Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery

We literally saw zero fish here. I don’t even understand why it exists. The only excitement was that the woman in the visitor center told us we might see a bear… But we didn’t see one of those either. Skip it!

Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery is just within 5 – 10 minutes drive from the main Leavenworth downtown area. You can stop by the visitor center and get a map from a very kind staff to do your own self-​guided tour to learn more about the salmon life cycle and the efforts that the Hatcher is doing to ensure a healthy population of the salmon in the area as well.
We stopped the Hatchery on a late June Saturday and was sort of disappointed by the limited number of things what we could see there (we also probably went in an off-​season time when they were not actively hatching salmon). For example, the nursery for the fry did not contain any actual fry in the indoor nursing tubs. Part of the outdoor area was also under construction, so we sort of had to walk around to see which pools had some salmons in them.
While there were some pools of salmons for us to see, we actually didn’t really get to see as much salmon from different life cycles as we expected. The last top (which was the optional walking trail) was also a little bit too hot and humid (95F+) for us to walk through to see other natural habitats/​animals that day… so we didn’t really get to see as much as we had hoped.
As the staff there was friendly. Perhaps, we may think about stopping by this place again if we were in this area again when the weather isn’t so bad and when there are more activities going on at the Hatchery.

Was wondering why most of the raceways were empty — and it turns out they only use the curved ones some of the year. The person from Fish & Wildlife who was feeding the little salmon was very knowledgeable and patient with our questions. Definitely neat to see!

My dad is an outdoorsman… Or at least he dreams to be after his retirement. If he could, he would go fishing every single day. We were sad that we came at the end of the Chinook season but its okay, we saw a a bunch of fishes in the nursery, and saw some juvenile and adult chinook.
The charming lady at the visitor center gave us the low down to do the self tour.
Best time to go is in the beginning of the Chinook season around May or June-​ish. You will probably see wayyy more fishes than we did today!

I loved it here. We took our father here for fathers day, he loved it! The fish are HUGE and there is so much to be learned! This place is a hidden gorgeous wonder! The Ballard locks has nothing on this place!

The Ballard Locks kicked up quite a few notches. This fish hatchery is fun to visit with plenty of salmon to be seen most times of the year. Their size, of course, will depend on what time of the year you go. There’s a Visitor Center with exhibits and you can go on a self guided tour of the hatchery. There’s also a little nature walk outside and places for a picnic. During the season, fishing is good here on Icicle Creek — they tell you where you can go. Great day trip.