The Knik River is a 25-mile-long (40 km) river in the U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

. Its source is at Knik Glacier

Knik Glacier

The Knik Glacier is located just east of Anchorage, Alaska on the northern end of the Chugach Mountains. The ice field averages over long and over across, making it one of the largest glaciers in southcentral Alaska...

, from which it flows northwest and west and empties into the head of Cook Inlet's

Cook Inlet

Cook Inlet stretches from the Gulf of Alaska to Anchorage in south-central Alaska. Cook Inlet branches into the Knik Arm and Turnagain Arm at its northern end, almost surrounding Anchorage....

 Knik Arm, near the mouth of the Matanuska River

Matanuska River

The Matanuska River is a river, approximately 75 miles long, in Southcentral Alaska, United States. It drains a broad valley south of the Alaska Range known as the Matanuska-Susitna Valley....

.

The term "knik," present in the names of the river, the arm of Cook Inlet, and the glacier, as well as the communities of Knik-Fairview

Knik-Fairview, Alaska

Knik-Fairview is a census-designated place in Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska, United States. It is part of the Anchorage, Alaska Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the 2000 census the population was 7,050.-Geography:Knik-Fairview is located at...

 and Knik River

Knik River, Alaska

Knik River is a census-designated place in Matanuska-Susitna Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is part of the Anchorage, Alaska Metropolitan Statistical Area...

, derives from the Inupiaq

Inupiaq language

The Inupiat language, also known as Inupiatun, Inupiaq, Iñupiaq, Inyupiaq, Inyupiat, Inyupeat, Inyupik, and Inupik, is a group of dialects of the Inuit language, spoken in northern and northwestern Alaska. The Iñupiaq language is a member of the Eskimo languages group. There are roughly 2,100...

 word igniq ("fire").

The river runs near the border between the Matanuska-Susitna Borough

Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska

-National protected areas:* Chugach National Forest * Denali National Park and Preserve ** Denali Wilderness * Lake Clark National Park and Preserve ** Lake Clark Wilderness -Demographics:...

 and the Municipality of Anchorage

Anchorage, Alaska

Anchorage is a unified home rule municipality in the southcentral part of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is the northernmost major city in the United States...

. Much of its length is paralleled by the paved Old Glenn Highway and the paved (as of 2000) Knik River Road, along which can be found the community of Knik River

Knik River, Alaska

Knik River is a census-designated place in Matanuska-Susitna Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is part of the Anchorage, Alaska Metropolitan Statistical Area...

.