On the way back from a family visit to my mom’s, I made a last minute decision to follow a state tourism sign to the Montebello Fish Hatchery. It was a beautiful day and I usually like taking these kind of unexpected side trips. I now realize that I should have pulled out my trusty iPhone and check my own app for A Day’s Outing to see exactly where the sign for the fish hatchery might be leading me, but I didn’t.
Instead, we turned at the sign and started our journey down a lovely country road. I began to have doubts when the lovely road began to narrow and we started to climb the mountain. How far away could the hatchery be? Turns out it was miles and miles away. Twenty-five minutes later, we ended up at the very top of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
When we finally arrived, I realized that the Montebello Fish Hatchery is near Crabtree Falls, an amazing place to hike with the whole family. Since we had never been to a fish hatchery before, we didn’t know that there would be separate holding pens for the different species of fish, as well as the different sizes. This hatchery produces and stocks streams around Virginia with 150,000 Brook, Rainbow and Brown Trout each year. The fish are stocked in public waters from October to the end of May. During these months, the water is cool enough for the fish to survive the transition and adjust to their new environment.
My favorite part of the whole adventure was watching the kids jump out of their socks when they tossed their first handful of fish food into a pen. The trout exploded into a swarm as they all raced for the food. The kids screamed and I laughed. That was certainly worth the curvy roads and the extra time.
There are fish hatcheries all across the nation. Here are a few:
Thompson State Fish Hatchery, Manistique, MI
Makah National Salmon Hatchery, Sekiu, WA
Montebello State Fish Hatchery, Montebello, VA
NYS Salmon River Fish Hatchery, Altmar, NY
Nimbus Fish Hatchery, Rancho Cordova, CA
Orangeburg National Fish Hatchery, Orangeburg, SC
Wells Dam & Fish Hatchery, Pateros, WA
