Kingfisher Interpretive Centre

Twenty-five kilometres east of Enderby on the road to Mabel Lake, the Kingfisher Interpretive Centre is a volunteer-run salmon hatchery on the banks of the Shuswap River that has been raising Chinook salmon for close to four decades — and it welcomes visitors. In summer the hatchery opens for tours, with displays to browse and interpreters on hand to answer questions, on Sundays, Mondays and Thursday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.; the riverside grounds and trails are open from dawn to dusk year-round, and outhouses in the upper parking lot stay open to the public. Timing matters here: from mid-April to the end of the school year, weekday mornings belong to school groups releasing salmon fry, so the trails open to everyone after 1:30 p.m. Monday to Thursday, and through September and October the buildings are closed for scientific research while the trails remain open in daylight hours. The centre's public events are the real treat — a free Learn to Fish day for children each July, and the annual Salmon Egg Take on the Thanksgiving weekend, when Chinook are netted on the river and their eggs fertilized back at the incubator in a free, hands-on family event you are welcome to join or simply watch. No admission fee is published for a visit; the society runs on volunteers and donations, and it won the Canadian Museum of Nature's 2021 Nature Inspiration Award for community action. Keep pets under control and pack out what you bring in.