The Chickaloon is a gorgeous, sea-foam green river which pours down from the dramatic and breathtaking peaks of the Talkeetna Mountains. Mostly glacial but part snow melt, the river is always cold and runs most of the summer. Its a perfect first fly-out trip for intermediate boaters looking to get out into the true wilderness and mystery of Alaskan rivers. For advanced boaters it's still a tremendous and worth while trip for the hiking and remarkable scenery. The best way to do the trip is as a multi-day with a raft running the gear so that camping and hiking take up as much time as running the river. Fly-in to the headwaters having your pilot drop your gear off at river level and hike through the high alpine dall sheep country and along an unrunnable upper gorge which seems to drop into oblivion before joining other headwater branches and reemerging as the splashy and playful Chickaloon proper. A short canyon section is encountered about 2/3's of the way down, obvious from well up stream, and scouting is advised as a giant pyramidal rock fills the middle of the river just after the bottleneck, (plus it's just a really cool rock formation worth seeing from above). Beyond this brief canyon, low rock walls continue to border the river all the way to the take-out with a river wide pour-over, scoutable from a dirt road near the take-out, being the only other point of concern. Its a great eddy service play spot at the right water levels, a horrendous recirculating hole at flood, so be cautious if it's high water. The Glenn Hwy and take-out is at the third bridge on river right.
For a raft assisted kayak expedition trip or kayak lessons visit Kayak Alaska. |
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