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In Seattle, one can make a wonderful day trip when visiting the Hiram Locks, which is known locally as the Ballard Locks after the neighborhood to their North. Not only is one able to visit the locks, there is an educational visitor center on site, a fascinating garden with trees and plants from all over the world and also a Salmon viewing fish ladder with an educational center… all at a single location.

Best time to visit: Summer. June, July, Sept, Oct. See schedule below
for salmon run and free guided tours.
Tips: Comfortable tennis shoes as one will be walking on uneven
pavement. Sunscreen or jacket as it might get breezy. Coins or credit card for
parking.
Address: 3015 NW 54th St., Seattle, WA 98107 or Google Map. Tel (206) 783-7059

Free Guided Tours Tours for the Hiram Locks (including the fish ladder) is provided from March 1 through November 30 and it is free to the public. Call ahead for the scheduled time everyday. If your school or organization wishes a free guided tour of the locks, fish ladder, or botanical garden, contact the visitor center staff at (206) 783-7059.

Carl S. English Botanical Garden

One of Seattle’s best kept secrets, the garden offers color, fragrance, and open spaces to awaken your senses all year long. These lovely grounds are a masterpiece of horticultural splendor, combining the elegant lines and vistas of the romantic English landscape style with the original character of more than 570 species and 1,500 varieties from around the world.

The garden is named after Carl S. English who was the ground keeper in the early years. It was a barren plot of land and he was tired of mowing the grass so he planted trees / plants over his career of 43 years. I think it was his love for botany which got him stared. He traveled around the world and during his voyage, he collected seeds which he planted at his work place. He also exchanged seeds with other horticulturist by writing to people across the nation and globe.

 

The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks

The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks is an engineering marvel that is working flawlessly after almost a hundred years. The locks sits in the middle of Salmon
Bay in Seattle, and it is a set of complex system that regulates the different water level between the bay and the lakes. By doing so, it is able to keep the lakes at 20-22 feet above sea level and at the same time, keeping the saltwater from intruding into the lakes. The locks also serve as a maritime gateway to Seattle and all the commercial development that lies West of Salmon Bay. The locks were
named after U.S. Army Major Hiram Martin Chittenden, the Seattle District Engineer for the Corps of Engineers from April 1906 to September 1908.

The lock system consist of two locks. One lock is big enough to have commercial ships travel through it, while next to it, there is a smaller lock designed for leisure or smaller boats. The purpose for that it to conserve resources as it takes a lot of water to fill and drain the system and if there is no need to utilize the large lock, then the secondary lock will be used. In the larger system, larger vessels are anchored to the side of the locks and they would tie smaller boats on the of the larger vessel to maintain stability for those vessels in the lock while filling or draining the locks. On the far right, you can see some of the workers instructing the boat owners to secure their vessels to the side of the locks. They works have a cabling safety system that prevents them from accidentally falling into the water or on the vessels.

Facts you might not know about The Hiram locks:

• Vessels (commercial or leisure boats) does not pay anything to use the locks. It is free.
• Submarines have used the locks before.
• In the early years, a car landed in the water of the locks.
• If a boat is not secured properly, boats have flipped or got stuck in the
  locks, which have occurred many times.

The Salmon Fish Ladder and salmon viewing

If you are in Seattle, you cannot afford to ignore the integral relationship between the Pacific Salmon and Seattle. In every restaurant in Seattle, there is always salmon on the menu and one of the best place to see a snapshot of a salmon’s life at a ripe age before spawning.

The fish ladder was constructed in 1917 and had a 10 stage ladder for the salmons which allowed salmons to swim upstream gradually. In 1976, that 10 stage was redesigned to a 21 stage fish ladder. Salmons which were born upstream travel to the sea to spend most of their adult life, and will return to their birth stream to spawn and die. In a natural environment, salmons adept to the salinity changes gradually as the move upstream. At Hiram, there is a drastic change salinity for the salmons as Lake Washington leads to the Pacific Ocean while the water in Salmon Bay is fresh water. The 21 stage fish ladder does help the salmons get acquainted with the changes and once they begin traveling upstream, the salmons will stop eating. Admission and tour is free.

Seattle salmon viewing months at the Seattle Fish Ladder.
Sockeye – June, July
Chinook and Coho – Sept, Oct
Steelhead – late fall and winter

There are some great deals on Orbitz’s last minute Seattle hotel deals in the heart of Seattle. You are able to find a nice hotel down like the Edgewater Hotel or Executive Hotel Pacific anywhere from $50-150/night. Mind you, Seattle is not a cheap city so these are pretty good deals.

Checkout some of the other places of interest in Seattle.

Trees and plants at the Carl English Garden

 

Image of the The Locks closing and a boat leaving the locks

 

Fish ladder chart and also migrating species