Yukon River

North America’s fourth-longest river and Alaska’s great salmon highway. The Yukon produces the longest freshwater salmon migration on earth — fall chum and king salmon travel more than 2,000 miles from the Bering Sea to headwaters in the Yukon Territory. Subsistence fishing communities from Emmonak to Eagle depend on the runs, and sport anglers target kings, chum, and coho at dozens of tributary mouths. The lower river is wide, muddy, and slow; the upper river clears near the Canadian border. Access is by boat or plane from villages like Galena, Tanana, and Eagle.