Alaska Salmon Viewing Spots

Here you’ll find one of the most acces­si­ble wildlife view­ing areas in Alas­ka. The marsh is a rest area for migra­to­ry birds includ­ing trum­peter swans, red­necked grebes, gold­en eyes, and pin­tails. Also watch for beavers, moose and bald eagles. You may even spot salmon spawn­ing in the deep­er water.

If you want to mar­vel at the sight of thou­sands of fish school­ing in gigan­tic tanks, take the self-guid­ed tour inside the state fish hatch­ery on the banks of Ship Creek east of down­town. The muse­um-qual­i­ty obser­va­tion deck offers inti­mate views of a com­plex oper­a­tion that pro­duces up to six mil­lion sport fish each year.

For glimpses of the big Chi­nook salmon right inside the city’s indus­tri­al heart, check out the hatch­ery-seed­ed run at Ship Creek between late May into June. Hatch­ery-seed­ed coho salmon begin run­ning through the same waters in late July through August.

Thou­sands of pink salmon con­verge on Indi­an Creek each July and August, just about fill­ing this shal­low, easy-flow­ing stream south of Anchor­age along Tur­na­gain Arm from bank-to-bank. This amaz­ing nat­ur­al spec­ta­cle occurs in one of the eas­i­est places to view spawn­ing salmon in the region: No steep banks, crys­tal clear water and fish so close they could almost be touched.

Crys­tal-clear Willi­waw Creek and its bank-side trail sys­tem in Portage Val­ley at the head of Tur­na­gain Arm offers excep­tion­al­ly good con­di­tions for watch­ing spawn­ing in action. Coho, sock­eye and chum salmon con­verge on the creek as it winds through the brushy flats begin­ning in mid-August, with some late-arriv­ing fish still present after first frost in the fall.

Portage Val­ley south­east of Anchor­age at the head of Tur­na­gain Arm offers so many poten­tial adven­tures that you might have to tow a trail­er loaded with gear to sam­ple them all. What will you find here? Bik­ing, hik­ing, pic­nick­ing, fish­ing, pad­dling, wildlife view­ing, poten­tial ice­berg sight­ings — plus a nat­ur­al his­to­ry vis­i­tor cen­ter packed with inter­ac­tive dis­plays about the ecosys­tem of the val­ley and Prince William Sound. It’s like an outdoor  ...more

This 64.3 acre park has lots to offer with open fields, ski­jor­ing trails, a sled­ding hill, one soc­cer field, fish­ing dur­ing des­ig­nat­ed sea­sons, and a fish view­ing plat­form that is best dur­ing the mid to late summer.

The dri­ve from Anchor­age to the sea­side com­mu­ni­ty of Seward begins with two hours of spec­tac­u­lar views as you pass between the dra­mat­ic shore­lines of Tur­na­gain Arm and the jut­ting peaks of the Chugach Mountains.

Locat­ed at Mile 1.0 of the Portage High­way, this site has a short board­walk trail along sev­er­al ponds. It is a good site for observ­ing water­fowl that nest and rear their young in the ponds and riv­er channels.

Salmon work hard to make their annu­al appear­ance at the Eagle Riv­er Nature Cen­ter’s salmon view­ing deck, leap­ing the aban­doned beaver dam, among oth­er obsta­cles. Over the years, this view­ing deck has sup­port­ed hun­dreds of pho­tog­ra­phers cap­tur­ing moose, bears, eagles, and unpar­al­leled views.

Learn how the fish are raised from small alevin to fry and beyond to smolt size before being released into sur­round­ing lakes and bays. Depend­ing on the fish cycle, there may or may not be fish to view, so please call ahead. If there are no fish to be seen, you’re wel­come to look at a small pho­to gallery and learn about the fish pro­duc­tion cycle, and under­stand why hatchery’s play such an impor­tant role in keep­ing our fish population…  ...more

This wildlife sweet spot is worth a vis­it. The Russ­ian Lakes Trail begins off the access road to the Russ­ian Riv­er Camp­ground in Coop­er Land­ing, at mile­post 52 of the Ster­ling High­way. Get off-the-beat­en path, hike two miles to the falls and enjoy the imme­di­ate reward of spec­tac­u­lar salmon viewing. 

This is a day use site that offers 13 pic­nic sites with tables, a fish view­ing plat­form, water, toi­lets, an infor­ma­tion board, and fire grates.

Great sock­eye salmon obser­va­tion site, espe­cial­ly in late July and ear­ly August. At oth­er times of year it offers a mod­er­ate walk up to Ptarmi­gan Lake that’s great for fam­i­lies and fea­tures lots of bird life.

This salmon view­ing loca­tion includes an all-acc­ces­si­ble view­ing plat­form over­look­ing the creek as well as view­ing oppor­tun­ties along Ptarmi­gan Creek trail. Sock­eye salmon will be in the creek from late July to ear­ly Octo­ber with the best view­ing in mid-August. Vehi­cle park­ing is in the day use area inside Ptarmi­gan Creek Campground. 

View­ing is easy due to the all-acc­ces­si­ble view­ing plat­form and stream­side trail. Sock­eye, chum, pink, and sil­ver salmon will be vis­i­ble August — November

Thou­sands of sock­eye salmon migrate up Hid­den Creek each year in late July and ear­ly August. With salmon come bears to feed on them. As you dri­ve through this area, you may be able to spot bears at the Ski­lak Road cross­ing of the creek near the Hid­den Lake Camp­ground turnoff. 

Look for the Russ­ian Riv­er Camp­ground (entry fee required) and park in the day-use park­ing areas with­in camp­ground facil­i­ties. A two mile well-main­tained grav­el trail leads to the view­ing plat­form above the falls or to the angler trail along the riv­er. Use cau­tion for high den­si­ties of brown and black bears who are fish­ing for the same Sock­eye and Coho salmon you are look­ing for. Salmon are in the riv­er mid June through Sep­tem­ber with the…  ...more

From the grav­el pull­out on the west side of the high­way, an easy ¹⁄₄ mile walk to the Sock­eye salmon view­ing plat­form awaits (not ful­ly acces­si­ble). Salmon are in the creek from mid-July to ear­ly August with the best view­ing in late July. 

Sounds Wild: Trees Need SalmonAs you dri­ve toward Sol­dot­na you will see the Kenai Riv­er on your left. This riv­er has thou­sands of salmon spawn­ing in it each year. Most­ly sock­eye or red salmon but also coho or sil­ver salmon, chi­nook or king salmon and pink or humpy salmon. After these salmon die, they float down­stream and are deposit­ed along the river­bank where they decom­pose and pro­vide food to the river­side plants.More Information   ...more

Turn on Quartz Creek Road and pro­ceed 2 miles to Quartz Creek Camp­ground. The stream is adja­cent to the pic­nic area and a trail expands Sock­eye and Coho salmon view­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties upstream or down­stream. Salmon view­ing takes place from late July to ear­ly Octo­ber with best view­ing in ear­ly August. 

The Ruth Bur­nett Sport Fish Hatch­ery stocks arc­tic char, arc­tic grayling, rain­bow trout, chi­nook (king) salmon, and coho (sil­ver) salmon in the Fair­banks region. All told, the fish pro­duced by the Hatch­ery pro­vide fish­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for 137 land­locked lakes locat­ed with­in the Fair­banks, Nenana, Delta and Glen­nallen regions.

The Chi­na Riv­er flows through Fair­banks and is home to both king and chum salmon. This fish weir on the Chena is used by state and fed­er­al agen­cies to count the num­ber of return­ing salmon.

The Gulka­na Hatch­ery is a state-owned hatch­ery estab­lished in 1973 by the ADF&G. By 1984, Gulka­na became the largest sock­eye fry pro­duc­tion facil­i­ty world­wide, with egg vol­umes of 26 million.

Hump­back whales, sea otters and har­bor seals are scat­tered through­out the Beard­slees, with whales and otters most like­ly to be seen on the west­ern side of the islands — near­est to open water. Watch the shore for black bears and moose. Black oys­ter­catch­ers – black shore­birds with bright red-orange bills – nest on the islands. Look for har­le­quin ducks, pigeon guille­mots, pelag­ic cor­morants, arc­tic terns, mar­bled mur­relets and large flocks of  ...more

If you want to see salmon, eagles and black bear in their nat­ur­al habi­tat, the view along Gun­nuk Creek can­not be sur­passed. Sil­ver Spike Bridge over the creek is a good view­ing point, or you can make your way to the near­by bear view­ing plat­form at the old Gun­nuk Creek Hatch­ery. Some call Gun­nuk Creek ​“eagle high­way” for the large num­ber of eagles here when the fish are running.  ...more

The Cross Admi­ral­ty Canoe Route, a 32-mile water trail between Angoon and Sey­mour Canal, links sev­en moun­tain lakes, trails and portages that allow for kayak and canoe trav­el across the island. It’s an amaz­ing adven­ture for expe­ri­enced inde­pen­dent trav­el­ers, espe­cial­ly with For­est Ser­vice cab­ins pro­vid­ing shel­ter along the way.

A two-hour kayak ride up Mitchell Bay toward Has­sel­borg Lake takes you through a serene, pris­tine wilder­ness. You’ll share the area with water birds, eagles, salmon and of course, brown bear. Portage at a U.S. For­est Ser­vice cab­ins to stay awhile and take in more of the incred­i­ble Ton­gass Nation­al Forest.

Pel­i­can Creek Bridge is just a few min­utes from Pelican’s har­bor. This is a great place for view­ing salmon that are head­ed upstream to spawn­ing sites. Check it out in July and August for the best view­ing opportunities.

Fish Creek is remote, yet road-acces­si­ble from the small town of Hyder, which means some human traf­fic, but not thick crowds. A 3‑mile dri­ve or hike from town pro­vides access to an ele­vat­ed walk­way beside the creek that is over ¼‑mile long. What makes this area unique is the chance to see brown and black bears in close prox­im­i­ty as they prowl the shal­lows for spawn­ing salmon.

This bear view­ing spot is a bit unusu­al because it attracts only black bears. A short 26-mile float­plane or boat ride from Ketchikan brings you to a dock where you’ll then walk 1.5 miles to the view­ing plat­form. You’ll see up to 10 black bears feast­ing on fish near the fish ladder.

Have you ever won­dered how ani­mals get to be where they are? For instance, how did Sit­ka black­tail deer get to remote islands in south­east AK or how do fer­al cat­tle find them­selves on dis­tant Aleut­ian Islands? In the case of the for­mer, they swam there and in the case of the lat­ter, they were brought as a source of food by the mil­i­tary and set­tlers. In each case, the species has man­aged to estab­lish itself and you would hard­ly know there was a…  ...more

Steep Creek is a For­est Ser­vice fish view­ing site, with runs of sock­eye and coho salmon that start in mid-July and con­tin­ue into Octo­ber. The site is very easy to vis­it. It is adja­cent to the Menden­hall glac­i­er vis­i­tors’ cen­ter about 10 miles from down­town Juneau. There are no per­mits, fees or restric­tions for the vis­i­ta­tion. There’s a ¹⁄₃ mile loop trail, part of which forms an ele­vat­ed boardwalk.

From the boat ramp park­ing lot, walk along the dri­ve­way to Sen­a­tor Gruening’s home. The path ends where Peter­son creek cas­cades down into Lynn Canal. It’s an amaz­ing place for wildlife view­ing when the salmon are running.

The hatch­ery rais­es just over 130 mil­lion chum, king and coho salmon annu­al­ly and is designed to allow vis­i­tors see the out­side oper­a­tions of an active hatch­ery. You’ll learn about what it takes to raise salmon, the impor­tance of the Alas­ka hatch­ery sys­tem, and the near shore marine envi­ron­ment that salmon share with oth­er marine life. 

Slikok Creek pass­es under Kali­fon­sky Rd. and fish can be seen spawn­ing near the cul­vert on both sides of the road. This is a crit­i­cal habi­tat area and you are asked not to wan­der along the banks of this very sen­si­tive stream. All view­ing can be done next to the road. Best salmon view­ing months are June and early-July. 

Walk out to the board­walks along the Kenai Riv­er, learn about river­ine habi­tat and the salmon life­cy­cle, and wit­ness the time­less dance of hunter and hunt­ed, of fish and fish­er. One year-round res­i­dent here will impress you with their win­ter sur­vival skills.

This park is the con­flu­ence of the Kenai and Moose Rivers. Take a break at this recre­ation site named for the Eng­lish author Iza­ak Wal­ton who wrote The Com­pleat Angler. Look for the infor­ma­tion­al sign to learn about the Moose Riv­er Archae­o­log­i­cal Site. You will also find a host­ed camp­ground and boat launch. There’s excel­lent fly-fish­ing in this area.

Thou­sands of sock­eye salmon migrate up Hid­den Creek each year in late July and ear­ly August. With salmon come bears to feed on them. As you dri­ve through this area, you may be able to spot bears at the Ski­lak Road cross­ing of the creek near the Hid­den Lake Camp­ground turnoff. 

The trail is half a mile long and takes you through a mature birch for­est that is car­pet­ed with dev­il’s club and water­mel­on berry plants. It’s an easy walk­ing, ide­al for small chil­dren, and ends at a small camp­ing area on a slight bluff that over­looks Bish­op’s Beach and Bish­op Creek.

Stretch your legs here and check out one of the favorite rest stops for thou­sands of Kenai Riv­er salmon on their jour­ney home. We’ll also seek out giant trum­peter swans, red-necked grebes, and of course, fish­ers of anoth­er species — humans. Here at the con­flu­ence, the two rivers reveal their source waters in a very clear visu­al demonstration.

In the town that boasts of being the Alaskan salmon cap­i­tal of the world, here’s where you can see the salmon in action — hun­dreds of thou­sands come through every sum­mer. This spot, right next the library and at the end of Creek Street, offers a prime view of the crowds of salmon on their way to spawn.

At the Eagle Cen­ter, you can get up close to 10 res­cued birds, includ­ing a gold­en eagle, great-horned owls and even a turkey vul­ture. One pair of bald eagles has mat­ed for life and occa­sion­al­ly has babies to show off. Phone: 800−252−5158, 907−228−5530. Hours May-Sep: 8am‑4:30pm (dai­ly) Win­ter: By appoint­ment Admis­sion $10/​adult, $5 kids ages 2 – 11.  ...more

Dur­ing August and Sep­tem­ber, the ditch on the left of the Chini­ak High­way at MP 29.0 becomes an active spawn­ing area for salmon.

The trail par­al­lels Island Lake Creek, which tum­bles steeply through the woods over falls and boul­ders. This is a good place to see dip­pers, as well as for­est birds such as win­ter wrens, var­ied thrush, chick­adees, nuthatch­es and creepers.

From this bridge on Kodi­ak’s Chini­ak High­way it’s pos­si­ble to see spawn­ing salmon in August and Sep­tem­ber. There’s also poten­tial to see brown bears here dur­ing the late sum­mer as they feast on salmon, espe­cial­ly around dawn or dusk. The road on the south side of the bridge leads to Bell’s Flats.

Hun­dreds of pink salmon run up this creek dur­ing the sum­mer. You can watch them at the cul­vert as hun­dreds of them hur­ry past on their way to spawn. Peak times for view­ing is mid-July to late-August.

This is a very scenic and easy hike with great bird­ing and flower view­ing. Dur­ing April and ear­ly May this is a prime loca­tion to view migrat­ing gray whales. Check out all of the rocky out­crops, beach­es and off­shore waters for birds. Look for bank swal­lows nest­ing in the sea cliffs and har­bor seals loung­ing on the rocks.

Look for salmon and bald eagles here.

Stop at Long Lake, at mile 45.2, to see a pop­u­lar spot for sock­eye salmon to spawn. Every year, 18,000 sock­eye salmon swim up the Chiti­na and Cop­per Rivers to spawn in Long Lake. This is a very unique run, salmon begin enter­ing the lake as late as Sep­tem­ber and spawn until April. 

The Nome Riv­er is a good place to see salmon. Pink and chum salmon spawn in August, coho are usu­al­ly present in August and Sep­tem­ber. Sock­eye salmon, Arc­tic grayling, and Dol­ly Var­den may be present. Look for Arc­tic terns fish­ing, har­le­quin duck and red-breast­ed mer­ganser rid­ing swift water, spot­ted sand­piper or wan­der­ing tat­tler at water­line, and north­ern shrike in the wil­lowed riv­er edges.

The Blue­stone Riv­er is unlike oth­er riv­er cross­ings along the Teller Road because it flows north­ward to Imu­ruk Basin rather than south to Nor­ton Sound. The riv­er is deeply incised as it cuts through steep moun­tains, cre­at­ing steep, rocky slopes and cliffs. Rough-legged hawk, gold­en eagle, gyr­fal­con, and com­mon raven may nest on near­by rock cliffs

Head­ing north, an access road on your right leads to a lake­side camp­ground that is main­tained by the Bureau of Land Man­age­ment. It has a sandy beach, pic­nic tables, bar­beque pits, a trash bin, and a restroom that is open dur­ing snow-free months. There is no run­ning water.

The Sinuk Riv­er is the largest riv­er cross­ing on the Teller Road, and the mag­ni­tude of the val­ley, riv­er chan­nels, crag­gy moun­tains, and rolling tun­dra — all in one panoram­ic vista — is an impres­sive sight. The bridge is a reli­able spot to see salmon on their return upriv­er. Birdlife tends to be those species attract­ed to flow­ing water and grav­el bars, islands, and thick veg­e­ta­tion clus­tered in some sec­tions of the river. 

Descend­ing into ter­rain increas­ing­ly dom­i­nat­ed by trees and wil­lows, you are more like­ly to see a moose than a muskox. In late sum­mer griz­zlies feed on spawn­ing chum salmon below the Fox Riv­er bridge. Salmon car­cass­es also attract red fox, gulls, and com­mon ravens. Both aban­doned and active beaver lodges and dams are found along the Fox Riv­er drainage. Dol­ly Var­den, Arc­tic grayling, and chum and pink salmon can be seen from the bridge.  ...more

Shov­el Creek pass­es under the road through a dou­ble cul­vert before it enters the Solomon Riv­er. A year-round spring that feeds the creek near the road keeps the water from freez­ing in win­ter. This attracts dip­pers, beaver, mink, and otter and encour­ages the growth of cot­ton­woods. The spring-fed creek also offers a mod­er­ate amount of spawn­ing habi­tat for pink, chum, and coho salmon in late July and August. Dol­ly Var­den are present but few Arctic  ...more

An old road bed lead­ing to a Solomon Riv­er over­look is a good spot to look for salmon, Dol­ly Var­den, and Arc­tic grayling in late July and August. Say’s phoebe will launch from its nest to catch insects. North­ern shrike, har­le­quin duck, spot­ted sand­piper, and wan­der­ing tat­tler are also seen. In some years, the cliff is occu­pied by com­mon raven, rough-legged hawk, or oth­er rap­tors so be care­ful your pres­ence does not dis­turb nest­ing birds. 

Sock­eye salmon migrate up Pil­grim Riv­er to Salmon Lake between late July and mid-August, and some con­tin­ue up the Grand Cen­tral Riv­er as far as the bridge. Griz­zlies are fair­ly com­mon in late sum­mer when spawned-out salmon and ripe berries are abun­dant. Bird­ers watch for har­le­quin duck, red-breast­ed mer­ganser, Amer­i­can dip­per, Bluethroat, yel­low war­bler, Wilson’s war­bler, and Arc­tic warbler.

The steep road grade on either side of Crip­ple Riv­er gives a good overview of the thin thread-like riv­er that runs through the val­ley. Gold min­ing activ­i­ties occurred in the upper trib­u­taries, as evi­denced by the road and hor­i­zon­tal ditch lines. Look for har­le­quin ducks pad­dling swift riv­er cur­rents in late August or Sep­tem­ber, and Pink Salmon swim­ming upstream to spawn.

The road par­al­lels a some­what nar­row creek val­ley, mak­ing it easy to see water and shore­birds asso­ci­at­ed with flow­ing water as well as the wide vari­ety of song­birds, such as thrush­es, war­blers, and spar­rows that hang out in dense shrubs clus­tered at creek’s edge. Arc­tic grayling, and some­times pink salmon, are found here.

The Pil­grim Riv­er cross­ing brings you close to groves of cot­ton­wood that are abun­dant in this sec­tion of the val­ley. Look for spawn­ing salmon, moose, and a vari­ety of birds.

A grav­el pit pond may con­tain local nest­ing water­fowl, mew gull, Bonaparte’s gull, and semi­palmat­ed plover. The edges with the tallest wil­lows are a good place to find black­poll war­bler. A large beaver lodge on the banks has helped to fer­til­ize this once ster­ile grav­el pit, which now sup­ports juve­nile coho salmon, Dol­ly Var­den, and Arc­tic grayling.

The Feath­er Riv­er is a noisy, rocky, boul­der-strewn riv­er with a steep gra­di­ent, fast flow, and lit­tle veg­e­ta­tion. The land­scape seems more bar­ren, prob­a­bly result­ing from the impact of con­stant wind, long win­ters, and poor soil. Muskox and rein­deer may be seen here, but oth­er wildlife sight­ings are less fre­quent in this drainage.

Vis­i­ble out­side the win­dows of the Mat-Su Con­ven­tion and Vis­i­tors Bureau, this state wildlife refuge is the result of the 1964 earth­quake. Lit­er­al­ly overnight, the land dropped by 6 to 20 feet; hay fields and pas­ture­land became salt flats and marsh­land. Once home to cows and grains, the land is now prime habi­tat for moose, birds, and fish. Some 20,000 acres are pro­tect­ed in the refuge, which is a pop­u­lar recre­ation and wildlife-viewing…  ...more

Part of the Palmer Hay Flats State Game Refuge, this trail mean­ders through tidal flats and wet­lands. High­lights are great views of the moun­tains sur­round­ing Palmer (Pio­neer Peak, the Chugach and Tal­keet­na ranges) and excel­lent bird watching. 

This is an unde­vel­oped site that pro­vides view­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties of Sock­eye salmon from Pow­er Creek Road — four miles north­east of Cor­do­va. Salmon will be in the creek from ear­ly July to mid-August with the best view­ing in mid to late July. There is park­ing where the creek pass­es under the road. Pho­to: Wendy Ranney 

While on the high­way look for the McKin­ley Lake Cab­in sign and trail­head. From the trail­head, a 2 ¹⁄₂ mile hike will take you to the For­est Ser­vice pub­lic cab­in. Sock­eye salmon view­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties exist here and at the loca­tion anoth­er 75 yards past the cab­in. Salmon view­ing at this loca­tion is from mid July to mid August with best view­ing in late July or ear­ly August. 

Look for the chan­nel to a beaver pond. The chan­nel pro­vides access to the pond for sil­ver salmon fry and can sup­port up to 25,400 young salmon. The fall­en trees and brush pro­vide cov­er from preda­tors. Here you will also find access to Sad­dle­bag Glac­i­er USFA Trail, a 3‑mile trail to Sad­dle­bag Lake, this is the best trail for moun­tain bik­ing in the district.

This remote site is six miles north of Cor­do­va on the east shore of Nel­son Bay and is acces­si­ble by boat. Most spawn­ing occurs with pink and chum salmon in inter­tidal areas and a short dis­tance upstream. Best view­ing times are mid-July through late August with best view­ing in ear­ly August. 

Shrode Creek is at the head of Long Bay on the west side of Cul­ross Pas­sage on Prince William Sound. This remote site is acces­si­ble by boat or plane. A one mile trail fol­lows the riv­er from the head of Long Bay to Shrode Lake where you will find sock­eye, chum, pink, and coho salmon. Salmon are present from mid-July to mid-Sep­tem­ber with the best view­ing in mid-August. A near­by For­est Ser­vice pub­lic cab­in is avail­able for reservations.   ...more

Har­ri­son Lagoon is on the west side of Port Wells in Prince William Sound and is acces­si­ble by boat. The stream enters on the north side of Har­ri­son Lagoon with pink and chum salmon in it. Best view­ing times are late July though late August with best view­ing in mid-August. A near­by For­est Ser­vice pub­lic use cab­in is avail­able for reservations. 

The Alas­ka Depart­ment of Fish & Game oper­ate the Crooked Creek hatch­ery, adult salmon may be viewed mov­ing up the stream and fish­way into the hatch­ery race­ways; king salmon in late June and ear­ly July and coho salmon in late August and Sep­tem­ber. Each salmon is iden­ti­fied and count­ed as it swims through the chute using an under­wa­ter video camera.

This remote site is acces­si­ble by boat or float­plane. Chalmers Riv­er is locat­ed about ³⁄₄ mile north of a For­est Ser­vice pub­lic cab­in on the north­west side of Mon­tague Island in Prince William Sound. Spawn­ing Pink and Chum salmon can be seen in the inter­tidal areas and a short dis­tance upstream. Best salmon view­ing times are late July through August with peak times in mid-August. 

See salt­wa­ter hold­ing pens full of fish fry (young ones) wait­ing to be released into the ocean. In June and July, the water boils with swirling fish, eagles perch in almost every tree, and com­mer­cial purse-sein­er fish­er­men cap­ture sur­face fish by encir­cling them in long nets.

Oper­at­ed by the U.S. For­est Ser­vice and open only in sum­mer­time, it’s staffed by guides who can help you under­stand the area. There’s also a stream that runs thick with pink and chum salmon when they return each sum­mer to spawn. Thanks to a foot­bridge over the stream and the clear Alaskan water, it’s easy to see the fish. (The best view­ing is from mid-July through Octo­ber.) You may also see black bears, who come to feast on the fish.

This salmon view­ing loca­tion includes an all-acc­ces­si­ble view­ing plat­form over­look­ing the creek as well as view­ing oppor­tun­ties along Ptarmi­gan Creek trail. Sock­eye salmon will be in the creek from late July to ear­ly Octo­ber with the best view­ing in mid-August. Vehi­cle park­ing is in the day use area inside Ptarmi­gan Creek Campground. 

Learn how the fish are raised from small alevin to fry and beyond to smolt size before being released into sur­round­ing lakes and bays. Depend­ing on the fish cycle, there may or may not be fish to view, so please call ahead. If there are no fish to be seen, you’re wel­come to look at a small pho­to gallery and learn about the fish pro­duc­tion cycle, and under­stand why hatchery’s play such an impor­tant role in keep­ing our fish population…  ...more

The salmon life­cy­cle and a work­ing salmon-count­ing oper­a­tion is on the menu here, as well as a fresh salmon for your din­ner, if you time your vis­it just right. Hear how!

Great sock­eye salmon obser­va­tion site, espe­cial­ly in late July and ear­ly August. At oth­er times of year it offers a mod­er­ate walk up to Ptarmi­gan Lake that’s great for fam­i­lies and fea­tures lots of bird life.

From the grav­el pull­out on the west side of the high­way, an easy ¹⁄₄ mile walk to the Sock­eye salmon view­ing plat­form awaits (not ful­ly acces­si­ble). Salmon are in the creek from mid-July to ear­ly August with the best view­ing in late July. 

Grouse Creek runs adja­cent to the Seward High­way. To access this creek, exit onto the paved pull­out at mile 8.3. There’s a Chugach Nation­al For­est sign here too that marks the spot. From late- July to mid-Sep­tem­ber, you will be able to view sock­eye salmon with the best chance of see­ing fish in mid-August. 

The Indi­an riv­er is home to a num­ber of fish: Sum­mer Pink, chum, coho, chi­nook salmon, along with Dol­ly Var­den, char, and steel­head trout. This arched bridge is the place to see them. Be sure to stop by on your way through Alaska’s old­est des­ig­nat­ed Nation­al Park.

The Indi­an Riv­er is a beau­ti­ful, clear stream that’s home to spawn­ing salmon each sum­mer. On the low­er reach­es of the riv­er, by the inter­tidal zone and low­er flood­plain, pink and chum salmon spawn from mid-July through Sep­tem­ber. Far­ther up the riv­er, you’ll find coho and chi­nook salmon, Dol­ly Var­den, char, and steel­head trout.

This is a great, easy walk that can be linked to the For­est and Muskeg Trail and Mos­qui­to Cove Trail. The board­walk trail trav­els through a rich tide­lands ecosys­tem, where you’ll find good bird watch­ing for shore and seabirds. You may even spot bears, who show up here to feed on young grass­es in ear­ly sum­mer and return in mid-July to the end of Sep­tem­ber for the pink and sil­ver salmon runs. The U.S. For­est Ser­vice man­ages the area, and the…  ...more