The 57th Salmon Days Festival closes at 6 p.m. today, Sunday, October 4. The Issaquah Chamber expected roughly 150,000 people downtown for the weekend. Thirteen hours later, at 7 a.m. Monday, NW Sammamish Road closes to through traffic for six weeks so crews can make room for fish.
That timing is a coincidence, but it shows how the city's fall works. The festival is the shortest part of the salmon season, and the run itself keeps going on Issaquah Creek well into November. Behind that sits a multiyear state construction program built around those same fish. The run is far from over, and it reaches past Front Street onto the roads residents use every day.
The Run Has Weeks Left. The Festival Had Two Days.
Friends of the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery says Chinook arrive first and spawn through mid-October. Coho arrive from late September through November. So half the season's story hasn't started at the hatchery yet. In the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's in-season report dated October 1, 2026, the coho tables have no Issaquah Hatchery row so far.
The Chinook are well along. As of September 25, the same report credits Issaquah Hatchery with 3,545 hatchery-origin adult fall Chinook and 292 jacks, plus 690,920 eggs taken. As of September 23 it lists a separate 93 wild-stock Issaquah Creek adults. WDFW calls these preliminary cumulative estimates. They count fish handled at the facility, not every salmon in the watershed. For comparison, FISH's final count for all of 2025 was 4,955 Chinook. With mid-October spawning still ahead, this year's facility tally had already passed 70 percent of that total by late September.
The crowds have mostly come and gone. FISH's fifth annual Salmon on Sunset on September 12 drew about 8,000 visitors. The group logged 2,970 people at its Fish Hats art station and 986 trout feedings. Add Salmon Days, and the two big weekends are done. The coho haven't shown up yet.
Four Places to Stand Over Issaquah Creek
King County's 2026 Salmon SEEson map names four Issaquah spots under "Where can you see salmon now?" They are the hatchery, Confluence Park, Salmon Run Nature Park and the W Sunset Way Bridge. They sit at different points along the creek, so a resident can catch the run at several stages in one walk.
Issaquah Salmon Hatchery
This is where the fish end up. The hatchery opened in 1936 and raises Chinook and coho that return through Lake Sammamish and up Issaquah Creek. FISH lists the viewing bridge over the creek, the fish ladder and the underwater viewing windows as its main vantage points. New this season, an Eagle Scout project planted a bed about 100 feet long along the exit drive. It holds kinnikinnick, western yarrow and nodding onion donated by Storm Lake Growers and Oxbow Farm.
Confluence Park
This is where the East Fork joins the main stem of Issaquah Creek. County notes point visitors to the 135-foot pedestrian bridge and to creek overlooks along soft-surface trails.
Salmon Run Nature Park
The park sits on the main stem, and soft-surface trails lead down to overlooks. County directions point to the 872 to 944 block of 5th Ave NW.
W Sunset Way Bridge
This bridge crosses Issaquah Creek near Newport Way NW. There's street parking along W Sunset Way east of the bridge, and the county lists the viewing window as September through November. That long window makes it a good choice once coho start arriving.
Bring polarized sunglasses to any of these spots. The county gives two different tips on light. Its map banner recommends midday on a clear, calm day, while the individual site notes suggest early morning or late afternoon to cut glare. If you bring a dog, WDFW asks owners to keep pets under control so they don't chase or scare the fish.
Eight Mornings Left at the Hatchery
FISH's 2026 visitor page says spawning happens on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings in October. Counting from today, that leaves eight mornings: October 6, 7, 13, 14, 20, 21, 27 and 28. FISH doesn't publish exact start times, so check with the hatchery before you go.
What visitors need to know:
- Admission: The grounds are free and open daily from dawn to dusk.
- Indoor spaces: Restrooms, the aquarium room and the theater open daily at 8:30 a.m. FISH's own page gives two closing times for the theater, 4:00 and 4:30 p.m.
- Guided tours: Docent tours cost $10 per person and run 50 minutes, rain or shine. Request a date at least a week ahead. Children under 4 go free.
- Gift shop: Through October the schedule lists 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekdays, a separate Friday window of 4 to 6 p.m., and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends, so call ahead before a Friday visit. In November it's open Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Parking: Main parking is through the second entrance when heading west on Sunset Way, with overflow through the first entrance. There's also a parking structure across the street by the library.
Monday Morning, the Fish Close a Road
The NW Sammamish Road closure is part of the Washington State Department of Transportation's I-90 Lewis, West Village Park and Schneider Creeks Fish Passage Project. The contract calls for replacing barriers under I-90 at those three creeks with crossings fish can pass through, and for restoring the streams. WSDOT said in February that the existing culverts under several roads, including both directions of I-90, block fish from moving up- and downstream.
The work is court-ordered. Twenty-one Northwest tribes sought enforcement of treaty-based duties to protect fish runs. In March 2013, a federal court issued a permanent injunction requiring Washington to remove state-road culverts that block salmon and steelhead habitat in western Washington. The Issaquah Spotlight, writing in September, pointed to that ruling as the reason the south Lake Sammamish area faces years of fish passage and road work.
According to the City of Issaquah's October 1 alert, this phase looks like this:
What | Details |
|---|---|
Start | 7 a.m., Monday, October 5 |
Length | Six weeks of full closure, into mid-November |
Purpose | Moving utilities out of the construction zone |
Detour | West Lake Sammamish Parkway SE and I-90 |
Local access | Kept open for homes inside the closure |
I-90 effects | Westbound traffic shifts near the 17th Avenue NW and Lakemont Boulevard interchanges, overnight lane reductions, ramp and surface-street detours |
This closure clears the way for the bigger one. In early 2027, crews will remove an old culvert and build a bridge and new creek bed along NW Sammamish Road. That work needs a four-month closure with the same detours. Atkinson Construction holds the contract, and WSDOT expects the phases to continue through late 2028. The city's March roundup set the NW Sammamish phase for February through November 2026, with work at other locations from November 2026 through December 2028. Questions go to Tom Pearce at WSDOT Communications, 206-440-4696.
Where the Creek Meets the Lake, Access Is Harder This Fall
The closure is just west of Lake Sammamish State Park. That's where Issaquah Creek empties into the lake, and King County lists the creek mouth as a viewing site. Its card gives mid-September through October as the season, with the best chance of seeing fish in early October. So the best weeks for viewing there overlap with the start of the closure.
On October 2, Washington State Parks posted a warning about heavier congestion getting into the park from early October through late November because of the road closure. The park stays open. One of the county's listed viewing points is also out. In a notice posted March 3, 2026, State Parks reported that the Issaquah Creek bridge, which the county card names as a viewing spot, and the nearby Tibbetts Creek bridge were both closed after erosion from high winter creek levels, with no repair date given. The Homestead Trail is closed indefinitely because of a washout. The county map still shows the Issaquah Creek bridge as open, so check the State Parks page first. Dogs are allowed in the park on a leash but not in designated swim areas.
For the next six weeks, that means the creek mouth takes the most planning to reach. The upstream spots on Sunset Way, 5th Ave NW, Confluence Park and the hatchery are all on the side of town the closure doesn't touch. And the coho run ends in November, around the time the road is scheduled to reopen.
Local projects like the fish passage work can change which routes, parks and blocks are easy to reach long before the change shows up anywhere else. The Danna Team tracks those details across Issaquah and the Eastside. If a move here is on your horizon and you want to know how projects like this one affect where you'd live, we'd be glad to walk you through it. Schedule a Private Consultation.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
