Location: Hoy Creek Hatchery – located on Hoy Creek Trail Linear Park, west of the City Centre Aquatic Complex at the corner of Pinetree and Guildford Way

Program cost: free

This rain or shine event took place on October 22nd in Coquitlam, more precisely in Hoy Creek.  Usually it is on the 3rd Sunday in October. The annual Salmon Come Home event co-hosted with the City of Coquitlam Municipality celebrates the return of the salmon to Hoy Creek. The free family event run from 11 a.m. through to 3 p.m. at the Hoy Creek Hatchery.

You can watch spawning chum salmon in stream (see pictures below), learn about the Hoy Creek Hatchery, view live salmon demonstrations, and enjoy musical entertainment, interactive children’s activities, food, and educational exhibits. It’s true we arrived closer to 3 p.m., but we got to see pretty much everything. It was our first year and we enjoyed it a lot. Next year we will go earlier for sure.

It rained a bit, but we wouldn’t let rain ruin our mood, after all, we need to embrace it right?

We parked at Douglas College. The trail has several entrances, and of course it is one place you can visit any time of the year, not just now. Click here for more information.

Surrounded by condos and shopping malls, the coho population is returning year after year to this forested stream, in the middle of an urban area. We learned that a lot of work is being done to maintain this unusual habitat from being contaminated, the traffic around the area means there is garbage left behind, invasive plants are a constant battle and even garden waste being dumped. A lot of volunteers help make that happen.

We learned about the salmon life cycle and lots of interesting information. For example, there are 5000 to 10000 salmon in this rearing pond only. There is also a Leave Home Festival, that happens in May, when fish are released.

Also, the salmon (Coho) swim out to the ocean and return to this creek to spawn in 18 months.

Walking on the trail we could actually see the salmon spawn, they rub their tail on the rocks in the water, which is of course very interesting to see. All in all, a pleasant family event,  a nice location and very very informative!

I hope you enjoyed this post!

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Sorina