Sixmile Creek (Alaska) facts for kids

Sixmile Creek is a short, approximately 12 miles (19 km) waterway with some of the most exciting whitewater rafting in Alaska. The Six Mile Creek drainage starts as Granite Creek flowing from the top of Turnagain Pass on the Seward Highway, part of the National Scenic Highway Program. Bench Creek and Center Creek join to become East Fork Six Mile Creek and Granite Creek is the largest tributary, contributing most of the water. At the confluence with Canyon Creek, it becomes Six Mile Creek which flows about eight miles to where it empties into Turnagain Arm shortly after flowing past the ghost town of Sunrise along the Hope Highway. There is a scenic outlook just before the Hope Junction with a grand view of the confluence of the creeks and the Canyon Creek Bridge that is pictured on the State of Alaska's website [1].

Six Mile Creek was mined for gold during the early 1900s and still has many active claims mined to this day. Whitewater enthusiast have been enjoying this scenic gorge for about 20 years with commercial operations starting in the 1980s under special use permits with the US Forest Service. Six Mile Creek water levels can change a somewhat peaceful little creek to a raging Class V river. There have been both private boating and commercial operation fatalities as well during the few years it has been a whitewater recreation area. The creek is located in the northeastern portion of Kenai Peninsula Borough, across Turnagain Arm from the southernmost areas of the Municipality of Anchorage.