Autumn is a perfect time to get out and soak up the beauty of rivers with your family. It’s a great time to build your sense of place, celebrating what makes your river unique. While parts of our country have their blazing and beautiful autumn leaves, here in the Pacific Northwest we celebrate another kind of fall color — bright red salmon swimming up rivers to spawn.

We were recently on Washington’s Cle Elum River just outside the town of Roslyn, where we hiked a short way up the riverside trail and saw 20 sockeye, in all the glory of their spawning colors, holding in the current. It’s a wonderful and hopeful sign, as salmon are such an important thread in our web of life here. And we should see more and more salmon every year in this river, thanks to the work of the Yakama Nation, American Rivers, and our partners across the Yakima River Basin.

Across the Northwest, rivers are being restored and salmon are coming back. Since dams have come down on Washington’s Elwha and White Salmon rivers, and Oregon’s Sandy and Rogue rivers, the salmon can come home once again. And American Rivers is working to secure protections for salmon rivers such as the Nooksack, to ensure future generations can enjoy these wild places.

Whether you’re searching for fall colors of the leafy or swimming variety, we have some ideas for you and your family.

Check out our staff picks here and here for the most beautiful fall rivers around the country. If you have a favorite that isn’t listed, please share in the comments below!

And if you live in the Northwest, don’t miss the salmon. Our friends at the Wild Fish Conservancy have a viewing area list for local rivers and streams.

Originally published at www.americanrivers.org.