Trapper Lake is a lake in Alaska that lies to the north of Wasilla. It has no road access. The only way to get there is via float plane in the summer or snow machine in the winter. There is no access in the shoulder seasons when the winter trails are gone and there is ice on the lake.
Commercial float plane access includes Arctic Wings leaving from Kashwitna Lake on the Parks Highway, or Willow Air based on Willow Lake. Other options are available from Anchorage and Talkeetna, with increased cost due to longer flight time to the lake. Typically the lake is ice free by Memorial Day weekend, but not always. Final trips in the fall are typically in early October.
Snow machine access opens up in December with early trips possible via the Rabideaux trail head at MP105 until the Susitna river crossing is put in from Susitna Landing at MP82.5 The Mid-Valley Trail Club maintains the trails in the area with connections to Deska Landing trails and the Trapper Creek and Petersville trail system. Main trails heads are at MP105 and the Susitna Landing. The river crossing should always be considered hazardous and made with careful attention to the trail conditions and updates that may be posted on Facebook or available at the Landing. During periods of warm weather and rain, the river can come up quickly flooding the trail or damaging the ice bridges, but even in colder weather, use caution. The river crossing is typically staked until early April. After the river crossing is closes, there is typically another week or two of access from the Rabideaux trail depending on the show conditions and the water at the Rabideaux creek.
Trapper lake is not stocked, but has a good population of pike that invaded the lake in the 1980s following a high flood that allowed the invasive fish to enter the lake and creeks, decimating the native trout and silver salmon run. For a number of years there were reports of massive pike being taken as they gorges on the lakes abundant native fish. Today the pike are typically about 20" and can be caught summer and winter. The lake generally very shallow and has a number of uncharted rocks.
Talkeetna is a census-designated place (CDP) in Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska, United States with an estimated population of 965 in 2018. At the 2010 census the population was 876, up from 772 in 2000.
The South Saskatchewan River is a major river in Canada that flows through the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.
The Susitna River is a 313-mile (504 km) long river in the Southcentral Alaska. It is the 15th largest river in the United States, ranked by average discharge volume at its mouth. The river stretches from the Susitna Glacier to Cook Inlet's Knik Arm.
The California Trail was an emigrant trail of about 3,000 mi (4,800 km) across the western half of the North American continent from Missouri River towns to what is now the state of California. After it was established, the first half of the California Trail followed the same corridor of networked river valley trails as the Oregon Trail and the Mormon Trail, namely the valleys of the Platte, North Platte, and Sweetwater rivers to Wyoming. In the present states of Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah, the California and Oregon trails split into several different trails or cutoffs.
The Bering Land Bridge National Preserve is one of the most remote United States national park areas, located on the Seward Peninsula. The National Preserve protects a remnant of the Bering Land Bridge that connected Asia with North America more than 13,000 years ago during the Pleistocene ice age. The majority of this land bridge now lies beneath the waters of the Chukchi and Bering Seas. During the glacial epoch this bridge was a migration route for people, animals, and plants whenever ocean levels fell enough to expose the land bridge. Archeologists disagree whether it was across this Bering Land Bridge, also called Beringia, that humans first migrated from Asia to populate the Americas, or whether it was via a coastal route.
Yukon–Charley Rivers National Preserve is a United States national preserve located in east central Alaska along the border with Canada. Managed by the National Park Service, the preserve encompasses 115 miles (185 km) of the 1,800-mile (3,000 km) Yukon River and the entire Charley River basin. The preserve protects the undeveloped Charley River and a significant portion of the upper Yukon. The interior Alaskan region experiences extremes of weather, with temperatures that can vary from −50 °F (−46 °C) in winter to 97 °F (36 °C) in summertime. The Yukon provided a means of access to the region, which is entirely roadless, during the late 19th century and early 20th centuries. Gold rushes in Alaska brought prospectors, who operated gold dredges to recover significant quantities of placer gold from area creeks. Today the preserve includes part of the route of the annual Yukon Quest dogsled race, which runs every February. During the summer float trips are popular on the Yukon and Charley Rivers.
Chugach State Park covers 495,204 acres immediately east of the Anchorage Bowl in south-central Alaska. Though primarily in the Municipality of Anchorage, a small portion of the park north of the Eklutna Lake area in the vicinity of Pioneer Peak lies within the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. Established by legislation signed into law on August 6, 1970, by Alaska Governor Keith Miller, this state park was created to provide recreational opportunities, protect the scenic value of the Chugach Mountains and other geographic features, and ensure the safety of the water supply for Anchorage. The park, managed by Alaska State Parks, is the third-largest state park in the United States, and consists of geographically disparate areas each with different attractions and facilities. Only Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in California and Wood-Tikchik State Park in western Alaska are larger. Hunting and fishing are permitted in the Chugach under regulations established by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game for game management unit 14c. Target practice is not allowed within the park boundaries.
Denali State Park is a 325,240-acre (131,620 ha) state park in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is located in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough adjacent to the east side of Denali National Park and Preserve, along the Parks Highway.
The Baranof Cross-Island Trail is an informal route across Baranof Island, Alaska from the community of Sitka to Baranof Warm Springs. The only section with a trail is from Medvejie to Camp Lake at 1,600'. The route is popular among resident Sitkans, but also attracts visiting backpackers. From start to finish, the trail spans approximately 16 miles (26 km) long, and 6,500' of elevation gain, but owing to the difficult terrain covered, the average crossing requires two to three days. Very-fit distance runners, however, can complete the trail in a day, the record being held by Sitka resident and ultra-endurance athlete Steve Reifenstuhl who has completed the trail in seven and a half hours.
Hatcher Pass is a mountain pass through the southwest part of the Talkeetna Mountains, Alaska. It is named after Robert Hatcher, a prospector and miner. The nearest cities are Palmer and Wasilla approximately 12 miles (19 km) to the south, and Willow approximately 26 mi (42 km) to the west. The communities are at an elevation of approximately 250 ft (76 m) in the Mat-Su valley.
Denali Highway is a lightly traveled, mostly gravel highway in the U.S. state of Alaska. It leads from Paxson on the Richardson Highway to Cantwell on the Parks Highway. Opened in 1957, it was the first road access to Denali National Park. Since 1971, primary park access has been via the Parks Highway, which incorporated a section of the Denali Highway from Cantwell to the present-day park entrance. The Denali Highway is 135 miles (217 km) in length.
An ice road is a winter road, or part thereof, that runs on a naturally frozen water surface in cold regions. Ice roads allow temporary transport to isolated areas with no permanent road access. They reduce transportation cost of materials that otherwise would ship as expensive air freight, and they allow movement of large or heavy objects for which air freight is impractical.
Little Susitna River heads at Mint Glacier on Montana Peak, in Talkeetna Mountains at 61°51′30″N149°03′30″W, flows southwest to Cook Inlet, 13 miles (21 km) west of Anchorage, Alaska Cook Inlet Low.
The Thornapple River is an 88.1-mile-long (141.8 km) tributary of Michigan's longest river, the Grand River. The Thornapple rises in Eaton County, Michigan and drains a primarily rural farming area in Central Michigan. It joins the Grand in Ada, Michigan, 10 miles (16 km) east of Grand Rapids.
Alexander Creek, also known as Taguntna Creek, is a 35 miles (56 km) long stream from Alexander Lake which merges with the big Susitna River near the village of Alexander Creek, Alaska also known as Alexander, Alaska, an Alaska Native and Alaska Bush community, in Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska.
The Susitna Flats State Game Refuge is a game preserve in the U.S. state of Alaska. Each year approximately 10 percent of the waterfowl harvest in the state of Alaska occurs on Susitna Flats, with about 15,000 ducks and over 500 geese taken. Many hunters land float planes on one of the numerous lakes on the flats. Other hunters cross the inlet by boat to enjoy their hunt.
Wasilla is a city in Matanuska-Susitna Borough, United States and the sixth-largest city in Alaska. It is located on the northern point of Cook Inlet in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley of the southcentral part of the state. The city's population was 7,831 at the 2010 census, up from 5,469 in 2000. Estimates in 2019 put the population at 10,838. Wasilla is the largest city in its borough.
The 2009 Alaska floods were a series of natural disasters taking place in the United States state of Alaska during April and May 2009. The floods were a result of heavier-than-normal winter snowfall and above-average spring temperatures that resulted in rapid melting of the winter snowfall. The resulting high water levels were magnified in places by the development of ice dams which caused catastrophic flooding. The record-breaking flood that affected Eagle, Alaska in early May is the best example of an ice dam causing flooding beyond the norm.
Summit Lake is a very small tarn located above the tree line within the Hatcher Pass of the Talkeetna Mountains in Willow, Alaska, United States.
Nancy Lake State Recreation Area is a 22,685 acres (9,180 ha) park near Willow in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough of Alaska. Founded on July 6, 1966 and set aside specifically for recreational use, the park is home to more than a hundred lakes as well as extensive wetlands. The landscape of the park was crafted in glacial retreats around 9,000 years ago, and around this same time the first inhabitants likely moved into the area. They were eventually followed by Russian exploration, and later increases in white settlement due to commerce and the presence of gold.
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