We had a great night underneath the waterfall off of mineral Creek Road. A nice night of free camping. The dogs and I took a walk for about a mile up the creek first thing in the morning. This time of year the foliage on each side of the road is about 8 feet tall, so every once in a while, we got a view. I did see a bunch of raspberries that were nearing ripeness.
We headed into Valdez to stop at the Safeway, the visitor center, the Ranger station, and a gas station called Captain Joes. Diesel is $4.30 per gallon just for reference and although we didn’t fill up the last several days, this one blasted through our daily budget.
Although the salmon went running yet at the hatchery, it was low tide so we headed out to the hatchery on the other side of the bay because we heard that some of the fish road coming in. When we got there, sure enough there were thousands of salmon waiting at the stream mouth. We watched them try to jump up, but the way the hatchery works, there is a fence that blocks them from getting up into the stream. We did find a place where there were some of the smarter fish working on their way around the edges. They are definitely determined. We toured the hatchery, but unfortunately, the salmon ladder was not running. The hatchery said it processes 20,000 fish a day. They separate the males from the female females extract, the eggs and the milt, and then in a very controlled process, they fertilize the eggs in the hatchery. Apparently they release about 300 million salmon back into the ocean each year. We watch the harbor seals go in and out of the mouth of the stream. They didn’t seem too interested in fishing, but were there posing for photos?
We also visited the Valdez glacier lake and saw the icebergs floating as well as a bunch of kayakers. Had some crazy dudes there doing a polar plunge.
We perused around town for a bit, and then decided to head out towards our next destination. It was already late in the afternoon, so we found a side road and camped on the edge Lowe River, a massive glacier stream bed. We didn’t see any moose, bears, or really anything else, but we did find Moose tracks at the edge of the river.
Here are some additional photos from the day. https://www.overlandadventureexcursions.com/20250719-valdez-salmon-and-seals/