the run forecast — fish ladder, ballard locks, seattle
drag the season to pick a day
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the water is quiet
the run is out at sea, feeding somewhere between here and the gulf of alaska. the fish ladder sleeps until the first sockeye noses through in june.
meanwhile, under the gravel upstream, coho eggs are wintering — each one the same size as the pebbles that hide it.
how to see the salmon run at the ballard locks, seattle
the fish ladder at the hiram m. chittenden locks — 3015 nw 54th st, seattle. enter through the garden, cross the lock gates and the spillway dam; the ladder waits on the far shore.
grounds are open daily, 7am to 9pm, and everything is free. salmon climb the ladder from mid-june into november — the forecast above knows the good days.
the viewing gallery sits below the waterline: twenty-one concrete steps lift each fish from salt water to fresh, and you watch them pass glass-close, eye to eye.
boats rise and fall in the locks, california sea lions patrol the spillway for an easy meal, and the carl s. english jr. botanical garden blooms on the walk in.
tap a month to scrub the forecast
quick answers for first-time visitors
for sheer numbers: late june through mid-july, when the sockeye peak, and mid-september through early october, when the coho do. some salmon pass through nearly every day from mid-june into november — set a date above for your odds.
no. the locks grounds, the botanical garden, and the fish ladder viewing gallery are all free, open daily 7am–9pm.
three main runs: sockeye in early summer, chinook (kings) in late summer, and coho (silvers) in the fall — with the occasional steelhead and sea-run cutthroat mixed in. in 2025 the ladder counted 17,881 sockeye, 18,741 chinook, and 28,150 coho.
home. the ladder lifts them from puget sound into the ship canal, and from there they spread across the lake washington watershed — sockeye and chinook mostly to the cedar river, coho into the little creeks they were born in.
no — from december through may the ladder is quiet. the adult run is out in the pacific, and the next generation winters as eggs in river gravel. come back in june.
they know about the salmon too. california sea lions loiter below the spillway for most of the run — watching them hunt is its own show, whatever the fish think of it.