Copper River Highway (Cordova to Bridge)

Cor­do­va is known in to the locals as Alaska’s hid­den trea­sure. It’s a small, hard-work­ing fish­ing com­mu­ni­ty with a pop­u­la­tion of about 2,270. Locat­ed near the mount of the Cop­per Riv­er, it nes­tles peace­ful­ly at the head of Orca Inlet in Prince William sound and has a mys­tique all its own. In the area are glac­i­er-carved moun­tains, wildlife-rich wet­lands, lush forests, and count­less water­ways that host many excit­ing activ­i­ties such as skiing,…  ...more

In part 2, we will look at the pro­posed changes and restora­tion to var­i­ous loca­tions around Eyak Lake. The project includes replac­ing many inef­fi­cient cul­verts with fish friend­ly access cul­verts for spawn­ing salmon and a short bridge seg­ment near Mavis Island to improve sed­i­ment and tur­bid­i­ty for­ma­tion along the shore where salmon spawn. Signs of lake ero­sion and habi­tat destruc­tion can be seen when dri­ving along Pow­er Creek Road and the…  ...more

The 3.3‑mile long trail is most­ly board­walk over muskeg. This is an excel­lent spot to bird-watch, look for water­fowl feed­ing on Eyak Lake. Trum­peter swans fre­quent this lake. Most fly south for the win­ter how­ev­er, up to 100 swans will win­ter here in this ice-free lake. 

Sun­dews are amaz­ing car­niv­o­rous plants that live in poor soil con­di­tions and catch insects in an inge­nious way to sup­ple­ment their needs for nitro­gen and oth­er nutri­ents that the sur­round­ing soil lacks. Hik­ing in areas where the ground is wet and spongy or bog­gy, you will like­ly find the tiny car­niv­o­rous plants wait­ing for their next insect meal. Look for a small plant grow­ing close to the ground with bright red leaves the size of a pencil…  ...more

Fall time is beau­ti­ful any­where in Alas­ka, but the changes in the area around Cor­do­va and the Cop­per Riv­er Delta are tru­ly breath­tak­ing. Learn about the insect activ­i­ty that takes place in this sea­son with a detailed look at insect mim­ic­ry and a harm­less bee look-alike called the flower fly. These insects are usu­al­ly found in the autumn in areas with flow­er­ing plants includ­ing people’s gar­dens and yards and where ever flow­ers abound like…  ...more

Watch for wildlife in this aquat­ic area, look for the beaver lodge. Beavers are com­mon on most lakes and marsh­es all over Alas­ka. If you look close­ly enough, you’ll see lodges, dams and canals on many of the water­ways along the high­way. If you’re lucky, a beaver may even be swim­ming nearby.

There’s a cov­ered pavil­ion here with inter­pre­tive plaques about the Chugach Nation­al For­est area and the Cop­per Riv­er Delta. The Cop­per Riv­er Delta is the largest con­tin­u­ous wet­land on the west coast of North America.

An access road leads to the ter­mi­nus of Sheri­dan Glac­i­er and the trail­head for Sheri­dan Moun­tain USFS trail. The trail is a dif­fi­cult 2.9‑mile hike. The glac­i­er was named for the Civ­il War Gen­er­al Philip Sheri­dan. There is an easy walk­ing trail to a spec­tac­u­lar view of the glacier. 

Look to the south and you’ll see a WWII era build­ing. Troops were sta­tioned at Cordova.

This ski trail weaves through muskeg and for­est and grad­u­al­ly gains ele­va­tion until it ends. The trail leads to a high muskeg that over­looks the Cop­per Riv­er Delta, Heney Range and the Gulf of Alas­ka. This trail is very wet dur­ing all sea­sons exclud­ing win­ter and is not a hik­ing trail. 

This is an easy .8‑mile board­walk trail with lots of stairs. The board­walk leads to over­look of the Cop­per Riv­er Delta with many signs. Be sure to bring your cam­era, this is a great place to see moose and bear. 

This trail has impres­sive views of the Chugach Moun­tains. Short spur trails offer access to five small lakes that are excel­lent for cut­throat fishing.

This is an easy 2.4‑mile hike with excel­lent fish­ing for sock­eye, Dol­ly Var­den and cut­throat. You’ll find access to McKin­ley Trail and McKin­ley Lake pub­lic use cab­ins. It is a well-main­tained trail that has sev­er­al bridges for easy stream cross­ings and inter­pre­tive signs to explain the trail’s history. 

While on the high­way look for the McKin­ley Lake Cab­in sign and trail­head. From the trail­head, a 2 ¹⁄₂ mile hike will take you to the For­est Ser­vice pub­lic cab­in. Sock­eye salmon view­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties exist here and at the loca­tion anoth­er 75 yards past the cab­in. Salmon view­ing at this loca­tion is from mid July to mid August with best view­ing in late July or ear­ly August. 

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Look for the chan­nel to a beaver pond. The chan­nel pro­vides access to the pond for sil­ver salmon fry and can sup­port up to 25,400 young salmon. The fall­en trees and brush pro­vide cov­er from preda­tors. Here you will also find access to Sad­dle­bag Glac­i­er USFA Trail, a 3‑mile trail to Sad­dle­bag Lake, this is the best trail for moun­tain bik­ing in the district.

Here is a great view of Cop­per Riv­er. Take the short walk to a mon­u­ment ded­i­cat­ed to the men who built the bridges to the islands that you see here. This mon­u­ment espe­cial­ly ded­i­cat­ed to the crane crew who lost their lives on July 21, 1971.

This is the main flow of Cop­per Riv­er, known for its wild salmon runs; in fact this is one of the most prized stocks of salmon in the world. Watch for har­bor seals as they fol­low the salmon runs up the Cop­per Riv­er as far as Childs Glac­i­er. You’ll see them bob­bing along the riv­er or rest­ing on ice flows. 

This very active glac­i­er forms a wall along the fabled Cop­per Riv­er near a his­toric rail­road route that once ser­viced the world’s largest cop­per mine. NOTE: A bridge at Mile 36 of the Cop­per Riv­er High­way is cur­rent­ly (2020) impass­able, with repairs not expect­ed for sev­er­al years. Child’s Glac­i­er is not cur­rent­ly acces­si­ble by road. Con­tact Cor­do­va Ranger Dis­trict for cur­rent venders pro­vid­ing trans­porta­tion options to the far side.  ...more

Con­struc­tion of this ear­ly-1900s bridge cost a whop­ping (at the time) $1.4 mil­lion, which earned it the nick­name Mil­lion Dol­lar Bridge. But the bridge quick­ly earned its keep, allow­ing the rail­road to haul cop­per from Ken­ni­cott to the port of Cordova.