Birch Creek (Yukon River tributary)

Birch Creek is a tributary of the Yukon River in the U.S. state of Alaska.

History

The first human inhabitants of the region were probably Gwich'in people who hunted and fished along the creek. Old mining and trapping cabins are part of the Birch Creek landscape, and mining continues in the 21st century.

Distributaries

Upper Mouth Birch Creek flows northwest from Birch Creek to enter the Yukon River southwest (downstream) of Fort Yukon. The coordinates of the mouth of the Upper Mouth are .

Lower Mouth Birch Creek flows southwest from Birch Creek to enter Lower Birch Creek Slough southwest of Fort Yukon. An anabranch of the Yukon River, the slough flows southwest roughly parallel to the main stem for .

Recreation

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oversees of Birch Creek declared "wild" in 1980 as part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. People floating the stream in canoes, kayaks, or rafts can put in at a BLM wayside and take out at another BLM wayside further downstream. Both are along the Steese Highway. Between these two points, the creek is rated mostly Class I on the International Scale of River Difficulty, but some segments are rated Class II (medium) or III (difficult).

Sports fishing for northern pike and Arctic grayling along Birch Creek can be "outstanding", according to Alaska Fishing. The larger pike frequent the lower reaches of the creek as well as sloughs, ponds, and oxbow lakes in the Yukon Flats. Grayling prefer the headwaters.

The stream corridor has no developed camping sites. Gravel bars in the creek are sometimes used for camping. Other winter activities along the stream include dog mushing, trapping, and cross-country skiing.