Adventures
Adventures in Alaska these days often start on board a cruise ship out of Seattle, the traditional departure point to the last frontier since Gold Rush days. Such trips typically include pleasant cruising through the Puget Sound and San Juan Islands of Washington State, the Strait of Georgia between Vancouver Island and British Columbia, and on North through the calm waters of the Alaskan Panhandle and the magnificent Inside Passage of Alaska’s Southeast. This is truly one of the most scenic places on earth.
The first port of call on these journeys is often the small city of Ketchikan, an idyllic destination for seafood and wilderness lovers. Once known as the salmon capital of the world, it is also gateway to the incredible Tongass National Forest, the largest National Forest in the USA at 6.5 million hectares. The Tongass includes the largest areas of old-growth rainforest outside of the tropics, forests that receive an average of 146 inches of rainfall a year. There are countless destinations here for wilderness adventures in hiking, kayaking, camping, cruising and fishing. With more than a thousand rainforested islands, the surrounding Alexander Archipelago offers unlimited potential to explore. There are over 10,000 estuaries, 13,000 river miles and 18,000 miles of shoreline, and promises of adventure involving whales, seals, sea-lions, black and brown bears, wolves and massive runs of salmon. Ketchikan is also launchpad for expeditions to magnificent Prince of Wales Island and the Misty Fjords National Monument, a world of Mountain Ranges that end abrubtly in steep fjords, plunging waterfalls that drop into deep blue reaches, and crystal glaciers that jet out from snow capped peaks.
You certainly don’t need to travel far once you reach Ketchikan to feel the excitement of the salmon. On the waterfront of the township you can see the fishing fleet at rest, walk along famous Creek Street which is built entirely on pilings over the river, see migrating salmon swimming upstream right underneath you, or stand on a local wharf and catch your own monsters. Ketchikan is also a great place to experience an Alaskan salmon bake, typically an outdoor feast accompanied by a wilderness setting, local folklore and a sample of native American culture.
The most highly regarded salmon in the world are Copper River salmon. Restaurants everywhere compete for them, and their arrival in the early spring each year triggers parades, celebrations, and a media frenzy for restaurants from Alaska to Seattle and across the globe. They fetch prices up to 3 times more than other salmon, and the river itself is the reason. Copper River waters spring from the Copper Glacier in the Wrangell mountains, and then run some 460 kilometers to the Copper River Delta, joined along the way by 13 different major tributaries. Over 2 million salmon spawn here every year, but it is the superb rich flavour of Copper River King salmon that causes all the fuss. The length of the Copper River is the single reason for the high quality of these fish. The Copper River is the second longest river in Alaska, and the fish that migrate up it to spawn must store large reserves of fat in the form of rich omega-3 fatty acids. The flesh is oily, rich, red and marbled, extremely healthy, and loaded with flavour. Only the Yukon to the north exceeds the Copper in length, but because the Copper is much further south, it is the first to experience the salmon migration runs and is the worldwide signal of the start of the Alaskan salmon season. The town of Cordova, positioned at the head of the Orca Inlet on magnificent Price William Sound, is the gateway to Copper River adventures. Cordova is a genuine scenic Alaskan fishing town. Fishermen gather here every year to pursue the Copper Kings. There are adventure lodges located in surrounding wilderness, and fishing charters are available into tributaries such as the Gulkarna and Klutina, where you can see black and brown bears, moose, beaver and otter while pursuing wild chinook and sockeye salmon.
Few places on earth could match the appeal of the Kenai Peninsula to seafood-lovers. Nature has blessed this region with an abundance of scenic delights ranging from glaciers, fjords and mountain ranges to clear streams and glorious forests. On the East coast of the peninsula, the town of Seward is the launching point for tours to the grand Kenai Fjords National Park, with its rugged mountains, massive ice fields and constantly calving glaciers. On the West coast, the southern town of Homer is the hub for trips into gorgeous Kachemak Bay State Park, with its emerald-green wilderness girded by snow-topped mountains, and yet more glaciers and fjords. Wildlife and fish are prolific here. There are many fishing charter services that specialise in salmon and trout adventures. Kenai is also known as the halibut capitol of the world, so you can join charter boats out of a number of towns in search of these delectable barn-door sized ocean prizes. The main recreational attraction in Kenai is the world famous salmon fishing. The fish here are big. The Kenai River is the most popular recreational fishing destination in Alaska, and holds all sporting records for salmon. The ten largest King salmon were all caught here, with the biggest, caught in May of 1985, weighing in at 97.25 lbs! The Kenai has runs of king, silver and red salmon each year, a run of pink salmon every other year, plus resident rainbow trout and Dolly Varden.
The most spectacular way to see spawning salmon is by taking a bear-watching trip to a managed bear watching area. On the Kenai Peninsula, one such place is the Russian River falls, where there is a safe viewing platform to watch brown bears (grizzlies), feed on the summer run of sockeye salmon. Southwest Alaska offers the best places to see brown bears catching salmon, in the Lake Clark and Katmai National Parks, on Kodiak Island, and if you are lucky enough to win an Alaska Fish and Game lottery permit, at the McNeil River Sanctuary where the world’s largest concentration of brown bears occurs. The world’s largest bears are Kodiak brown bears, some of which can stand over 10 feet tall and weigh over 1,500 pounds, after growing fat on Kodiak salmon. Safe bear watching trips can be booked with island guides and wilderness lodges.
A good time to visit Kodiak Island is during the Kodiak Crab Festival in May. Highlights of the festival include art and cultural events featuring Kodiak’s rich Russian and Alutiiq heritage, a King salmon fishing tournament, and a seafood cook-off where contestants use local Kodiak seafood products. The seaside festival is a fine place to sit outside and enjoy king crab legs while taking in the cheerful atmosphere. Despite Kodiak once being the king crab capital of the world, the crab you eat here is definitely not local. The Kodiak king crab fishery, which appeared quite suddenly in the 1940s and produced literally millions of pounds of crab per season, collapsed just as suddenly in the late 1970s and was closed down completely in 1982. The reasons for the collapse are still not well understood, but it is obvious that while the crab boom continued the stocks were overfished.
Fly-in adventures are a specialty of Alaskan tourism, and they are often the only way to experience the magnificent watersheds of the vast Alaskan Southwest and the Interior. There are many rustic wilderness tourist lodges positioned in spectacular remote locations, with views of glaciated mountains, glassy mountain lakes and wild salmon-run rivers. Float planes and jet-boats penetrate untouched corners of this pristine world. There are very few roads here, leaving wildlife free to roam without the menace of vehicles and large populations of people to contend with. The rivers of the southwest also maintain the world’s largest runs of salmon. The towns of King Salmon and Dillingham spring to life in summer, launching pads for float planes taking backpackers and serious sports fishermen into remote lodges and campsites along Bristol Bay, and into the great Katmai, and Wood-Tikchik Parks.
Seafood Trails 