Itinerary Details
MT Sobek: Alaska & Yukon Tatshenshini River Rafting
Day 1 Arrive in Haines, Alaska
Arrive in Haines, Alaska to check in for your welcome meeting at the hotel. You'll meet your guides and fellow travelers, get oriented for the trip and walk to the warehouse nearby to pick up your gear and dry bags. Then, a celebratory dinner is shared prior to an early evening to get ready for the big adventure ahead!
Accommodation: Hotel Halsingland
(D)
Day 2 Travel to Dalton Post in Yukon Territory, Canada
3-hour private van transfer
4 hours/12 miles rafting Class II-III rapids
After breakfast, meet at the Halsingland Hotel lobby and board a van for a beautiful 3-hour drive up the Chilkat River Valley, across the border into British Columbia, and on to Dalton Post in Yukon Territory, Canada. After rigging bags into the rafts, you'll push off on the Tatshenshini River. Soon, plunge into the exhilarating Class III rapids of the Tatshenshini Gorge, the largest section of technical rapids on the trip. Upon emerging into calmer waters, make camp along the river.
Accommodation: MT Sobek Camp—Tatshenshini River, Yukon Canada
(B, L, D)
Day 3 Raft Silver Creek to Sediment Creek
6 hours/22 miles rafting Class II–III rapids
The river slowly builds momentum over the next few days as you wind your way toward the beautiful Alsek and Noisy ranges. Stay observant in this meandering stretch of scenic forested river, where its prime country for moose, bear, and wolf; the beaches are often marked with the tracks of all three. Take the opportunity to layover in this corridor for two nights, allowing us more immersive hiking and wildlife viewing.
Accommodation: MT Sobek Camp—Tatshenshini River, Yukon Canada
(B, L, D)
Day 4 Spot Wildlife on Hikes
2-6 hours/2-4 miles hiking 650'-2,600' elevation gain & loss
Enjoy a mellow morning at camp before your choice of a short or long hike to a spectacular overlook through old cottonwood trees and aspen forests. If you're lucky, catch views of the animals inhabiting these forests, making noise to alert them of your presence in this wild environment. If the weather holds, the full day will be spent hiking in this spectacular area on this layover day.
(B, L, D)
Day 5 Raft Deeper into the Alsek Range
6 hours/15 miles rafting Class II-III rapids
Raft down the spectacular Tatshenshini River, winding deeper into the glaciers of the Alsek range. You'll feel the landscape change from densely-forested meandering river into steeper mountains with fast-moving braided river channels. You'll encounter Monkey Wrench Rapid, and many small creeks that contribute to tripling the water level of the river since you started this journey.
(B, L, D)
Day 6 Continue Down the "Tat" to Towagh Creek
6 hours/29 miles rafting Class II-III rapids
Reach the point where the O'Connor River converges with the Tatshenini, intensifying its flow and generating a thrilling fast-moving current. After that exciting run, pull out at Henshi Creek on a massive delta and enjoy a well-deserved lunch. You navigate through a beautiful canyon in the afternoon to the outwash and eventually you reach Towagh Creek Camp.
(B, L, D)
Day 7 Reach the Confluence with the Alsek River
4 hours/15 miles rafting Class II rapids
The mountains, river, and wildlife become more spectacular as the swift flowing river brings you closer to the majestic confluence with the Alsek River, a place many call "the center of the universe." The campsite vista spans the broad expanse of both river valleys, flanked by more than 20 different glaciers.
(B, L, D)
Day 8 Experience the Dramatic Walker Glacier
5 hours/17 miles rafting Class II rapids
Below the confluence with the Alsek River, the scenery becomes even more dramatic and the river turns into a series of gravel braids in a 3-mile-wide valley. Rounding the corner at the end of a long straightaway, see the dramatic sight of the Walker Glacier. Its blue and white spires dominate the view for several hours. If conditions allow, take some time to watch the glacier, and maybe even float near its terminus.
Accommodation: MT Sobek Camp—Tatshenshini River, Alaska
(B, L, D)
Day 9 Float the Alsek River & Hike
5 hours/16 miles rafting
The surrounding high peaks rise steeply from the banks to their thickly glaciated summits. This is Ice Age country, as literally dozens of large and small glaciers fill every vista around the tiny rafts. Leave the immense Novatak Glacier and float toward Alsek Lake, dominated by looming 15,320-foot Mount Fairweather. Spot many species of birds, including bald eagles, semi-palmated plovers, spotted sandpipers, northern phalaropes, American pipits, and more.
Accommodation: MT Sobek Camp—Tatshenshini River, Alaska
(B, L, D)
Day 10 Reach Alsek Lake & Gateway Knob
3 hours/14 miles rafting
Pass through several different mountain ranges and finally enter Alsek Lake. Watch and listen as giant chunks of ice calve into the water from the 7-mile face of the Alsek glacier. The icebergs here are larger than those in Glacier Bay — some icebergs are 75-feet high. The guides row among ice floes sculpted into bizarre, fluted, ever-changing phantasmagoric shapes — a veritable "iceberg garden." With a little luck catch a glimpse of impressive Mount Fairweather, the tallest peak in Glacier Bay National Park, looming in front of the camp.
(B, L, D)
Day 11 Depart from Dry Bay by Bush Plane
1-hour charter flight
3 hours/14 miles rafting
After navigating through broken iceberg chunks, known as "bergy-bits" into the flat, forested plains beyond Alsek Lake, arrive at the Dry Bay outpost along the estuary of the Alsek River. Board a small aircraft for a spectacular charter flight to Yakutat.
(B, L)
