Wells Creek

Wells Creek flows from the south flanks of the Alaska Range into the Nenana River where the Nenana swings near the Denali Highway, approximately 30 minutes east of Cantwell. With eight miles of nearly continuous, mostly easy (with one very notable Class IV exception) whitewater, Wells Creek deserves to be part of the Denali-area grand slam, along with Honolulu Creek, Moody Creek, and the Bull River.

Accessing the Wells is easy. There’s a pull off from the Denali Highway at the Wells/Nenana confluence, just a couple miles east of where the Nenana swings right against the road. From this pull off, which requires a steep drive down a couple switchbacks to the river (or park at a large gravel lot directly adjacent to the road and walk down the switchbacks), you’ll cross the Nenana by packraft, then cross the mouth of the Wells, and find an ATV trail that follows the east bank of the Wells for a quarter mile or so. This ATV trail bends away from the river, then ascends the ridge that separates the Wells from the Nenana. It’s about a 15-20 minute walk from the mouth of the Nenana to where the ATV trail climbs up yo the ridge. Once you’re on the ridge, it’s mostly firm walking with an occasional boggy patch for the first flourish miles of trail. 

 

As you pass beyond spruce line, the ATV trail becomes less distinct, and on your left the Wells gorge becomes shallower.  When the ATV trail disappears, it’s a good time to walk left down toward the river, after about eight miles of walking upstream. With luck, you’ll be putting in shortly downstream of where the Wells consolidates from braids into a single, well defined channel.

For several miles, the Wells has easy boulder gardens in a gentle gorge. The next landmark to look for is a distinct horizon line, which occurs where the river bends sharply to the right. This marks the river’s hardest rapid, which looks like a blend of Merry Go Round and Staircase from Sixmile’s third canyon. 

Scouting and portaging is convenient on river left. When we were paddling the Wells at medium flows, the river left chute ran over shallow rocks and straight into shallower sharp rocks. The standard line is to start center with left angle, crossing the diagonal wave that surges off the submerged boulder in the middle of the river. At medium flows, missing the line would wash you over the boulder and into a chock stone. I portaged.

Downstream, the Wells gorge deepens as it approaches the Nenana floodplain. The rapids are Class II-III until right near the confluence, where the Wells leaves its gorge.