In 2024 we did our first rafting trip on the South Nahanni River in the Northwest Territories. We liked that trip so much that we decided, while we were still on that trip, that we would do another in 2025. This time it would be on the Alsek River which has been on our minds for several years.
The Alsek River starts in the Yukon Territory. After three camps and five nights the river crosses into British Columbia where we camped twice for two nights. The last part of the trip was in Alaska where we camped twice for three nights. While in British Columbia we did a short portage by helicopter to bypass Turnback Canyon which cannot be rafted. That canyon has only been descended a few times by world-class experts in kayaks.
Four of our friends who were on the Nahanni trip also came on this year’s trip: Brenda, Bruce, Dianne, and Irene. Other friends of ours who came this year were Amanda, Jim, Margaret, and Tony. Also on the trip was Peggy who is Amanda and Jim’s friend. Completing our group of 12 was Scott, the only complete newcomer. Little did he know that he was signing up to do a trip with our rowdy lot of friends.
By an absolutely amazing coincidence, Scott was on the South Nahanni River in 2024 at the same time as us. He was part of a group which canoed the river. We even took a photo of him not knowing that he would be with us on the 2025 trip.
Both the Nahanni and Alsek were scheduled trips run by Nahanni River Adventures and open to the public. One big difference in the two trips is that this year we had four rafts and guides: Jacob (Jake) Erickson, the lead guide along with Andy Preto, Tayla Koeber, and Ursula (Urs) Killbridge. In 2024 it was three rafts/guides for the same number of clients. This is because the Alsek River has more and bigger rapids than the South Nahanni River.
Nahanni River Adventures bought and merged with Canadian River Expeditions which ran the Alsek River trips previously. The rafts have the Canadian River Expeditions name on them.
As expected, this was an excellent trip. Especially the guides who were very capable, enthusiastic, and fun to be with.
Following are video clips and photos from the trip. The silent 11 minute video includes 9 minutes of video clips from the trip followed by a 2 minute Google Earth tour of our route.
Now the photos. If you expand the photo viewer to full page the “Adventures” menu will stop working. This is because of technical issues with the website software. Refresh the web page. The “Adventures” menu will then work properly.