Cordova sits at the end of the road — which is to say, off it entirely. No highway connects it to the rest of Alaska; you arrive by ferry across Prince William Sound or by floatplane, the way people always have. The town wraps around a small-boat harbor on Orca Inlet, under Eyak Mountain and beside Lake Eyak, in a temperate rainforest that takes on something like a hundred and sixty inches of rain a year. Beyond it spread the Copper River Delta — one of the great shorebird stopovers on the continent — and the glaciers, and the Sound.
Every spring the first wild salmon of the season come up the Copper River, and chefs from Seattle to New York wait for them. Copper River reds and kings are prized above almost any fish in America — rich, deep-colored, and fatty, because they fuel up for one of the longest, hardest river migrations anywhere, fighting glacial current for nearly three hundred miles to spawn. The first catch of the year is news; the first box flown south is a small celebration. When the copper mines closed, Cordova turned to the water, and the salmon fleet has been the heart of the town ever since.
Why People Visit Cordova
Cordova rewards travelers who want the real, working edge of Alaska: a fishing fleet at the dock, glaciers and a great river delta within reach, world-class birding and salmon, and a town you have to make an effort to reach. Bring rain gear and time.
