Unalakleet River, Brook in Kaltag Mountains, Alaska, US.

The Unalakleet River flows southwest roughly 90 miles from the Kaltag Mountains through rolling terrain in the Nulato Hills toward Norton Sound on the Bering Sea coast. The river carves through a mix of forested areas and open landscape that defines this region's character.

In the 1830s the Russian-American Company established trading posts at St. Michael and Unalakleet, bringing the region its first official European documentation. This trading activity introduced outside contact to an area that had been home to Inupiat communities for generations.

The name comes from the Inupiat language meaning 'place where the east wind blows', reflecting the deep roots of indigenous communities in this region. The river landscape remains central to how local people connect with their environment and heritage.

The upper 80 miles (130 km) of the river, up to the Chiroskey River confluence, are managed by the Bureau of Land Management as a wild segment; access is by boat or on foot, with no road along the protected stretch. The Iditarod Trail runs along part of the river, and the Kaltag Portage through the coastal range was the route of the 1925 dog-sled relay to Nome. Summer allows boating and camping; winter travel is by snowmobile, dog sled and ice fishing.

The protected wild segment runs 80 miles from the headwaters down to the mouth of the Chiroskey River, designated in 1980 under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act and managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The Iditarod Trail follows part of the river's length.