Clark's Fork Fish Hatchery

While wandering around and exploring Clark a week or so ago we saw a sign pointing the direction to a fish hatchery.

Taking the scenic route home from Powell one day we on the spur of the moment decided to veer off the highway and go see what the Clark's Fork Fish Hatchery was all about.

The first thing we noticed when we pulled into the driveway of the hatchery complex was the grass.

Although everything is incredibly and wonderfully and completely green in Juneau, the green comes from some grass but primarily from the trees, the moss that covers everything that stays in one place for more than ten minutes and huge and abundant ferns.

Juneauites play softball on diamonds completely devoid of grass.

Dirt fields.

When I first saw them I could not understand why they played on dirt fields - after all it was not as if there was a shortage of rain in Juneau.

I asked someone why that was, and vaguely remember a convoluted explanation related to grass seed and heavy rain and the time needed to stay off the grass so that it could grow.  

Or something like that.

 Wyoming by contrast (and although it is gradually greening up) is so much more desolate.  

Abundant sand and rock and sage brush and prairie grass.

So when we pulled into the parking lot of the hatchery I climbed out of the truck speechless and in awe.

Grass.  

Lush, green, carpet soft, mow twice a week, lay down on it and look at the sky and make animals out of the clouds, beautiful grass.

Just like in Tennessee.

LC and I looked around us and then we looked at each other and for a split second I knew exactly what he was feeling because I was feeling it as well.

We missed grass.  The real deal...........

Cut and pasted from the Wyoming Fish and Game site:

The Clark's Fork Fish Hatchery

Built along the Clark's Fork River in the shadow of the Beartooth Mountains, the Clark's Fork Fish Hatchery is 29miles north of Cody, Wyoming, just a few miles off Highway 120. Many unique places including Yellowstone National Park, the Shoshone National Forest and Bureau of Land Management lands are nearby for you to enjoy. The hatchery sits on 195 acres of deeded Wyoming Game and Fish Department land that includes many public fishing access points. The station, built in 1970, is the largest fish hatchery in the state and offers a unique opportunity to view fish culture in progress.

The main focus of the Clark's Fork Hatchery is hatching and rearing fish for stocking into waters that allow public fishing. Trout species at the station include Eagle Lake rainbow, Fall rainbow, Firehole rainbow, brown, Snake River cutthroat and Yellowstone cutthroat trout. Occasionally, as the need arises, grayling are raised for stocking.

Natural underground springs provide a constant supply of cold, disease-free water to the hatchery. The twelve springs furnishing water to the facility vary from a low of 5,000 gallons per minute (gpm) in April to a high of 7,000 gpm in October. During the peak months, the springs provide approximately 11.5 million gallons of water per day at an average temperature of 52 degrees Farenheit. Because the water is constantly flowing through the raceways, they do not become covered with ice, even on the coldest winter days. After passing over the fish, the water is then returned to the Clark's Fork River. 

Egg Hatching and Rearing

Eyed eggs are shipped to Clark's Fork from other state hatcheries. Upon arrival they are placed in hatching jars for 14-20 days in one of  20 troughs inside the hatchery building. The eggs hatch in the jars and then spill into the troughs and quickly begin growing. The small fish, or "fry," are fed up to six times a day.  Once the fry reach fingerling stage (approximately three inches), they are transferred to other hatcheries/rearing stations or moved outside into the large concrete raceways. Here they are fed two to four times a day until they reach the size desired for stocking. The Clark's Fork hatchery is one of the major producers of native Yellowstone Cutthroat trout here in Wyoming. Some of these native fish and eggs have been provided to numerous Universities in the U.S. and Canada for genetic research and graduate student projects. 

Stocking at the Clark's Fork Hatchery

Once fish have reached the size requested by fish management crews, they are ready to be stocked. Clark's Fork Fish Hatchery personnel travel to areas throughout the state of Wyoming in order to stock fish for anglers. Trucks are the most common way of transporting fish from the facility to a lake or river. Insulated tanks keep the water cool while oxygen bottles; air stones and aerators provide oxygen to the fish during transport. At Clark's Fork there are three trucks that hold 350 gallons, 1,200 gallons or 2,800 gallons of water plus fish. These distribution units travel around 52,000 miles to stock approximately one to two million fish each year.

I did not think that I would find the hatchery very interesting but it actually was.

It is a functional and hard working facility.

It is not a fancy or decorated facility and does not cater specifically to tourists, but the public is welcome to enter and walk throughout..........

A friendly employee of the facility who smiled broadly at me when I lifted up my camera.........

An entire room filled with thousands of fish in various stages of development from eggs to ready-to-be-moved-to-outdoor-pools.

It was cold in this very quiet, efficient and functional room, and we wandered from tank to tank much more interested than I ever expected to be..........

As my Mountain Boy and I walked back out to the truck we again looked around us.

Normal trees.  Normal grass.

I was speechless and just continued to look around me in awe.

LC looked at me and said "we can always go back to Tennessee".

I asked him if he was happy in Cody Wyoming.

"Hell yes".

6 million people in a state much much smaller than the one we were now in.

Big cities. Humidity.  Heat.  Other important life priorities that prevented us from returning to Tennessee in the first place, after we disgustedly and gratefully boarded the ferry in Juneau in March.

I looked at my love and my lover and told him "No.  I don't want to go back to Tennessee just because I saw a patch of green grass.  I like it here too"..........