Valdez – Salmon Hatchery; August 10 & 11

Alaskan Adventure: Day 71 and 72. Mike and Amy drove us to the “Solomon Gulch Fish Hatchery” which is across Valdez Bay, opposite of the town of Valdez. This was an incredible place to visit.

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View from fish hatchery, across the bay of Port Valdez. That is not a gravel bar. It is Salmon (mostly Pink Salmon).

Looking “up’ Port Valdez toward…

Lots of Sea Gulls enjoying the feast.

Fighting over fish scraps

So many Salmon. The old saying “you could walk across on the backs of the salmon” is easy to understand.

Sea Lions have no problem grabbing up salmon

Salmon get very excited when Sea Lions are around!

Very fat, contented Sea Lions barely moved.

Fireweed along the edge of the water.

We waited around awhile hoping to see bears come down out of the adjacent wooded mountains. No bears but a beautiful dusk.

Salmon information at the hatchery

We were told that most of the salmon we saw were Pink Salmon

We stopped at “Old Town” on our way back to camp. The old town is gone except some old foundations. A few buildings were relocated to the new town location after the 1964 earthquake. The rest of the town was intentionally burned down.

Salmon in the stream spawning in a gravel nest

Very far away but that is a Bald Eagle flying over the trees.

That wraps up August 10th. August 11th was a day we visited several places around town including some museums. I will add some pictures someday but for now want to move on before I forget too much.
For now we continue with the evening of August 11th where we had a “going away farewell gathering” for Kris & Jamie who needed to leave the group a little early to head home for medical reasons. It was a chilly evening but a good time to realize how we had all become good friends in our travels together. Most of the group is in the pic below.