July 22 to 24 - Valdez is Great!

The Allison Point Campground isn't much to look at, but everything around it is.  Nothing like having a waterfront campsite! 
 

 

Even cell phone service - with a view!

 

 

Here are some pics of the town.  Not too big of a place, but they have a Safeway, more than two gas stations, and a hardware store.

....and lots and lots of fishing boats.

Anyone watch Deadliest Catch?

All day long we can look out and see eagles, sea lions, otters, and bears.  The eagles seem to like to sit up above everyone and take it all in - until they are hungry anyway.  Then they fly out and snatch a fish, hoping the darn seagulls don't steal it.

 
The sea lions will catch a salmon and come to the surface and shake the daylights out of it.
 

 

The seagulls hang around to get the leftovers.

 Otters are better known for eating shellfish, but the ones here don't seem to mind salmon at all.  Again, the pesky seagulls just can't leave anything with a fish alone.

 

They are all taking advantage of the salmon that are packed into the Prince William Sound to start their spawing run.  The fish are hatchery fish though, so unfortunately for them the run upstream is a short one, and they hit a dead end at the hatchery.  This is a picture of the weir they pass on their way upstream.

 This area is pretty much the end of the line for them.  At least it has a view too!

Time to Go Fishin'!

Fishing here in Prince William Sound is about as fun as it gets.  The limit is 6, and you can easily catch a limit in under an hour.  So we caught and released quite a few, but still took our limit of pink and sockeye salmon to stock up the freezer.

A entrepreneurial kid a few campsites down collects lost lures at low tide, so we bought a couple of the "secret baits" from him at bargain prices.  (BTW the secret baits are Pixie Spoons, but these fish would probably bite a painted rock....)

Didn't take long to get the first fish.

...or the second...

 ...or a limit!

 This little guy really wanted to help us land our fish.  He was having a ball catching them too!

 

 And of course we had to go again the next day for another limit.

Wow, fresh salmon for dinner two days in a row.  Hopefully we'll have some left in the freezer when we get back to Michigan.

It didn't take long to figure out the bear's schedule.  At about 8:00 each evening, he, or she, comes out for dinner.  We were able to get this video of it catching a fish and making off with it.  Pretty exciting!

 

Valdez has been about the best stop yet, but the weather forecast is not too good for the next couple days.  So we'll probably head out for the Kenai Peninsula for a cruise and hopefully some halibut fishing on Sunday.  Might have to try for 6 more salmon here in Valdez first though!