The Kokanee Run at Hardy Falls

For about six weeks each autumn the creek at Hardy Falls turns red. Kokanee — landlocked sockeye that spend their whole lives in Okanagan Lake — come back up the creek to spawn, and you can stand on a wooden footbridge a metre above them and watch it happen. It is the best reason to be in Peachland in late September, and it costs nothing.

Note for August 2026: Hardy Falls Regional Park was closed 4–14 August 2026 for the creek work described below and reopens on 15 August, well before the run begins.

Kokanee in spawning colours. Photo: US Fish & Wildlife Service, public domain — not taken at Hardy Falls.

When to come

The run builds from early September, peaks around the middle of the month, and tails off into early October. If you are choosing a week, choose the middle two weeks of September. The fish are unmistakable once they are ready to spawn — they turn a deep, almost fluorescent red, which against the yellowing cottonwoods along the creek is the whole reason people photograph this.

Numbers vary a great deal year to year. Some seasons the creek is thick with them; others are thin. Nobody can promise you a particular autumn.

The walk

Hardy Falls Regional Park is at 6649 Hardy Street, at the south end of Peachland, about five minutes from MacKenzie House. The trail runs roughly a kilometre and is essentially flat, crossing the creek eight times on wooden footbridges before it reaches the waterfall at the top. It is one of the very few salmon-viewing walks that works with a pushchair or a wheelchair.

Fifteen to twenty minutes each way at an adult pace. Considerably longer with children, because they will stop at every bridge, which is rather the point.

Why this particular creek

Peachland Creek — still called Deep Creek by most people here — is the third-largest stream-spawning kokanee habitat in the entire Okanagan Basin. This is not a token showing at a pretty waterfall; it is one of the more important spawning streams in the valley.

In August 2026 the Regional District rebuilt the spawning channel, installing rock riffles in place of log structures that had been holding spawning gravel since the 1980s and had worn out. The new riffles keep gravel in place better and cope with high water, which should make the habitat more resilient. The 2026 run is the first to use them.

Three rules, one of which is about you

• Stay out of the creek between September and May. The eggs sit in the gravel for months after the adults have died. Walking in the streambed destroys them, and it is the single most damaging thing a visitor can do here.
• Watch for black bears. A creek full of salmon is a food source and bears know the calendar better than you do. Make noise as you walk, keep children close, keep dogs on a short leash, and never put yourself between a bear and the water.
• Keep dogs leashed and out of the creek, and take everything home with you.

Making a morning of it

Late September is quietly the best time to be here. The lake is still warm enough to swim, the crowds have gone home with the school holidays, the vineyards are in harvest, and the light is better than it is all summer. Start with breakfast at Bliss Bakery on Beach Avenue, walk the falls, and spend the afternoon tasting somewhere on the Westside trail while the pickers are working.

One thing to know if you are booking around it: the pool at MacKenzie House closes for the season on 22 September. Come in the second half of the month and you trade the pool for the salmon, the harvest and a considerably quieter town.

The falls also make a good short walk at any time of year — see our guide to hiking near Peachland for the rest of them.