The Killik River is a tributary of the Colville River in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

. It begins in the northern portion of

Gates of the Arctic National Park Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve is a national park of the United States that protects portions of the Brooks Range in northern Alaska. The park is the northernmost national park in the United States, situated entirely north of the ...

and flows north onto property of the

Arctic Slope Regional Corporation Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, or ASRC, is one of 13 Alaska Native Regional Corporations created under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 (ANCSA) in settlement of aboriginal land claims. ASRC was incorporated in Alaska on June 22, ...

. A clickable

Portable Document Format Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating syste ...

(PDF) map filed under "Land Access" shows the private lands along the Killik River. The river's headwaters are near Survey Pass in the Endicott Mountains on the north slope of the central

Brooks Range The Brooks Range (Gwich’in language, Gwich'in: ''Gwazhał'') is a mountain range in far northern North America stretching some from west to east across northern Alaska into Canada's Yukon Territory. Reaching a peak elevation of on Mount Isto, ...

, and the

river mouth A river mouth is where a river flows into a larger body of water, such as another river, a lake/reservoir, a bay/gulf, a sea, or an ocean. At the river mouth, sediments are often deposited due to the slowing of the current, reducing the carryin ...

is south of Angoyakvik Pass. The direction of the headwaters stream is northwest at first, then sharply northeast before April and Easter creeks enter from the

right Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of freedom or Entitlement (fair division), entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal sy ...

slightly north of the

North Slope Borough The North Slope Borough is the northernmost borough in the US state of Alaska and, thus, the northernmost county or equivalent of the United States as a whole. As of the 2020 census, the population was 11,031. The borough seat and largest cit ...

boundary. The river continues northeast for much of its course until it turns northwest again on the lower reaches after receiving the Okokmilaga River from the

. Major tributaries of the Killik are April and Easter creeks, as well as the Okokmilaga. North of Easter Creek, tributary streams, such as Aniakvik Creek and Nigaktukvik Creek, flow predominantly through short, narrow, V-shaped valleys. The

main stem In hydrology, a main stem or mainstem (also known as a trunk) is "the primary downstream segment of a river, as contrasted to its tributaries". The mainstem extends all the way from one specific headwater to the outlet of the river, although t ...

flows down a U-shaped glacial valley containing lakes, sand dunes,

lateral moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris ( regolith and rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice sh ...

s, and alpine

tundra In physical geography, a tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. There are three regions and associated types of tundra: #Arctic, Arctic, Alpine tundra, Alpine, and #Antarctic ...

. This valley, about wide initially, widens to between on the lower reaches, and the river becomes braided. Copious stretches of

dwarf birch ''Betula nana'', the dwarf birch, is a species of birch in the family Betulaceae, found mainly in the tundra of the Arctic region. Description It is a monoecious, deciduous shrub growing up to high. The bark is non-peeling and shiny red-copper ...

(betula nana), and

sedge The Cyperaceae () are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as wikt:sedge, sedges. The family (biology), family is large; botanists have species description, described some 5,500 known species in about 90 ...

s, with large expanses of sedge bogs and tussocks dominate the tundra. The Killik is fed largely by precipitation and snow melt, and hence its waters are relatively clear of the sediment that characterizes glacial streams.

References

{{authority control Rivers of North Slope Borough, Alaska Rivers of Alaska Brooks Range Rivers of Yukon–Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska Rivers of Unorganized Borough, Alaska

See also

References