Lakina River

The Lakina is not as large or as turbulent a glacial stream as the Kuskulana or the Kennicott rivers.

This basin-like expanse, which is about 2 miles (3.2 km) wide along the trail and gradually narrows into a mountain gorge valley 0.5 miles (0.80 km) 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.

The topography of the headwaters is rugged, but the basin does not extend as far north as the axis of the Wrangell Range.

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.