Salmon Run

On Monday I took the little kids up to Taylor Creek to see the Kokanee Salmon run.  It is something I had heard about but had never experienced.  Beginning in October the adult Kokanee Salmon return to Taylor Creek from Lake Tahoe to spawn.  We started out on the Rainbow Trail not knowing what to expect.

The trail was an easy hike for the kids and took you right down to the river where there was more Salmon than I have ever seen in my life.  The photos really do not do it any justice.  There were hundreds of fish!  It was pretty spectacular.

The fish were huge!  It would have been nice to have an underwater camera to get some good photos.  I found it interesting that they were not spooked by people.

You can see how close you were to them in this photo of the kids.  You could really just reach out and touch them.  The kids had fun watching them "fight" and splash all over.

The trail continues on up the river and into an underground water chamber where you can see the fish up close.   It's a pretty remarkable journey these fish make.

We spent the rest of the day hiking more trails and looking for bears.  I think everyone we passed had seen at least one.  Even the kids on a field trip all got to see the bears eating from the river but we seemed to miss them all. 

The weather was beautiful, and the scenery was amazing.  The leaves were all starting to turn color and you could just smell the fall in the air.

We spent a few hours hiking and having a picnic and I think we all would have liked to stay longer but all too soon it was late afternoon and time to head back for baseball.   I think this may have to become one of our new fall traditions.