Southwest and Aleutians Alaska Float Trips

Its Boundaries

This region begins roughly at Nunivak Island and includes the Kuskokwim Delta region, and the tributaries arising south of the Kuskokwim River—including the Kanektok, Goodnews and Togiak watersheds, as well as the Wood, Nushagak, Kvichak and Naknek watersheds. These rivers are also associated with the famed Bristol, Togiak and Nushagak bays.

What It’s Like

The Southwest and Aleutians river region is often thought of as the world's greatest fishing destination—abounding with salmon runs and all the fish that accompany the huge biomass that enters the rivers each year. It’s also a region of huge lakes, and the big brown bears that make their home in Katmai and Lake Clark National Parks.
Rich with small villages, fishing lodges and plenty of fly-fishermen, this isn’t an area known for solitude. Still, there are many rivers that head in the mountains, away from the valley, where you won’t find that many people.

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Float Trips

Southwest and Aleutians Alaska Float Trips

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

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

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

This trip is best start­ed from Dilling­ham, which can be reached by reg­u­lar­ly sched­uled air ser­vice from Anchor­age. From there, a char­tered plane on wheels can take you to one of sev­er­al grav­el bar land­ing areas near the con­flu­ences with the Chi­chit­nok River.

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

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

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

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

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

Take Out Option for Chi­likadrot­na Riv­er. The pri­ma­ry take out is usu­al­ly by float­plane from the waters of the Mulchat­na Riv­er at a spot about 12 miles below its con­flu­ence with the Chi­likadrot­na, mak­ing for a 72-mile trip.

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

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

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

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