Chilkoot River

Mouth of the Chilkoot River

Weir to capture the sockeye salmon population in the outflow from the Chilkoot Lake

The Chilkoot River is a river in Alaska Panhandle in southern Alaska.

The Chilkoot River rises approximately 1000 m altitude in the glaciated Chilkoot Ranges, the northern part of the Boundary Ranges. From there it flows first in a south-westerly direction west, then turns south-southeast but by and flows through a broad valley. It flows through the Chilkat Lake and ends shortly afterwards - 20 km southwest of Skagway - in the northern end of Lutak Inlet, the western branch of the Chilkoot Inlet. The Chilkoot River has a length of 32 km. The lower reaches of the Chilkoot River is located in the Haines State Forest.

Find on Chilkoot River annually four so-called salmon runs instead, which begin in mid-June and end in mid-October. The salmon swim upstream to their spawning grounds here. This attracts bears making a river on the Chilkoot Lake hunting salmon.