage of Kiana. This is an easy float and well suit­ed to fam­i­lies or begin­ner pad­dlers that are com­pe­tent wilder­ness campers. There is good hik­ing in the upper moun­tain­ous region and good fish­ing all along the way. After August, water lev­els become low and the upper…  ...more

The John Riv­er is a clas­sic stretch of arc­tic riv­er: sceni­cal­ly spec­tac­u­lar, clear with good fish­ing, great hik­ing in the upper reach­es, no dan­ger­ous sec­tions of riv­er and lots of wildlife view­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties. It flows swift­ly, south out of the arc­tic inte­ri­or through Anak­tu­vuk Pass into the rugged Endi­cott Moutains and rep­re­sents a path from the Inu­it cul­ture of the north to the Athabaskan cul­ture of the forest­ed inte­ri­or. To the north,…  ...more

Overview The Now­it­na Riv­er, or Novi as locals refer to it, is a non-glacial Class I riv­er with a short bit of Class II riv­er flow­ing north of the Kuskok­wim Moun­tains and is a Nation­al Wild and Scenic Riv­er. Much of its length is with­in the Now­it­na Nation­al Wildlife Refuge, and for over 300 miles, this tea-col­ored riv­er slow­ly flows out of the Susu­lat­na Hills and Sun­shine Moun­tains, through wood­ed and hilly ter­rain, en route to its confluence…  ...more

The Nenana Riv­er, a glacial riv­er, forms the east­ern bound­ary of Denali Nation­al Park and is pos­si­bly the most pop­u­lar riv­er raft­ing des­ti­na­tion in the state. It offers a vari­ety of lev­els of dif­fi­cul­ty and has a thriv­ing com­mer­cial raft­ing indus­try that oper­ates 2 hour, 4 hour and overnight trips for locals as well as out of state tourists.

Locat­ed in south­west Alas­ka and flow­ing out of the Ahk­lun Moun­tains to the Bering Sea, the North Fork of the Good­news Riv­er is an ide­al fam­i­ly and/​or friends, 5 day float trip of 60 miles on an easy riv­er that is choked with fish in the sum­mer months. The upper half lies with­in des­ig­nat­ed wilder­ness in the Togiak Nation­al Wildlife Refuge and is sur­round­ed by green tun­dra cov­ered moun­tains and has good cur­rent in the upper reach­es with little…  ...more

Portage Creek is the eas­i­est float near Anchor­age, a 1 – 2 hour float down flat water with the option of take outs at mile 4.5 or 6.5. With kids, how­ev­er, you’ll want to turn it into a half-day adven­ture, stop­ping on grav­el bars to play and explore. You’re nev­er far from Portage Val­ley Road, which can pro­vide a sense of com­fort. Even though the road does not have a deep wilder­ness feel, you are sur­round­ed by sev­er­al-thou­sand foot moun­tains which…  ...more