There's a stretch of sidewalk on NE 178th Street, across from the Presbyterian church, where McAleer Creek leaves its wooded canyon and slips under the road into Pfingst Animal Acres Park. The Lake Forest Park Stewardship Foundation's salmon guide singles out that sidewalk as a viewing spot. A few big salmon spawn each year in the shallows just downstream, and others school up below 178th to rest before they enter the culvert.
The spot is worth knowing because of what it shows. In this town, the place to watch salmon is often the place where a creek meets a piece of road. Fish bunch up where the creek narrows into a pipe, and the pipe decides whether they get any farther. On Lyon Creek, the most important of those crossings sits under Ballinger Way, and this is the first spawning season since it was rebuilt.
McAleer Creek, from the canyon to the lake
The Stewardship Foundation's guide calls the shady, brushy section of McAleer Canyon along Perkins Way and 180th Street the healthiest water in Lake Forest Park for salmon and trout. That reach ends at the 178th Street crossing, so the sidewalk there looks out over the last good water before the creek goes under the road. Below it, the guide describes the creek running out into the sun across backyards and lawns to Blue Heron Park, at the corner of Brookside Boulevard, Hamlin Way and Bothell Way. From there it passes under Bothell Way through a series of flood control structures and fish ladders, then empties into Lake Washington near 168th Street and Shore Drive.
The same guide records that McAleer has supported sockeye, coho and Chinook, and that salmon could be seen there in fall, winter and early spring. It also points to a short viewing trail at the east end of the Brookside School parking lot along Brookside Creek, a McAleer tributary. The guide describes upper Brookside as classic coho habitat.
The guide dates to 2006, so treat it as a map of where fish have shown up over the years, not as a forecast. Some news from this season is already in. On October 10, Jeffrey S. Jensen, who runs the volunteer North Lake Washington Salmon Watchers program, posted on his blog that he'd received reports of an unidentified carcass in McAleer Creek at Animal Acres. No species was named, but something made it to the 178th Street stretch this October.
The crossing under Ballinger Way, rebuilt
Lyon Creek runs to the lake on the other side of town and ends at the Lyon Creek Waterfront Preserve, city-owned property beside the Civic Club. In the Stewardship Foundation guide, a longtime resident recalled big runs of "silver salmon" in Lyon Creek.
For years, anything heading upstream ran into a 6-by-4-foot concrete box where Lyon Creek passes under SR 104, just west of 35th Avenue NE. According to the Washington State Department of Transportation's project page, WSDOT contractors have replaced that box culvert with a 24-foot-wide bridge. The agency says the change opens more than 7.5 miles of potential upstream habitat for Chinook, coho, steelhead, sockeye, sea-run cutthroat and resident trout. The project budget is $8.71 million.
Here's the timeline, since anyone who drives Ballinger Way has lived through it:
| Milestone | Timing per WSDOT |
|---|---|
| Major construction on the new crossing | Finished fall 2025 |
| Sewer work, final paving and lane striping | Completed August 2026 |
| Landscaping and punch-list items | Through October 2026 |
That makes this fall the first full spawning season with the finished bridge in place and the road crews almost gone. WSDOT describes the upstream habitat as potential, and the bridge removes one barrier. Whether coho or kokanee actually use those 7.5 miles is something the fish will show over the coming seasons, and people standing on creek banks are the ones who will notice first.
What's in the water this year, and when
Jensen's September 1 season outlook gives the best guide to which fish to look for and when. Here's how it lines up for the last stretch of the season:
- Coho. Puget Sound angler reports pointed to a strong coho year, which matches the preseason forecast. Coho show up on spawning grounds late and spread out. Jensen calls November the best month to see them, with a warning that high, murky streams can make them hard to spot.
- Kokanee. Lake Washington kokanee run strongest every third year, and 2026 is on that cycle after a big 2023. Jensen noted that angler reports were weaker than expected, so the run's size is still an open question. In a separate October 10 post, he wrote that in kokanee years they're present from mid-October into mid-December.
- Residual sockeye. These look nearly identical to kokanee. They're sockeye that never went to sea, and they run small streams from mid-September through October, so by the end of the month their window is mostly closed.
- Sockeye. By the time of the September 1 post, the count at the Ballard Locks stood at 31,302. That beats the 2018–2025 average of 26,575, but it's far below the 200,000 to 500,000 that came through a few decades ago.
Put together, the late-October and November weeks favor two fish, coho and kokanee. Kokanee are also the species Lake Forest Park is trying to bring back.
The kokanee plan for local creeks
The Stewardship Foundation describes native Lake Washington kokanee as historically present in both Lyon and McAleer Creeks. Its kokanee restoration page lays out a phased recovery. As of March 2026, the first-phase assessment was done and permitting was underway. The goal was to collect eggs and milt in fall 2026 to reintroduce kokanee to Lake Forest Park streams, with monitoring of returning adults beginning in fall 2029.
That puts the restoration plan and the new Lyon Creek crossing in the same season. Restoring kokanee depends on the creeks being passable, and the work under Ballinger Way handled the biggest known obstacle on Lyon Creek. The Foundation's page is the place to watch for confirmation that the fall 2026 egg collection went ahead. If it did, the first returning adults would be due around 2029.
How to put your own sightings on the record
The North Lake Washington Salmon Watchers program is how a walk along McAleer or Lyon Creek turns into data. Jensen describes the commitment as picking a site and recording salmon numbers and presence for 15 to 30 minutes a week. He says the most important gear is sunglasses and a phone.
- Sign up through the form on the Salmon Watchers home page. Jensen asks returning volunteers to fill it out again each year.
- Sign the waiver and acknowledgement form linked on the same page. Minors use a separate form signed by a parent or guardian.
- Submit observations through the 2026 survey link. Jensen has asked watchers to stop using last year's QR code.
- Plan on the season running to about November 15. Jensen extends it into early December in strong kokanee years.
Given the program's timing, a watcher posted at the 178th Street sidewalk or at a Lyon Creek access point this November would be logging sightings during a strong coho year, a kokanee-cycle year and the first season with the Ballinger Way bridge done. Observations from these crossings help show whether the new opening on Lyon Creek is being used.
Two dates at Town Center between creek walks
The regular Sunday farmers market at Third Place Commons wrapped up its season on October 18, but the calendar around Town Center at 17171 Bothell Way NE still has two dates before December.
- Saturday, October 31. Halloween at the Commons, with a Highlight Quartet concert from 3 to 4 p.m. and trick-or-treating in the Commons and around Lake Forest Park Town Center from 4 to 6 p.m., according to the Third Place Commons calendar.
- Sunday, November 22. The Holiday Farmers Market & Craft Fair, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the market site, as listed on the Commons' November 2026 calendar.
The November 22 market falls late in coho season and in the middle of the kokanee window, which makes it an easy day to add a stop at Animal Acres or Blue Heron Park.
At the Christophilis Team, we pay attention to the small details that make up a Lake Forest Park neighborhood, from which streets cross which creeks to what's on the Commons calendar. If you're thinking about your own next step here, or just want to know how your part of town is changing, schedule a free consultation to talk through your neighborhood goals.
