North Fork Eagle River

While the North Fork of Eagle River is only 40 minutes from Anchorage, it has as much beauty and some of the hazards of much bigger, more remote Alaska rivers. Class I and only 7 miles long, this float is still fairly-committing, especially during low water when the entire trip from the mile 7.4 put in to the take out can take 4-5 hours on the water. The river isn't braided so you're in one channel the entire float, but there are a lot of bends so the actual floating distance is closer to 8 miles. Even with normal water conditions, once you enter the river, it’s a good 3-4 hours before you’ll reach the pull out.