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A walk around Capitol Lake might reveal big salmon leaping from the water. A hike down the trails at Tumwater Falls Park is a good way to see salmon in the river. Most of the chinook salmon are headed to the Tumwater Falls Hatchery, but a few of the fish come from parents that spawned naturally in the Deschutes River.
The Deschutes run of chinook salmon got its start from hatchery stock during the 1950s. There was no natural chinook run because the fish couldn't leap Tumwater Falls. The fish now swim up a fish ladder.
More information
Stream Team's information placards posted at the Fifth Avenue bridge address the life cycle of salmon, why seals eat salmon and other topics. Stream Team salmon stewards often are stationed at the bridge to answer questions. For more information about salmon, go to wdfw.wa.gov.
The Olympian
It's prime time to see salmon and nature up close
A Northwest rite: Spectators marvel over returning chinooks
By Chester Allen | The Olympian
Drive or walk across the Fifth Avenue Bridge in downtown Olympia these days and you likely will see a bunch of people leaning on the rail and staring into the water.
They are gazing at schools of big chinook salmon, which swim in circles below the fish ladder that leads to Capitol Lake and the Deschutes River.
The salmon return in late August every year, and about 10,000 are expected to return to the Deschutes and the Tumwater Falls Hatchery this year.
The big fish cast a spell on people.
"It's a cool natural event that happens every year," said Amy Schutte of Olympia as her two sons watched the salmon bolt from hungry seals.
"We live in Olympia now, but my kids were born and raised in California, so this is a way to reprogram their brains as Northwesterners."
Schutte's boys — Alex Hodson, 4, and Ben Hodson, 10 — focused intently on the salmon swimming a few feet below.
Patti Brandt and Greg Starling, both of Olympia, took a breakfrom their workdays to watch salmon.
Brandt said the salmon represent the natural world's circle of life and death.
"I stare at a computer screen all day," Starling said. "I like to be reminded of the flow of nature."
Israel Maestas, 12, and brother Isaiah, 7, said they don't get a chance to see salmon in their home state of Utah.
Grandparents Cindy and Ken Clark, who live in Olympia, tookthe boys to see the fish Wednesday afternoon.
"We want them to appreciate nature," Cindy Clark said.
"It's a natural wonder," Ken Clark said.
"It's pretty awesome," Israel said. "I wish I could fish here."
Fishing is not allowed at the Fifth Avenue bridge, but anglers can go after the fish in Capitol Lake and Budd Inlet.
Angling is closed south of a line that starts from the northwest corner of the Bayview Thriftway store to a point 100 yards north of the railroad bridge on the west side of Budd Inlet.
Chester Allen is The Olympian's outdoors reporter. He can be reached at 360-754-4226 or callen@theolympian.com.
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