Urban Salmon Fishing at Ship Creek (5 Mins from Hotels), Potter Marsh Boardwalk & Eagle River

In Anchorage you can walk five minutes down the hill from your downtown hotel and watch anglers in chest waders pulling 10-to-20-kilogram (20-to-40-pound) wild King (Chinook) and Silver (Coho) Salmon out of a rushing glacial creek beside the Alaska Railroad tracks.

1. Ship Creek (Directly Below Downtown Anchorage at Whitney Road)

Running through the railyard between Downtown and Cook Inlet, Ship Creek is the world's most accessible urban salmon fishery:

• When the Salmon Run (And Where to Watch for Free):
  • Late May through Early July, King (Chinook) Salmon Run: 20-to-45-pound King Salmon charge up the creek on every incoming high tide.
  • Mid-July through Early September, Silver (Coho) & Pink Salmon Run: acrobatic 8-to-15-pound Silver Salmon fill the creek.
  Walk down from 3rd or 4th Avenue past the Alaska Railroad Depot to the Ship Creek Viewing Platform & Fish Ladder two hours before or after high tide to watch salmon jump, and visit the free William Jack Hernandez Sport Fish Hatchery (941 N Reeve Blvd) to see indoor tanks holding millions of juvenile salmon and trout.
• Try Catching a Salmon Without Buying Gear: on the creek bank at 212 E Whitney Rd sits the Bait Shack, where you can rent a salmon rod, reel, tackle, waders and net for the day (and purchase your Alaska sport fishing licence; check rates on site). Local processors like 10th & M Seafoods vacuum-seal, flash-freeze and ship your fillets home.

2. Potter Marsh Wildlife Boardwalk (15 Mins South) & Eagle River Nature Center

1. Potter Marsh (Milepost 117.4 Seward Hwy, Free Entry & Parking): at the southern edge of town where Rabbit Creek meets Turnagain Arm, a half-mile (800-metre) elevated cedar boardwalk winds over freshwater ponds below the Chugach Mountains. Look into clear creek channels to see sockeye and silver salmon swimming beneath your feet while bald eagles, grebes, muskrats, trumpeter swans and moose feed in the reeds.
2. Eagle River Nature Center (End of 12-Mile Eagle River Rd): tucked inside a valley of Chugach State Park, walk the gentle 1.2-kilometre Rodak Nature Loop to wooden decks overlooking beaver dams and spawning salmon.