Lakina River is a tributary of the

Chitina River The Chitina River ( Ahtna Athabascan Tsedi Na’ < ''tsedi'' "

" + ''na’'' "

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

. It is located in the

Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve is an American national park and preserve managed by the National Park Service in south central Alaska. The park and preserve were established in 1980 by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conser ...

Geography

The stream rises in an area of glacial drainage of minor importance lying between the much more extensive basins of the

Kuskulana Glacier The Kuskulana Glacier is a glacier in the Wrangell Mountains of Alaska. The Kuskulana Glacier trends southwest from Mount Blackburn to its terminus at the head of Kuskulana River, northwest of McCarthy in the Wrangell Mountains. Kuskulana ...

on the west and the

Kennicott Glacier Kennicott Glacier is a glacier in the U.S. state of Alaska. It trends southeast from Mount Blackburn to its terminus at the head of the Kennicott River in the Wrangell Mountains. It is located in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park near the smal ...

on the east. The Lakina is not as large or as turbulent a glacial stream as the Kuskulana or the Kennicott rivers. The trail historically traveled through this region reaches Lakina River about below the lower ends of the two glaciers from which the river emerges. This portion of the valley of the Lakina differs somewhat from the valleys of Kuskulana and Kennicott rivers where they flow from their glacial sources in that it has a more basin-like expansion in its lower half. This basin-like expanse, which is about wide along the trail and gradually narrows into a mountain gorge valley wide toward the head of the river as the glaciers are approached, is floored with deposits of gravel, sand, and mud. In an ascent of Lakina River from the main trail, the first bed rock to present itself along the margins of the flat gravel floor of the valley is the Nikolai greenstone. This rock appears on both sides of the valley where the valley begins to become more restricted, about below the glaciers, and rises in steep mountain slopes on both sides. Above the greenstone, the Chitistone limestone presents its characteristic cliff-like faces, and above the Chitistone limestone, a series of shales and thin-bedded limestones on the east side of the valley forms bare slopes that are also present, though not so evident, on the heights west of the river. Lakina River, the first important tributary of Chitina River below the Nizina, is about long, and its average grade is per mile. It rises in small glaciers between Kennicott Glacier on the east, Kuskulana Glacier on the north, and

Gilahina River Gilahina River is a waterway in the U.S. state of Alaska in the Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve. The stream rises in mountains high between Lakina River on the east and Kuskulana River on the west. It is about long and joins the ...

on the west. Castle Peak (elevation ) is the highest point in the basin. The topography of the headwaters is rugged, but the basin does not extend as far north as the axis of the Wrangell Range. The river carries less glacial debris than the Nizina or the Kuskulana. The summer flow is probably derived to a considerable extent from melting snow in the higher peaks and depends on glacial flow to a less extent than any of the northern tributaries of the Chitina except the Gilahina.

References

* * {{Authority control Rivers of Alaska Rivers of Copper River Census Area, Alaska Rivers of Unorganized Borough, Alaska

Geography

See also

References