Issaquah is a suburb to the east of Seattle, where they
celebrate the return of the salmon to spawn in the first weekend of October.
Obviously, the salmon are constantly returning this time of year and don’t care
about our calendars, but that’s the festive time to go.
Just as I saw in 2011, they’ve made their Issaquah Salmon
Days into quite the street fair.
People can get so preoccupied with the craft and food
booths, they can forget the hatchery. Salmon swim back from the Pacific Ocean
up Issaquah Creek.
The picture above is not exactly of a fish ladder. (I think my shadow at the bottom is third from the left.) This part
was purposefully designed to be too steep for the salmon to leap over. After
they get tired of trying that route, they discover a side entrance to the
hatchery. Much of it has glass windows for public viewing.
It’s hard to see because of the reflections, but the middle
of the picture above shows a large salmon, building up its strength to leap to
the next level to the right.
If you live in the area, this is a good outdoor activity. If
you have kids, let them see how real the salmon are.
Cool! I'm not a fish person and we went to a hatchery once. I imagine all the festivities around it would make the event a good time. I think we're all a bit like that Salmon, eh? Building up our strength to make the next major jump?
ReplyDeleteIt's quite amazing how muscular those fish are. They can jump a number of feet into the air.
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