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The Best Place to See Salmon Migration on Vancouver Island
The more I go to Stamp Falls, the more I am convinced that this Provincial park is the best place to see salmon migrating on Vancouver Island. And by way of a photo essay I will prove it to you.
It is a little off the beaten track. Those of you who are fixated on getting to the Tofino, Ucluelet and the Pacific Rim will doubtlessly be irritated that you need to drive 20 minutes along Beaver Creek Road out of your way. But in September and October, it is worth it!
There are loads of features that set this park apart as the place to go to see the salmon. There are 23 campsites of which 10 are right beside the river. There is a fish ladder built in the 1950’s to assist the salmon in getting to suitable spawning habitat. Signs are placed all along the river banks that describe the life cycle of the salmon, the five kinds of salmon, and how the fish ladder works. When the salmon are running the Canadian Department of Fisheries and oceans has a television monitor set up to allow the public to see the fish going through the ladder. And for safety, there is a chain link fence to prevent people from falling into the canyon below the falls.
The falls themselves are well worth seeing. More like a cataract, they plunge through a narrow rock into a canyon below. This is where you can see them jumping at the falls. In the canyon below, the water runs deep. And on sunny mornings shafts of light penetrate far into the water illuminating the bodies of the fish in these pools. They hang suspended in the water swimming constantly. Occasionally one will rise to the surface and even jump! The large old growth trees around the falls add to the ambience. Below the canyon the trail ends. But there is a jumble of rocks you can climb down on to get closer to the water. This allows a visitor to get right down to the salmon and offers views up the bottom of the and across the pool below the canyon where Deer Creek enters the river.
The photographic possibilities are also excellent here as they extend from moody misty views of the river to the bittersweet colour of the maples along the river in the fall. Or the lifeless carcass of a spawned out salmon floating in an eddy of the river watched by eagles and ravens attracted to the spectacle.
Forgive me if I wax poetic. Stamp Falls never gets old!