Wow! We got to see salmon run! We really did! Clued in by the ranger at the Olympic National Park Visitors Center that the coho and Chinook salmon are running. So fortified with Fish and Chips at Next Door Gastropub in Port Angeles, Washington, we headed to Salmon Cascades on the Sol Duc River. From the overlook you can get a great view of the water rushing through the cascades but to get a good view of the salmon attempting the eleven foot jump to the next level, we and dozens of other visitors headed a little downstream. There we were poised with cameras ready, fingers on the shutter, hoping to capture an image of one of the amazing creatures on its 76 mile upriver swim to the place where it hatched. There it will spawn and the lifecycle will repeat. Just a little further downstream we could see dozens of salmon swimming in the river just before the jump and then suddenly one or two would sprint toward the falls to attempt the leap. They weren’t always successful, we’d frequently see them fall back down. It led a group of us to speculate on how many times they would try again, and if there were some who never made it up the cascades, what happened to them? One fellow watcher had a waterproof case and got amazing underwater video of the salmon in that downstream pool! After that amazing adventure we ventured further into the Sol Duc valley, checked out the campground which may be a great choice for next visit, and hiked through a glorious old forest to the Sol Duc Falls. A delightful day!
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