Custom Trips

Ivishak River Rafting in the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

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We love this valley because it has the same striking beauty and rugged mountain terrain as the Marsh Fork of the Canning. But as a special bonus, in contrast to the increased use in other areas of the Refuge (such as the Kongakut in June), this rarely visited area feels to us like what the whole Brooks Range did 15-20 years ago.  We begin this trip as high in the mountains as possible on this small, clear, fast flowing river. In order to spend extended time in the most remote and scenic upper valley, we'll raft only the upper 25 miles of the river, leaving numerous layover days for hiking, exploring, fishing or just relaxing in this wild place. The shorter river distance also gives us maximum flexibility for adapting to variable water levels and aufeis conditions which can effect travel on this small river.

We'll pass through either the Gwitch'in Indian village of Arctic Village or the Dalton Hwy "camp" of  Coldfoot, at the beginning and end of this trip.

Trip Details
We don't have set “daily itineraries” since all of our trips are true wilderness expedition-style trips, where we build in flexibility to respond to weather and water conditions, animal sightings, etc. Here is a sense of the general flow of the trip:

Each trip leaves Fairbanks in the early morning of the trip start date, so you need to be in Fairbanks by at least the day before that. We're scheduled to be back in Fairbanks by late afternoon/early evening of the trip end date. We recommend leaving at least a day's leeway at the end of the trip in scheduling other travel plans, since there's always a chance of getting weathered in at the pickup point.

We'll be doing a relatively short portion of the river on this trip, spending 3-4 days rafting down the river, with 3-6 hours a day on the water. There will be more layover days on this trip than some of our other river trips, where you can go for long or short day hikes or just relax in camp (not everyone has to do the same thing).

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