Rafting Among the Glaciers on the Tatshenshini and Alsek Rivers, Alaska and British Columbia

The Trip

British Columbia's Tatshenshini-Alsek Wilderness Park and Alaska's Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve represent the sub-Arctic Pacific Northwest at its finest. These areas -- along with neighboring Wrangell-St. Elias and Kluane Parks -- form a UNESCO World Heritage site that, with almost 38,000 square miles, is the largest protected wilderness ecosystem on earth. This is a place truly unspoiled by humankind's heavy hand. The Tatshenshini River is known for its spectacular scenery and wildlife, and many seasoned river runners consider this to be one of the world's premier raft trips. If you can take only one expedition to Alaska in a lifetime, this is it.

From its headwaters in Canada's Yukon Territory, the Tatshenshini River flows south through British Columbia's highest mountain range to its confluence with the Alsek River, which eventually enters the Pacific Ocean at Dry Bay on the Gulf of Alaska. We will be rafting about 140 miles of this rivershed. The waters of the Tatshenshini flow slate-gray with the silted melt waters of the surrounding glaciers and snowfields. Numerous side streams add to the flow until the braided "Tat" becomes a mile wide. In all of North America, only the Columbia River delivers more water to the Pacific Ocean.

Here the air is crisp and clean, and the sky -- when it is clear -- is a brilliant blue. Late-summer wildflowers line the riverbanks, and the valleys are verdant green against a backdrop of rugged gray peaks cloaked in ice and snow. Icebergs can be seen and heard breaking off glacial faces into Alsek Lake near the end of the trip. Wildlife can be plentiful on this Alaskan adventure. Eagles soar overhead while shorebirds scurry along the water's edge. We will have an excellent chance of seeing a bear, beaver, moose, red fox, mountain goats, Dall sheep, and perhaps a wolf, wolverine, or lynx. As we hike and float through this beauty, there will be plenty of time for photography, drawing, or just relaxing and enjoying the views, the silence, and the solitude.

Most Alaskan adventures require considerable experience, equipment, physical stamina, time, planning, and effort. Rafting, however, is perhaps the least strenuous -- some would say the safest and most comfortable -- way to gain access to the true Alaskan wilds. Exploring this region and floating the Tatshenshini and Alsek rivers is the perfect introduction to Alaska for wilderness lovers. Like on all Alaska trips, weather can be highly variable from rain to sunshine.

"We rowed up its fjord and landed to make a slight examination of its frontal wall. The berg-producing portion, a mile and a half wide, was broken into an imposing array of jagged spires and pyramids, and flat-topped towers and battlements, many shades of blue from pale, shimmering, limpid tones in the crevasses and hollows to the most startling, chilling, almost shrieking vitriol blue on the plain mural spaces ... It seemed inconceivable that nature could have anything finer.
" - Sierra Club founder John Muir, Travels in Alaska, 1875

All Sierra Club domestic trips, in the past/present, have been/are conducted on originally Native American lands. The Tatshenshini and Alsek Rivers flow through the traditional lands of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations. Numerous First Nation fishing villages were located along the rivers, although today only Klukshu, Yukon is still occupied.

The Haines area was originally settled by Native Alaskans of the Tlingit culture. The Chilkats were well known as the largest and most powerful of all the Tlingit tribes. Historically, the Chilkat valley had many village sites but only two are still occupied today. Sierra Club Outings has committed to acknowledge this past colonial history in our domestic trip brochures and continues to embrace the traditional Native values of honoring and protecting Mother Earth.

This trip begins in Haines, Alaska, and ends in Yakutat, Alaska. You are responsible for travel to Haines before the trip starts and from Yakutat at the end of the trip. All other transportation is provided and included in the trip price. The trip involves crossing into Canada, which requires an up-to-date passport.

Day 1: Plan to arrive in Haines, Alaska by midday in time to meet the trip leader for a hiking tour of Haines and a visit to the Sheldon Museum and Cultural Center. Haines is the type of town many people picture when they imagine Alaska; nestled in the upper reaches of the Lynn Canal Fjord, in front of the Chilkat River Valley. The Chilkat Mountain Range rises behind the river, providing a dramatic backdrop to the picturesque town, with restored Fort Seward buildings decorating the hillside in the foreground. Lodging for the first two nights of the trip is included in the trip price.

Day 2: After breakfast on your own in Haines, we will spend a half-day floating through the Southeast Alaska Bald Eagle Preserve past the confluence of the Chilkat, Kleheni, and Tsirku rivers. Created by the State of Alaska in 1982, the preserve was established to protect and perpetuate the world's largest concentration of bald eagles and their critical habitat. It also sustains and protects the natural salmon runs and allows for traditional uses.

The Preserve consists of 48,000 acres of river bottomland of the Chilkat, Kleheni, and Tsirku rivers. More than 80 eagle nests have been observed in the Eagle Preserve. Over 3,000 bald eagles have been counted within the preserve during the fall congregation. What brings the eagles are the five species of salmon that spawn in these and other nearby streams and tributaries. The combination of water and large amounts of food brings large concentrations of eagles and other wildlife into the Chilkat Valley.

Nestled along the banks of the Chilkat River rests the ancient Tlingit village called Klukwan. We will visit the “village that has always been” and learn about Tlingit culture, enjoy presentations in their lodge and other outbuildings, and then get transported back to Haines.

The name Klukwan is taken from the Tlingit phrase "Tlakw Aan," which means "Eternal Village." Klukwan enjoys a multi-layered cultural history that is preserved through the Tlingit language, rituals, stories, oral histories, and subsistence activities practiced by the Chilkat Tlingits. According to recent artifact tests, Klukwan has been in existence for 10,000 years.

We’ll return to our hotel for a meeting with our river guides. The next day, we leave early for Dalton Post and our put-in on the Tatshenshini River, in Yukon Territory. 

Days 3-11: Our bus will arrive early on day three in front of our hotel and we’ll head to Dalton Post, Yukon Territory, 110 scenic miles from Haines. The highway to the put-in passes through the Bald Eagle Preserve before climbing out of the coastal valley, entering Canada, and climbing into the alpine region of Chilkat Pass. Wildflowers, jagged mountain peaks, and hanging glaciers set the scene here. Once we reach the put-in, the guides will load the rafts and explain the rules of the river and bear etiquette, and then we'll be underway!

The first section of the river takes us through Tatshenshini Gorge. After six miles of Class III rapids, the land opens up and flattens out. The remainder of the river is generally Class II at normal water levels. We soon enter the Tatshenshini-Alsek Wilderness Park where, over the next several days, we will wind our way toward the beautiful Alsek and Noisy ranges. Thickly forested valleys provide the perfect habitat for a large population of moose. Soon the river reaches the Alsek Mountains, a towering range of ice-capped peaks that turns the river south. Here the river once again picks up speed. There are good short hikes in this area. Weather permitting, we will have spectacular views of the surrounding mountains. This is a prime wildlife habitat; the beaches are often marked by the tracks of moose, bears, and wolves, and occasionally we may catch glimpses of the animals themselves.

As the river braids out into an ever-widening valley, tributaries pour in, doubling the river's volume time and again as it cuts deeper into the mountain ranges. The broad, open deltas of the tributaries provide excellent locations to spot wildlife. High on the slopes above, beautiful white mountain goats and Dall sheep graze on the grassy knolls and rugged crags. As we float downstream, we will notice the mountains growing taller and the glaciers increasing in size and number. The confluence of the Tatshenshini and Alsek rivers is an awe-inspiring place. Here, four major valleys converge and the river becomes a giant rolling highway, braiding out across a wide valley. Our camp here will be near the Alaskan border, where we will enter Glacier Bay National Park.

Farther downstream, the Alsek rounds a blind corner and reveals the massive Walker Glacier. In the past, this breathtaking glacier tumbled down, crystal blue, to the river's edge. Now the glacier has receded, and we are no longer able to experience the glacier close-up by walking on it. We will stop for a very short walk on the recently glaciated land and then return to the boats.

Back on the river again, we'll count more than 20 glaciers in a spectacular panorama, where the river quickly moves away from Walker Glacier, and the surrounding high peaks rise steeply from the banks to their heavily glaciated summits. This is literally "Ice Age country," with dozens of large and small glaciers filling every vista around our rafts. We'll pass the immense Noatak Glacier and float toward Alsek Lake. Here we should see many species of birds, including bald eagles, semi-palmated plovers, spotted sandpipers, northern phalaropes, water pipits, and Canada geese.

Near the end of the trip, we'll reach Alsek Lake, where the Alsek and Grand Plateau glaciers join at the river to form an eight-mile-wide ice face, arching around the beautiful lake and filling it with icebergs. Thunder rumbles across the lake at regular intervals as the glacier spawns another berg. This scene is just the foreground, though, to one of the world's most beautiful backdrops: the massive rise of 15,300-foot, ice-clad Mt. Fairweather. Weather permitting, we will spend a day rowing out onto the lake for a closer look at the massive icebergs. Our last camp on Alsek Lake will be the most spectacular yet. Here you will learn the meaning of the phrase "scenic overload."

Day 12: We will leave Alsek Lake for the final leg of our float trip to the take-out near Dry Bay, just before the place where the mighty Alsek meets the ocean. From there we will board a small bush plane for the scenic trip to Yakutat (this flight is included in the trip price). Our trip formally ends when we reach Yakutat. Assuming that the weather doesn’t delay us, you can either catch a late afternoon Alaskan Airlines flight to Juneau or opt to spend the night in Yakutat before flying to Juneau the next day. The flight to Juneau is not included in the trip price.

Please note, that the trip price does not include gratuities for the river guides. Gratuities are entirely voluntary and solely at your discretion, but they are customary. The guides work hard day and night to make this trip as memorable and fulfilling for you as possible. If you agree they worked hard and contributed significantly to the success and enjoyment of your outing, you may want to express your appreciation with a tip. A guideline of 9-18% of the trip price per guest is appropriate. Your Sierra Club trip leader does not share any portion of the gratuity; leaders are unpaid volunteers and cannot accept them.

Getting There

Members are responsible for their travel to Haines and from Yakutat to Juneau. Do not schedule your arrival and departure dates too tightly; allow some flexibility for canceled flights and other delays. Because of the possibility of weather-related flight delays, it is strongly recommended that you purchase travel insurance. Do not make travel commitments without talking with the leader first.

Arriving in Haines: You can choose to fly into Haines, AK, by small plane from Juneau or use the ferry. The Alaska Marine Highway Ferry System (www.dot.state.ak.us/amhs or 800-642-0066) has regular ferry service from Juneau to Haines. 

Getting home: Though we begin our trip in Haines, we’ll finish in Yakutat. From Yakutat, you must get back to Juneau to connect with outgoing flights. Alaska Airlines has a very limited number of flights from Yakutat to Juneau. In southeast Alaska, all flights are subject to weather delays; for example, you may be delayed in Dry Bay or Yakutat for the night. We cannot guarantee your arrival back in Yakutat at a specific time, so we recommend you plan to stay overnight in Yakutat, enjoy a no-host celebratory dinner, and fly out the next day. Most airlines will be accommodating for weather delays, but it is wise to discuss this possibility when scheduling your travel arrangements. Talk with your trip leader before making ticket reservations. You will need to make your flight reservation before you arrive in Haines. We recommend trip insurance.

Accommodations and Food

Haines: Accommodations (shared double occupancy) will be reserved for two nights at a historic hotel in Haines before we depart for the Tatshenshini. You’ll also need lodging reservations in Yakutat or Juneau for the last night of the trip, depending on your travel plans and when your return flight is booked. The cost of lodging in Yakutat and/or Juneau is not included in the trip price.

On the river: During the trip, tent space is limited to minimize impact and the amount of equipment that must be carried on the rafts and bush planes. Therefore, we provide "shared double-occupancy" tents. We follow Leave No Trace guidelines for river corridors to minimize our impact on this fragile environment, including using chemical toilets for solid human waste. There will be no plumbed or pit toilets available on the river.

Food: All meals from lunch on Day 3 to lunch on Day 12 are included in the price, as well as lunch and snacks on Day 2 (the half-day float and visit to the Klukwan village). Our staff will supply and prepare all of the food and provide mugs and eating utensils. If you have a special dietary need, please inform the trip leader upon enrollment. It may not be possible to meet all special dietary requests, but the sooner the request is received, the better the chance it's possible. Beverages will be provided including drinking water, coffee, tea, and hot chocolate. Limited space is available if you wish to bring your own sodas or other favorite beverages in plastic bottles, cans, or wine boxes. No glass is allowed on the river trip and no alcohol is allowed during the day or while on the river. This is for your safety and the safety and enjoyment of others.

Trip Difficulty

This is a trip of intermediate difficulty. On the international whitewater scale of I (easy) to VI (unrunnable), the rapids in Tatshenshini Gorge are rated Class III, while the remainder of the river is considered a Class II. It is not the rapids that make the "Tat" a trip of intermediate difficulty, but the weather and remoteness of the area. Coastal Alaska's climate is generally cold and wet. This is an area famous for record levels of precipitation. Indeed, the high mountains here get 60 feet of winter snow, producing some of the largest glaciers in the world outside of the polar regions.

When it rains, it can be very heavy and cold with wind. We may encounter thick fog as well. The weather will have a strong influence on the itinerary and overall difficulty of the trip. It is normal, however, to have some days of glorious sunshine. The temperatures may reach the 80s, but the lows can be in the 30s, and generally, the need is to keep warm and dry. For this reason, previous wilderness camping experience is a must for participation in this trip.

Although we make every effort to ensure a safe trip and have an excellent safety record, whitewater boating, hiking, and wilderness travel do involve some risks. Physical challenges and risks are inherent in rafting and are often the reason people seek this kind of adventure. If you elect to participate, you must be in good health and willing to assist with camp chores, such as loading and unloading duffels and community equipment on and off the rafts, and carrying it to and from the campsites twice a day. Each person must be able to take care of his or her personal needs and attend to his or her campsite. Strict adherence to "bear etiquette" is necessary to help us maintain the excellent safety record of previous trips on this river.

On-shore exploration ranges from easy walks to more difficult hikes that require some scrambling ability. The specific hikes we do depend on where we camp each night and on weather conditions. Although all hikes are optional, good physical conditioning is important in any wilderness outing. We strongly recommend that you engage in a program of regular exercise before the trip. This trip should be considered an "active" vacation as you will be packing and unpacking your gear, setting up your tent, and participating in side hikes. These activities, taken together in a wilderness environment, are physically demanding if you are not in shape. The trip leader is responsible for screening participants for their suitability for the trip. The pace of the trip will be leisurely, allowing time for hiking, photography, and exploration. It is a great trip for both new and experienced rafters alike. The minimum age for this trip is 15 (18 if unaccompanied by an adult).

We use professional raft outfitters and guides for our raft trips. The industry practice is that outfitters require participants to sign a waiver similar to the Sierra Club waiver you will be asked to sign. Your trip leader will provide you with additional details for your trip.

Equipment and Clothing

We will use 16- or 18-foot oar-powered rafts, each controlled by an experienced river guide. Our boats are not "paddle rafts," so trip members will not be paddling the boats. We will have professional river guides and staff who know the river.

We supply a “sleep kit,” which includes a sleeping bag and pad. Participants share a sturdy double-occupancy tent. We also provide two large waterproof "dry bags," heavy-duty raingear, rubber boots and gloves, a lifejacket, a mug, a plate, and eating utensils for each trip member. A detailed equipment list will be sent to you upon acceptance of the trip.

The weather can be very volatile in this area, so the key to enjoying yourself is to be properly dressed. Use the layering method that allows you to add or subtract layers as the weather changes. It can be very wet at times, so you must have clothes that keep you warm even if you're not dry. Therefore, you need to have wool, fleece, or polypropylene clothing. Cotton absolutely must be avoided.

Luggage storage can be arranged while we’re on the river. It will be transported to Juneau for you to pick up after the trip.

While there are plenty of salmon in the river, the river is opaque and silty, and the fish don't feed once they leave the ocean, so the fishing is not good. You can fish at other locations in the Juneau-Haines area before or after the trip.

Travel documents: You must have a passport to travel to Canada and return to the US; a driver's license or birth certificate alone is no longer adequate. Non-U.S. citizens must have green cards or re-entry visas for the U.S. and Canada where applicable. Your passport must accompany you into Canada and will be used to check in at the Yakutat airport.

References

To fully enjoy the trip, you will want to read one or more books on the natural and human history of the Tatshenshini-Alsek region, conservation, and Alaska before we depart. This outing is unique in many ways and it would be a shame not to come intellectually well-prepared. Even a rudimentary grasp of the region's natural and human history will greatly enhance your experience. 
The following are especially recommended:

• Muir, John, Travels in Alaska. The classic, by our founder and inspiration.
• Wayburn, Peggy, Adventuring in Alaska. The Club's excellent travel guidebook, written by one of the Club's most impassioned defenders of Alaskan wilderness.
• Lyman, Russ, Joe Ordonez, and Mike Speaks, The Complete Guide to the Tatshenshini River and Map of the Alsek and Tatshenshini Rivers. 2004. Both are available at www.cloudburstproductions.net/. The standard river guide and map for this trip.
• Hamilton, Heather, A Naturalist's Guide to the Tatshenshini-Alsek.
• Careless, Ric, Ken Budd, and Johnny Mikes (Eds.), Tatshenshini River Wild. An excellent large-format book of photography and art of the Tatshenshini region, produced during the battle to save the Tatshenshini watershed. A great souvenir of the trip.
• McPhee, John, Coming into the Country. An erudite and engaging introduction to Alaska, especially for McPhee fans.
• Lende, Heather, If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name: News from Small-Town Alaska. Lende's offbeat chronicle brings us inside her busy life. We meet her family and a colorful assortment of friends and offbeat neighbors, including aging hippies, salty fishermen, native Tlingit Indians, Mormon spelunkers...as well as the moose, eagles, sea lions, and bears with whom they share this wild and perilous land.

Conservation

One of the greatest conservation battles and victories of the late 20th century played out in the wilderness through which we will travel. This struggle has much to teach us, and we will take the time while on the river to discuss it further. The battle began when a Canadian mining company wanted to develop a huge copper mining operation on Windy Craggy Mountain in the Tatshenshini watershed. Environmentalists opposed the proposal because the copper ore at Windy Craggy has a particularly high concentration of sulfur, which, when exposed to air, oxidizes to form sulphuric acid. Environmentalists worried that the proposed storage methods -- tailing pools behind earthen dams -- were inadequate to protect the Tatshenshini watershed, especially because the area is prone to large earthquakes. Moreover, the service roads would have run dangerously close to the Tatshenshini River.

In addition to potentially polluting the Tatshenshini and Alsek rivers, toxic fallout from the mine would have destroyed the habitat of one of the largest concentrations of grizzly bears in Canada. The winter range of the Dall sheep and the habitats of mountain goats and wolves also would have been damaged. The mine would have harmed the salmon in the two rivers. In 1993, showing the courage and leadership so often lacking in the U.S., the Canadian government not only denied the mine proposal but declared the entire Tatshenshini-Alsek region in northwest British Columbia a Class A wilderness, to be permanently protected and managed as wilderness. The area, the Tatshenshini-Alsek Wilderness Provincial Park, is 2.5 million acres in size -- twice that of the Grand Canyon. The park, which abuts the Wrangell-St. Elias National Preserve and Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska and the Kluane National Park in the Yukon Territory, are now part of a new 24.3-million-acre St. Elias-Tatshenshini World Wilderness Reserve, the largest in the world.

"Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed; if we permit the last virgin forests to be turned into comic books and plastic cigarette cases; if we drive the few remaining members of the wild species into zoos or to extinction; if we pollute the last clear air and dirty the last clean streams and push our paved roads through the last of the silence, so that never again will Americans be free in their own country from the noise, the exhaust fumes, the stinks of human and automotive waste." - Wallace Stegner, 1960

Sierra Club National Outings is an equal opportunity provider and when applicable will operate under permits obtained from U.S. federal land agencies.