This Washington creek used to double as an ATV track, and now up to 30,000 salmon return to it every fall
Thirty years ago, Kennedy Creek spent its summers doubling as an unauthorized ATV track, and barely 1,000 salmon bothered fighting their way back to it. Today, this quiet stretch of water outside Olympia sees somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 chum salmon return every fall — and for five weekends a year, a free, volunteer-run trail lets you watch the whole thing happen a few feet from the bank.
No boat, no fishing license, no wetsuit required. Just a boardwalk through a floodplain forest, and one of the more reliable places in South Puget Sound to watch a salmon run up close.
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From ATV ruts to 24,000 fish a year
Kennedy Creek wasn’t always this healthy. Before restoration work began in 1998, the creek had been chewed up by years of unauthorized ATV traffic, and its salmon run had collapsed to roughly 1,000 fish a year.
The turnaround started when the Squaxin Island Tribe stepped up monitoring and the Taylor family — yes, the same Taylors behind Taylor Shellfish — signed a lease letting restoration work happen on their land. Washington’s Department of Natural Resources later bought more than 600 acres of spawning habitat in 2019, then the trail land itself in 2020.
The creek’s estuary is now part of a 200-acre Natural Area Preserve, inside a wider 1,500-acre Natural Resource Conservation Area protecting the corridor around it. Today, an average of about 24,000 adult chum salmon return here each year — proof that a genuinely trashed waterway can come all the way back.
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What the trail actually looks like
The Kennedy Creek Salmon Trail runs a short 0.1 to 0.5 miles on compacted gravel, flat enough for strollers for most of its length. One section dips downhill on a bark-surfaced path to a gravel bar, where the salmon show is often at its best.
Chum aren’t the flashiest salmon species swimming around Washington, but watching thousands of them thrash up water barely deep enough to cover their backs is a spectacle that’s hard to beat. Peak viewing typically lands in mid-November, right in the middle of this year’s season.
Planning your visit
The trail is open weekends only, 10am to 4pm, running October 31 through November 29, 2026. It’s open on Halloween and Veterans Day, and on the day after Thanksgiving — but closed on Thanksgiving Day itself.
Access is free, kept running by more than 50 volunteer docents who log roughly 600 hours a season between them. Parking is extremely limited, so carpool if you can — if the small lot fills, overflow parking opens up along the logging road.
One rule worth knowing before you go: dogs aren’t allowed. Salmon carry a microorganism that’s deadly to dogs, and the site sits inside a protected conservation area besides.
There’s no potable water or trash service on-site, so pack out what you bring in. Portable toilets, including an ADA-accessible one, are set up for the season — and since this is Washington in November, pack for wet feet either way.
Not near Olympia? Washington has another salmon show
If Shelton’s a stretch, Olympic National Park has its own version of this closer to the coast. Salmon Cascades, about five miles up the Sol Duc Falls road off Highway 101, is where coho salmon launch themselves up a set of rapids every September and October, from a wheelchair-accessible viewing platform.
Fishing isn’t allowed at either spot — these are viewing-only shows. Salmon Cascades sits inside the national park, though, so you’ll need an America the Beautiful pass for that one, unlike Kennedy Creek.
Whichever creek you pick, get there early, dress for rain, and let the fish do the talking.
Trip tips: grab a rental car to get out here, lock in your hotel before the good rooms are gone, or skip both and book a camper van instead.
Rules and fees change — always confirm current requirements before you go.
