Valdez

Salmon and Griz

We visited the Solomon Gulch Hatchery twice during our stay in Valdez. Our first visit was before actually arriving in Valdez (the hatchery is located on Dayville Road, about 6 miles outside town). There were tons of people fishing everywhere they could get a line in the water. We are talking wall-to-wall people. It turns out that it was the Valdez Kid's Pink Salmon Derby, so it wasn't a normal day. We enjoyed watching the pink salmon returning to their hatching place, and spotted a few eagles and seals, but no bears. I had read on TripAdvisor that bears are sometimes seen at the hatchery during the salmon run, but maybe not when half the town of Valdez is fishing there?.

The following day, we had scheduled a noon wildlife tour on Prince William Sound, so decided to squeeze in another visit to the hatchery first in hopes of seeing bears. After an early breakfast, we returned to Solomon Gulch and felt like we had the place to ourselves. Just us, a few early rising campers, and BEARS!

Much to our delight, a mother grizzly with FOUR cubs was fishing near the entrance to the fish weir, and we enjoyed watching/photographing the family for a long time. Seeing the bear family was definitely one of the highlights of our trip, and it didn't cost us our first-born to do it! (Solomon Gulch is a free attraction.)

While there, we met a nice guy from Wyoming who had been camping at the hatchery for several days to photograph the bears. He'd been in Alaska for a couple months by the time we met, and I think he must have been a little lonely. We talked (okay, HE talked ... and talked ... and talked) out on the rock spit projecting into the bay until I started getting antsy that we would be late for our wildlife cruise. Turning around, it was clear that the three of us were land-locked landlubbers -- the tide was coming in. We had to wade for it but did manage to reach dry land without drowning any camera equipment. Our feet were a different story. 

See the watery gap out there? We did, finally. 

We had time for a quick stop at Crooked Creek information site in the "duck flats" before returning to the Valdez Small Boat harbor to catch our Stan Stephens Columbia Glacier cruise. We spent the next 7.5 hours on the Valdez Spirit, a nice sized boat that carries about 80 passengers. The day was absolutely glorious, sunny and in the mid-seventies -- unheard of for Valdez!!!

Wildlife we saw included several rafts of sea otters, a huge colony of stellar sea lions, a humpback whale, and numerous sea birds. It was such a nice day that arriving near the face of the Columbia Glacier was a shock. At nearly ten miles long, the Columbia is a lot of ice, and the temperature went from balmy to downright cold. Braving the cold was worthwhile, as we were able to get within 2 miles of the glacier face. The captain told us that was as close as anyone had been so far this year. The tour was well done, with running commentary about what we were seeing, and where to look to spot wildlife. They served us a great clam chowder lunch, too!

Columbia Glacier

We stayed at the Best Western Valdez Harbor Inn (about what you'd expect from Best Western) which was very conveniently located right by the small boat harbor. Breakfast both days was the complimentary at the hotel, dinners at the Fat Mermaid (good pizza) and Old Towne Burgers (best burger I've ever had!)  Once we had to hit the "road" again, we loaded up and headed for the Alaska Marine Highway terminal. We drove our rental car straight down the ramp to the Aurora (the Alaska Ferry running between Valdez and Whittier), and headed out for a five hour journey across Prince William Sound via water. Quite an experience.  The scenery was spectacular, and I especially enjoyed the views of the tidewater glaciers at College Fjord. Arriving at Whittier, we unloaded the rental car and headed through the world's longest combined car/rail tunnel towards our next destination:

Homer -- that quaint little drinking town with a fishing problem.

To see all our Valdez photos, click here.