Happy River Points

The low­er put in is at Halfway Lake and has a bit more vol­ume at this point and the run to the Swent­na Riv­er is 27 miles of con­tin­u­ous rocky rapids of Class III to III+. A Cess­na 206 or DeHav­i­land Beaver on floats is avail­able from Susit­na Air Ser­vice at Kash­wit­na Lake and like­ly from oth­er Wil­low and Tal­keet­na based flight operators.

Most groups will con­tin­ue float­ing down the Skwent­na Riv­er to where a float­plane can land on the riv­er. The first oppor­tu­ni­ty comes 34 miles from the mouth of the Hap­py Riv­er and is below the mouth of the Talachulit­na River.

Anoth­er put in option is to fly into Pun­til­la Lake and coor­di­nate with Rainy Pass Lodge to take you down to the riv­er on horse­back. It’s a full day of effort to pack and trudge your gear the 1 – 2 miles down a horse trail to the riv­er, and a lot more work than just fly­ing into Sheep Lake. I might just men­tion that it’s been done, is pos­si­ble, but a lot of work. I guess it makes sense if you want to spend a cou­ple days at a lodge before beginning…  ...more

The upper put in is at Sheep Lake and is well above tree line where the riv­er is crys­tal clear, very tight, yet low vol­ume; more creek than riv­er, and runs 34 miles to the Skwent­na River.

You could float an addi­tion­al 20 miles to Skwent­na Vil­lage where there are reg­u­lar flights back to Anchor­age, but, per­haps, not Wil­low or Tal­keet­na. The Skwent­na is, also, a scenic float through some small canyons and among braids and mul­ti­ple chan­nels. Pre­arrange this with your flight operator.