Issaquah Salmon Hatchery

The hatchery in the middle of town is the place to learn how Pacific salmon work, and in autumn the place to actually see them. From early September into November, Chinook, coho and a few sockeye stack up in the creek waiting to spawn, and crowds gather on the footbridge above them.

A free visitors' centre explains the lifecycle and the hatchery operations, and Salmon Days — the city's biggest festival, in early October — closes the streets for a weekend of fish-themed parades, food stalls, and a parking nightmare.

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The hatchery, run by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife since 1937, releases about three million juvenile salmon a year into Issaquah Creek. They head out via Lake Washington and the Ballard Locks to the Pacific, then come back two to four years later — making this one of the longest-running urban salmon runs in the world.