Washington State is synonymous with two things: cherries and salmon. Both of these are prominently featured at Pike’s Place in Seattle and every gift shop in Seattle. After hearing so much about all the different types of salmon jerky and smoked salmon, we were interested in learning more about salmon. We quickly discovered a place called the Ballard Locks. These locks play an important role with helping the salmon population thrive in the Seattle area.
Google Maps directed us to Ballard Locks area but the fun really began when we started looking for car parking. Since it was a Sunday, we thought that the parking would be easy peasy. But we quickly discovered how popular the Locks were and thus how difficult the parking situation gets. Your best option is to head to the parking lot located by Commodore Park and sit until somebody pulls out. We hardly waited for 5 mins when somebody waved us into their spot…super nice of them! (This was after 15 minutes of driving around aimlessly.) From there, it was just a pleasant 5 minute walk next to the water to the locks.
The fish ladder at Ballard Locks is a complicated system of 21 ladders that help salmon travel back to their place of birth to spawn. Since Salmon are anadromous, they’re born in fresh water, then swim out to salt water where they spend majority of their lives. When they’re close to end of their lives, they swim back to their place of birth to spawn. The fish ladder at Ballard Locks allow these Salmon to carry-on this important cycle of life and death. From the top of the ladders, you can see the salmon jump over the gates or use the tunnel in the gates to swim upstream.
The coolest part of the experience is viewing the last 5 ladders in the underground viewing room. Here, you can see huge salmon swimming up to Salmon Bay from behind thick glass windows. There is an informational documentary on salmon that plays in the background and talks about the different types of salmon and their life-cycle. It’s a pretty exciting thing to wait and watch in anticipation of the next batch of salmon that may appear at any moment in the window.
After spending an hour in the salmon viewing room, we proceeded to check out the locks. Boy were we in for a surprise. It turns out that the 100 year old Ballard Locks carry more boat traffic than any other lock in the US! When we arrived, the mesmerizing process of bringing boats in from Seattle Bay to Lake Washington had just started. We saw boats ranging from a 2 person dinghy to a 15 person yatch perfectly aligned in rows. The biggest boats were put closest to the lock walls and the smallest boats were put on the innermost side. It was fascinating watching the lock attendants furiously running from one end of the wall to the other meticulously checking that everything was secure.
The gates closed after about 45 minutes of securing the boats, and the water slowing started pouring in. It must have taken another 30 minutes till the water level rose to that of the lake but we were enjoying every bit of just watching the boat owners lounging around on their boats while this happened. Finally, the gates opened and one by one the boats were directed to leave. It was all a very entertaining process that likely happens every day of the year!
From the locks, we decided to checkout the adjoining Carl S. English Jr. Botanical Gardens. After completion of the locks, the Army Corps of Engineers transformed the construction site into the botanical gardens. Don’t you wish this was the case with every construction site? The 7 acre gardens are small and peaceful retreat from the busy-ness of Seattle. There are over 1500 varieties of plants from all of the world here that deserve a day trip in itself to discover.
After all the adventures at the locks, it was time to head back. But, we were in the mood for some coffee. We were in Seattle after all. So we decided to stop at the town of Ballard. The town of Ballard has strong Scandinavian and maritime heritage due to the Salmon fishing that has existed here for decades. We soon realized how nice and hipster-ish Ballard was with unique restaurants and coffee shops everywhere. We strolled carefree on Ballard Ave while dotting in and out of boutique shops. A nice way to spend an hour on a Sunday afternoon.
