North Fork of the Koyukuk River

Take out is a sim­ple process of float­ing to the town of Bet­tles, which sits on the banks of the Koyukuk 5 miles above the John Riv­er confluence.

Take out involves hug­ging the left shore of the Koyukuk Riv­er once there, till you sight the town of Bet­tles and then pulling in to a point where you can find out where the clos­est point to the airstrip is.

It is nec­es­sary to fly in to the start of the riv­er and can be done from either Bet­tles or Cold­foot. Cold­foot can be reached by dri­ving the Dal­ton High­way from Fair­banks. Com­mer­cial flights into Bet­tles are pos­si­ble from Fair­banks. A bush plane on wheels can then land you at Kuchona Creek where there is a decent grav­el strip. From here is about an 85-mile jour­ney through very scenic wilderness.

For a short­er trip of 5 days you could land your gear at Red­star Creek where it is only 60 miles to the take out in Bettles.