While I like to think that we’ve floated the Copper every couple of years since 1969, as we prepped for a trip this year (July 1, 2026), I realized that our last trip was eight years ago. As my son has pointed out to me, ‘times have changed, Dad, times have changed!’ So here’s a trip report in case it might help others have a smooth, enjoyable trip.

• Back to my main Copper River page
• Back to the American Whitewater Copper River page
• Link to Copernicus Browser, the source of the maps on these pages

We put in on the northeast side of the Chitina bridge. There is quite a nice place to camp, right next to the water on Ahtna land. They charge a modest fee for camping and have a convenient dropbox for payment. You can also pay online. Camping is also available on the other side of the road in a public campground and you can access the river on that side (after driving over a sand dune to get to it.

We think of the trip as a comfortable 5 day trip. While we have our favorite camps for nights 1, 3, and 4, we’ve tried many sites for night 2. And with the continued revegetation on the old railroad sites, some of the camps have disappeared. This trip, we camped on the lower edge of the Tasnuna River delta, but as we started off in the morning, we found that the river has opened up a new channel on river right, below Tasnuna River and above the bank in front of the Heney Glacier. There were several excellent camp sites along the left bank of this right channel. We’re definitely aiming for this on our next trip. See map on Camp 2 page.

We have always taken out at Flag Point. Over the years, the number of bridges that are in good repair has varied, as well as the consequences of missing the right-most channel. Currently, the bridge at 31 mile is washed out, leaving two possible takeouts. See Flag Point Take Out page for more information.