It's Salmon Viewing Season: Here's Where To Go In King County

KING COUNTY, WA — Salmon "SEEson" has arrived in Western Washington, and King County's rivers and streams offer several picaresque viewpoints to check out the annual migration through October. Local conservation partners have assembled a list of options for watching Chinook, sockeye, coho, pink, and chum salmon head home for spawning, including a few staffed locations and plenty of spaces for self-guided tours.

The city of Bellevue shared a video Monday of the view from Coal Creek Park over the weekend:

Here are a few more good options:

• Belmondo Reach, Cedar River Park, Riverview Park, Lansburg, Renton Library (Renton)
  • Upcoming dates: Oct. 9, 10, 16, 17, 23, 24 (More info).
  • Trained naturalists are on site between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. on select dates to help visitors spot and learn about the salmon populations returning to the Cedar River.
• Confluence Park (Issaquah)
  • A 135-foot pedestrian bridge provides an excellent viewing area for Chinook, coho and kokanee, and there are two surface trails with creek overlooks.
• Power Line Trail Bridge (Redmond)
  • Coho, sockeye and Chinook can typically be spotted through October as they make their way up the Sammamish River to their Bear Creek birthplace.
• Tolt River (Snoqualmie)
  • The Snoqualmie Valley Trail footbridge allows provides a good view of the salmon all the way into December.
• Laughing Jacobs Creek (Sammamish)
  • Lake Sammamish State Park offers a chance to view one of only a half dozen of Washington's native kokanee populations, who spend their entire lives in freshwater.

A full list of locations is available in alphabetical order online. The county urges anyone participating in a self-guided tour to recreate responsibly.