The One With The Dam Fish

Every time we drive through Portland Eric always says we need to stop at the Bonneville Dam and look at the fish in the ladders. We've never done it because we never actually made the time to, and we never made the time to do it because I didn't push for it too much because it never sounded like a whole ton of fun to me. (Yes I said it.)

Well this last trip we did stop. We had tons of time on Friday after picking Bryson up at the dental office at around noon. We drove to the dam (where you actually get to drive across it - TOTALLY COOL) and then we went over to the fish hatchery.

These are the fish ladders, Eric says usually the water isn't so cloudy, it's completely clear, and when you go during season there are hundreds of fish swimming through. We probably only saw 10 or so in the few minutes we were watching. But I'll tell you who loved looking at the fish . . . . .

Preslie did! She stood there forever watching the fish and pointing at them. Preslie was sick most of this trip - we thought she was teething because she had such a fever (a story to come later) - and she really only smiled and had fun at the dam and hatchery.

All those fish in the background are the kinds that come through the fish ladders every year. There is actually a guy that is paid to sit in a room and watch al the cameras and count how many fish of every species come through any given day. I want that job . . . . although I'd probably have to learn what kind of fish they were first . . . . and how to tell two different trout apart so I didn't keep counting them.

Up on top of the visitor's center with the dam behind us. It was extremely windy up there (note the hair).

A huge turbine(?) - that's what spins the water through in the dam. You wouldn't want to fall into one of those.

Look at all that water!

This is why I could move back to Oregon without being sad. Every road is this beautiful! This is just the road leading to the visitor's center by the dam, and it is gorgeous! Wait til you see pictures of the fish hatchery!

We went to a fish hatchery when I was younger. I remember it just being this huge, long swimming pool kind of thing with cement walls, and lots of fish swimming on top of each other. It was outside, but the sidewalks were boring, and the rest of the land was Idaho . . . . so it was mostly sagebrush.

This fish hatchery was amazing. It was green, and pretty, gorgeous! Lots of beautiful ponds and walking paths going through the whole thing.

Parker had fun feeding the fish. For a quarter you get a huge handful (as big as Eric's ginormous hands) of what looks like dog food. The strips where each kind of fish is are usually pretty calm. There are hundreds of fish in this lane, and yet the water is glass still. Then you start throwing food in and the fish FREAK out and start flopping all over the place, and biting each other - yes biting! Have you ever seen a fish bite another fish before? Let me tell you it is nuts!

See how pretty it is there? Those are the other fish lanes with little fishies growing into HUGE fish behind me.

Pretty pretty.

This is a Sturgeon. Apparently Herman the Sturgeon there is 15 feet long and oer 700lbs. Huge! He was so huge he scared Preslie when he swam over to the glass to see us!

Skip to my loo!

So moral of the story is, if you ever drive through the Columbia Gorge on your way to Portland, I absolutely recommend stopping at the dam and the fish hatchery  . . . . maybe the hatchery more than the dam.