OK, this morning we tried one last time to see the bears with no luck. But while we were out there we took a look around the fish hatchery. There is a public walkway that provides a good viewing.

We watched as the salmon jumped, trying to make it upstream. But so sad for them, once they made the jump they were redirected to the fish ladder on the left.

Jumping Salmon Trying to get Upstream

Once they make their way to the top of the fish ladder they are ushered into the Spawning Building where a team of workers separates the boys from the girls and harvests their goodies. You know what I’m talking about. There are viewing windows where visitors can watch the process.

Fish Ladder

We said goodbye to Valdez and drove about 250 miles back to Tok, completing a counter clockwise circular route of highways. It was five weeks ago that we were here when we first entered Alaska from Canada on the ALCAN highway.

No bears, but this magpie was looking for a handout.

Black-billed Magpie

Other than the fish and birds we did not see any wildlife. The weather has improved, still a little cloudy but at least we are seeing bits of blue sky now and it’s dryer. It’s about 60 degrees. The drive from Valdez was just as beautiful as the rest of the entire state of Alaska. One mountain after another.

Driving the Tok Cutoff

The Tesoro gas station in Tok offers a free wash with a fill of gas. They also have free sanitary dump and potable water. We asked permission to dry camp here overnight and it was ok. Not a great view but it beats paying $40 for a RV park when all we want to do is sleep. We paid almost $300 for gas here. There are always pull-outs along the road that are free to dry camp overnight but I can’t get Internet out there.

Canada is only 90 miles from here. We are not done with Alaska, we plan to visit Haines and Juneau and Skagway but the only way to get there by driving is to go back through Canada for a while first.