UPPER CHITINA
RAFTING TRIP
Multi Day
- Rafting
Raft the heart of the Wrangells!
Discover one of the wildest, most remote river adventures in Alaska on the Upper Chitina River. This 4-day fly-in/fly-out rafting expedition takes you deep into the heart of Wrangell–St. Elias National Park, where glaciers, waterfalls, and rugged canyons shape the landscape, and few visitors ever set foot.
With its braided channels, sweeping gravel bars, and endless opportunities for exploration, the Upper Chitina offers both the thrill of navigating a massive, untamed river system and the serenity of camping in complete solitude.
This trip is for those seeking true wilderness and Alaska’s sweeping landscapes. Out here, bush planes replace shuttles, wildlife roams freely, and every bend in the river reveals something astonishing.
- Bush plane access to remote wilderness
- Experience one of Alaska’s least-traveled rivers
- Explore glaciers, canyons, and hidden lagoons
- Camp on vast, solitary gravel bars
- Search for tracks of free-roaming bison
- Walk through a ghostly, silt-buried forest
- Shorter but epic trip for those on a tighter schedule
Trip Details
Trip Length
4 days
Total Mileage
50 miles
Whitewater
Class II-III
Access
Bush plane flights in and out of McCarthy
Max Participants
12
Min Age
8 yrs old
Rates
2 Participant
$7,950/person
3 Participant
$5,440/person
4-6 Participants
$3,950/person
7-9 Participants
$3,800/person
10-12 Participants
$3,450/person
Dates
We are not running a Group Upper Chitina trip in 2026, but you can join the first half of the Source to Sea Expedition for a 7-day Upper + Lower Chitina River combo July 11-17, 2026.
Private Trips with custom dates are available! Schedule a call with our Expedition Coordinator to plan your Private Trip today!
The “Alaska Factor”
There is a reason Alaska has such a rugged allure for the lower 48 and beyond: it is still wild! This raw and untamed landscape offers our clients the opportunity to authentically pioneer new territory and have real adventures. Part of embracing the “Alaska Factor” is understanding that things may not always go as planned and expecting the unexpected. Water levels might rise, snow might fall, glaciers may shift and move – the landscape is dynamic and unpredictable is what makes Alaska, Alaska!
All of our trips are customized as they unfold and your guide will fluidly make decisions based on weather, logistics, and group dynamics to maximize each day’s experience. There can be quite a bit of variation, but on each trip we promise a big slice of the real Alaska and authentic adventure!
DAY 0
DAY 1
After heading to the airport, you’ll load into a tiny bush plane and start the scenic 45-minute flight out to our put-in near the headwaters of the Chitina, a mighty river that drains nearly half of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. Heading South and East, your flight takes you over the river you’ll be traveling on, diving two massive mountain ranges – the Wrangell and Chugach Mountains. Countless waterfalls, glaciers, mountains, creeks, and canyons later, you’ll land a stone’s throw away from the rafts and gear.
Hopping out of the plane, you’ll be surrounded by some of the most rugged, raw, and untouched natural features in the Park. The feeling really sinks in when the pilots wave goodbye and take off to the skies – you’re really out here! First, we’ll explore around this incredible area on foot, the smooth gravel bars making for easy hiking.
After lunch, we’ll load all of your gear onto the rafts and head a few miles downstream to camp. Tonight we’ll practice setting up our tents and kitchen and the guides will cook up the first of our menu of delicious dinners.
DAY 2
Waking up to fresh mountain air and a little fog rolling through the mountains, your eyes don’t know where to turn. Every direction offers massive terrain with endless details to examine. You bring your binoculars to breakfast to make sure you don’t miss a thing!
After packing up camp, we’ll begin to make our way downstream, navigating the almost unimaginable number of river braids. The valley bottom is over 2 miles wide in places, making the options nearly endless for what the day’s adventures will hold. From blue lagoons to cliffside walks, there are many chances for exploration as we head on down the river.
Tuck into a secluded and sheltered gravel bar to set up your camp. After appetizers, you make sure to document today’s highlights and eagle sightings in your notebook. The guides blow you away with a dinner to match your spectacular vista and jokes and laughter take you late into a peaceful evening.
DAY 3
Today you wake up energized, knowing that a cool hike awaits! After fueling up on breakfast, we’ll spend the morning searching around our camp for signs of bison tracks before turning our attention to a unique section of forest. Here we’ll see where the mighty river once carved a path, completely overtaking spruce trees and burying their trunks in feet of spa-quality mud and silt. Facials anyone?!
Returning back to our camp, we’ll pack up and eat lunch before launching downstream. Miles of dramatic bluffs and unimaginably carved gulches play foreground to blue-green peaks and spruce forest. Keeping your eyes peeled for wildlife sightings, you enjoy the quiet stillness of this gorgeous landscape, feeling small in the best way possible.
Your guides pull out all the stops for tonight’s dinner, making sure you remember your last night in this incredible mountain kingdom.
DAY 4
Waking up today is easy, but leaving camp is hard. Breakfast never tasted so good! After packing up and pushing off, we’ll enjoy a few more miles of river braids before the river chokes down into one large channel. Tall cutbanks line the walls of this narrowing and you contemplate how deep the water must be here.
Beautiful spruce trees with many burls will start to appear as we make our way to our takeout airstrip at Jake’s Bar. This historic air strip and associated cabins have been used for nearly a century by pilots, miners, and hunters. Unloading the boats and hauling our gear up the bank and to the strip will be a team effort. Listening for the rumble-buzz of our bush plane pick up, we’ll have some time to check out the little cabins and social trails through the trees. Our pilots are ready to hear all about our adventure, knowing we’ve been out where few have ever been, as we cruise back to McCarthy.
What’s included?
- Customized trip planning
- Logistics consultation*
- Professional guides – 3:1 ratio
- Orientation and a Gear Shakedown
- Gorgeous bush flights in and out of the backcountry
- All the food on the trip – breakfast, lunch and dinner
- Group and personal rafting gear (PFDs, dry bags, boats, etc)
- Group camping gear (camp kitchen, groover, tents**)
*Upgrade to a Trip Package and have logistics included with your trip!
**We recommend that you bring your own tent if possible
What’s not included?
- Gratuities
- Personal camping and hiking gear
- Logistics
You’ll need to be in McCarthy the day before your trip begins for an Orientation and Gear Shakedown. You’ll meet your guide, get fitted for equipment, take your dry bags and make sure you are fully prepared to head into the backcountry.
Your trip will end with a bush flight from the backcountry to McCarthy. Although we’ll plan for this flight to take place in the afternoon, we don’t recommend any major plans for the rest of the day, in case the flight is delayed. Plan to spend this evening in the McCarthy-Kennecott area. Tomorrow, or “Day 5” is the earliest we recommend leaving McCarthy. Please account for a full day for travel both to and from McCarthy and the next Alaskan destination.
Check out our Transportation Page to learn how to get to and from McCarthy. Check out our Lodging Page for lodging recommendations in the area.
Trip Package
If you are planning your trip +2 months before your trip start date, upgrade to a Trip Package! A Trip Package will include transportation to/from McCarthy, local lodging, and any other local activities you’re interested in. We charge a non-refundable $50 Trip Package fee per person for planning and managing your reservations. Every trip package is unique and will be customized to fit your timeline and budget. You’ll process a single transaction with us and receive a detailed itinerary with all the components of your Trip Pacakge.
All of our Rafting Trips are considered Mild. 
Our Rafting Trips are scenic floats through incredible wilderness, and on all of our trips, you’ll hit Class II-III rapids. The glacial rivers we float run fast and cold, so we take a conservative approach, allowing everyone to have a fun and splashy time while mitigating the risks the water presents to the boats and rafters.
You can expect to go on a short hike or two each day, usually 1-3 mi total and up to ~200ft of elevation gain. Please keep in mind that there is no truly “easy” hiking terrain in the Wrangells, and often the coolest places require a little extra effort to get to. There aren’t any trails where you’re headed, so most hikes will be up dry creek beds or along the brushy edges of the river. Longer and more challenging side hikes are available on this trip for those looking for a little more!
You will be camping in the rugged wilderness with no manmade shelters, toilets, or really any type of development.
No special physical training or camping experience is required. We recommend our rafting trips to anyone looking for a wilderness experience at a very comfortable pace, those wanting to spend quality time with their group, or those hoping to relax while still seeing a lot. Kids ages 8+ are welcome.
GALLERY
FAQ
On Basecamp Trips we fly out into the wilderness and set up camp near the airstrip. From here we explore the area on a series of day hikes with lighter packs or paddles and return to the same camp every night.
Basecamp Trips are recommended for beginner campers, families with younger children, and those with injuries that may prevent them from carrying a heavy pack. We also recommend these trips for those looking for a more relaxing experience, though please note that all the terrain in the Wrangells is quite rugged so some level of athleticism is always required to get around the wilderness.
On Mini-Backpacking Trips we fly to a backcountry destination and strap on our heavy backpacks, taking a short hike to set up our first camp. Over several days, we will explore different areas on day-hikes, moving camp at least once again.
Mini-Backpacking Trips are perfect for those newer to camping and backpacking or those looking for a less physically strenuous backpacking experience in rugged Alaska. Great for kids 12 and up!
On Point-to-Point Backpacking Trips we take 4-8 days to get from backcountry destination A to backcountry destination B, moving camp every night, being completely self-sufficient, and carrying all our gear on our backs.
Our Backpacking Trips are different in difficulty as well as terrain and scenery and each presents a unique series of challenges. Alaska requires more and burlier gear which means heavier packs and the terrain and weather can be relentless – do not underestimate the challenges a trail-less wilderness presents! We do not offer any “easy” backpacking trips and do not recommend these trips for first-time or beginner backpackers.
On Rafting Trips we usually spend 2-6hrs on the river every day, stopping for lunch and short, scenic hikes before making a camp in the wilderness. Our rafting trips are scenic floats, allowing access to otherwise unattainable views and covering more miles than you ever could on foot, with some class II-III rapids in between. Rafting trips allow a slightly more “luxurious” wilderness experience than backpacking or basecamp hiking – easier on the legs, a more casual daily schedule with more time at camp, no backpack burden, more elaborate meals with fresher ingredients, etc.
We raft a few different rivers in the Wrangells and each has unique scenery and logistics, some involving bush flights and some ending way out on the coast! We recommend our rafting trips to anyone looking for a wilderness experience at a very comfortable pace, those wanting to spend quality time with their group, or those hoping to relax while still seeing a lot. Kids ages 8+ are welcome.
On Mountaineering Expeditions we access remote big-mountain terrain, usually landing on ski planes to climb and ski some of the tallest peaks in Alaska’s endless mountain kingdom! We offer small-group objective-based expeditions where the goal is to safely summit and descend a remote peak, play-style expeditions where we set up a basecamp to access some shorter but epic lines, and technical courses where the goal is to learn and practice mountaineering techniques and skills (see below). We climb and ski in a wilderness style – there are no fixed lines, no sherpas, no busy basecamp scenes and established camps, no weather stations, and usually no one on the mountain except our team. This is a different style of climbing and takes strong mental and physical fortitude as teams must be completely self-sustained. All mountaineering trips include Trip Packages with transportation and lodging logistics included (Anchorage to Anchorage).
Our mountaineering expeditions are recommended for those looking to access some of the most remote and wild mountain terrain on the planet. Each trip has a difficulty level, requires vetting and a mountaineering resume. Some trips require guide references.
On Technical Courses the goal is to learn technical skills and put them into practice on Alaska’s unique glaciated terrain. Our courses vary in length and can be highly customizable
Technical Courses are recommended for those wanting to focus on skill-building and excited to learn in an incredible outdoor classroom. All skill levels are welcome. We are not affiliated with any learning institution and these courses do not provide any type of certification. That said, we hope that what we teach you and your experience is memorable and transforms your mountain confidence and abilities!
We pride ourselves on cooking healthy and delicious meals even under the most adverse conditions! Your guide will create a custom menu based on the length and logistics of your trip, and the dietary preferences/restrictions you list in your Trip Application. All our guides are well-trained backcountry chefs and use time-tested recipes from our proprietary cookbook for their trips. We carry a plentiful and varied stock of ingredients and most meals are prepared from scratch (allowing for easy substitutions, additions or subtractions of ingredients). We only use pre-packed freeze-dried meals on summit pushes on our mountaineering expeditions.
On our backpacking and base camp trips, you can expect 3 meals a day, plus snacks of your choice. Breakfasts and dinners are usually hot meals and lunches are served cold. On mountaineering trips lunches consist of a variety of snacks as it can be hard to organize group meals while on a rope team.
We use a combination of fresh, dehydrated, and freeze-dried ingredients to make our delicious meals, however on longer backpacking and mountaineering trips your guides will use more freeze-dried foods than fresh foods to keep pack weights as low as possible.
On our rafting trips, we cook full multi-course meals with fresh ingredients and enjoy hot and cold breakfasts, cold lunches and hot dinners.
Meals for most trips start with Lunch on the first day and end with Lunch on the last day. *
*If you are signed up for a Custom Trip Package with us, it may include more meals. Check with us if you’re not sure. Mountaineering trips also include meals in McCarthy before and after the backcountry expedition.
We understand that you may have luggage or things you don’t want to bring into the backcountry with you so we have a designated area at our headquarters where your guide will label and store your stuff while you’re out. This area is not locked, however, we have never had any issues with loss or damage. If you have a small item of great value that you are particularly nervous about, we may be able to store it in our office for you – just ask your guide.
On the Chitina River, Copper River, Source to Sea, or Custom Trips with different start and end points, any luggage you leave behind with us will be brought out to meet you at the end of the trip.
Have questions? Schedule a call with our Expedition Coordinator! She’ll help you narrow down which trip is best for you and answer any questions you have about our trips, the local area or surrounding logistics.