Nabesna River Points

Access the Nabesna Riv­er at Cab­in Creek/​Jack Lake for a 55-mile float through the Tetlin Wildlife Refuge down to North­way. For cen­turies this land was beneath the ancient, glacial Lake Aht­na that formed by the huge ice sheets of the last ice age block­ing the Matanus­ka to the west and the Cop­per Riv­er to the south. At Mile 41 of Nabesna Road take a rough road to the left, down Jack Creek, ford­ing it sev­er­al times. It’s 5 miles to Cab­in Creek.…  ...more

Even though there is a 4‑wheel dri­ve road off the Nabesna Road that takes you to the riv­er, it fords sev­er­al streams and is often impass­able. A bet­ter choice is to fly in to a strip known as the Orange Hill Airstrip where you can spend a day or two hik­ing up into the big glac­i­er coun­try at the ter­mi­nus of the Nabesna Glac­i­er before start­ing down riv­er in a raft or kayak. From North­way you can char­ter a wheelplane to take you the short flight…  ...more

Take out is usu­al­ly from the road into North­way, even though you could con­tin­ue anoth­er 6 to 8 miles to the Alcan High­way at the con­flu­ence with the Chisana Riv­er where it offi­cial­ly becomes the Tanana Riv­er. Then you have to dri­ve to Tok, then south to Anchor­age, 5 to 7 hours or 6 hours north to Fairbanks.