Kokanee Salmon Festival at South Lake Tahoe

It's a truly fall, and fishtastic, experience at the Taylor Creek Visitor Center.

THE SYMBOLS OF AUTUMN... are as plentiful as leaves on an oak tree. You have your pumpkins, and their carved-cool cousins, the jack o'lanterns, and you have a variety of bats and cats and spiders, too. You have the candy corn, and a golden leaf, and pencils, which remind us that school has just begun. And, right around Lake Tahoe, specifically at the Taylor Creek Visitor Center, you have the Kokanee salmon. The silvery red fish is a local sight come early October, and it shows up in great profusion as the finned wonders make their annual run. "Great profusion" are truly the keywords here, for Taylor Creek is wall-to-wall, or rather bank-to-bank, with salmon, a sight that's solely tied to autumn, and specifically October. You can try and time your visit to when the salmon'll be at their spawn-centered busiest — a call to the center might give you some general dates, though early October is a fine bet — or you can simply put the Fall Fish Fest on your annual calendar. The 2016 festival is timed to the salmon run, as is tradition, and the upcoming dates are...

SATURDAY, OCT. 1 AND SUNDAY, OCT. 2: Beyond the show seen in the lake-connecting creek, get ready for a caboodle of nature-sweet happening at the festival, from kidly activities (including the walk-through inflatable fish) to tacos and ice cream. There are some pretty trail runs happening, too, if participating in an invigorating trot is one of your must-dos near the big lake. Above all, admiring this yearly migration is what it is all about, and learning how the Kokanee first arrived at Lake Tahoe, and all of the to-knows about this beautiful aquatic lake dweller. Ready to see a sight not many people experience? It's bucket-list-y, for sure. Watch the mondo fish run, and enjoy a weekend-long salmon-tacular, just a pop north of South Lake Tahoe.

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