Route Description: If you want to experience hiking off-trail in Alaska without having to fight your way through serious brush or tiring yourself out on an exhausting climb, there are several beautifully rugged mountain creeks you can explore in the Alaska Range along the Richardson Highway, each with its own unique scenery and set of curiosities. Some lead to impressive vistas, some through enchanting forests, some to waterfalls or spectacular cliffs. Some are quite easy to hike along, while others require wading, rock hopping, or scrambling around boulders and brush. You can visit more than one creek during a tour or spend all day exploring a single drainage. Bear Creek, Grizzly Creek, Onemile Creek, Boulder Creek, Whistler Creek, Flood Creek, Trims Creek…these all feature amazing scenery and see few visitors. It can be a different experience exploring the same creek at various points throughout the summer and even throughout the day due to changes in flow, snow cover, brush thickness, and weather. These creeks are often nice places to hike when the weather is dreary or windy up high, and they’re excellent places to look for signs of wildlife. A pair of waterproof hiking boots is strongly recommended, but tennis shoes dry out quickly on a warm, sunny day and may be more useful hiking up creeks where several crossings are required.
Route Length: Variable
Difficulty: Easy to Moderate
Rates
Standard Tour (4-6 hours)
1 Person $300
2 People $350 ($175pp)
3 People $450 ($150pp)
4 People $525 ($131pp)
5 People $600 ($120pp)
6 People $675 ($112.50pp)
Alaska Resident & Military Discount: Parties with at least one Alaska resident or active duty military personnel receive a 10% discount. Enter code “AK_AND_MILITARY_DISCOUNT” at checkout.
Add $50 per person for professional adventure portraits. (High-resolution digital files delivered via web download after your hike.)
Receive a discount when you also book an Aurora Borealis Photography Tour. (Please inquire.)
Rates above do not include transportation from Fairbanks! Optional transportation is available for an extra fee.
Customers who want to press farther into the wilderness or spend more time exploring, photographing, or otherwise enjoying their time outdoors should consider the Expert Mountain Hike, though Standard tours are designed to offer impressive sights and a fun experience on routes where offered. If you require optional transportation from Fairbanks, please note the tour durations above do not include travel time, and that travel time from Fairbanks is approximately 2.5 hours each way.
All tours are PRIVATE and involve no technical rock or ice climbing. Maximum group size 6; special arrangements must be made for larger groups up to 10. Children are welcome on tours but there is no youth discount; see age recommendations in difficulty ratings below. Full payment is required to reserve a tour. A 5% cancellation fee is charged when reservations are canceled at least 10 days in advance. A 50% cancellation fee is charged when reservations are canceled less than 10 days but at least three days in advance. No refunds are given for cancellations made less than three days in advance. Tours may be canceled due to extreme weather (e.g. thunderstorms), highway closures, etc., in which case your tour will be rescheduled or fully refunded. However, rain, wind, and temperatures near freezing are quite common in the mountains, especially at higher elevations, so customers should dress appropriately and be prepared to face the elements. Note that light rain showers are much more common than heavy downpours. While I can sometimes shift the date of a tour to align with better weather (subject to availability), I cannot guarantee perfect weather on the day of your hike and do not provide refunds if you experience rainy or cloudy weather. If you are afraid of catching a single raindrop or clouds hampering your landscape photo opportunities, please do not bother booking! For complete tour policies and more tour information, see the Black Rapids Tours FAQ.