Because This Town Throws a Party for Fish

Salmon Days 2026 Logo

Every October, something happens in Issaquah that you won't find on most cities' event calendars: salmon come home, and the whole town shows up to watch. Issaquah Salmon Days, held the first full weekend of October (October 3–4 in 2026), is Washington's largest two-day festival: nearly 600 vendor booths, a Grande Parade, two live entertainment stages, a Field of Fun for kids, and, at the center of it all, thousands of people leaning over the Issaquah Creek bridge to watch spawning salmon fight their way upstream to the historic hatchery.

A Name That Comes From the Creek Itself

The town's name is an anglicized version of a Southern Lushootseed word tied to this same waterway, variously translated as "the sound of birds," "snake," or "little stream." Long before Issaquah was a commuter suburb, it was Squak Valley, a place defined by the creek running through it. Salmon Days, first held in 1970 as a replacement for the town's fading Labor Day celebration, was built specifically to honor that relationship, and more than fifty years later, it's still the single best illustration of what makes Issaquah feel like a town rather than just a zip code.

The Issaquah Salmon Hatchery, right downtown on Sunset Way, is open to visitors well beyond festival weekend. Watching chinook and coho salmon return to the exact stream where they hatched is the kind of thing that sounds like a school field trip and turns out to be genuinely moving, for kids and adults alike.

A Community That Doesn't Wait for October

Salmon Days is the headline, but it's really just the biggest night of a calendar that stays busy all year. Every Tuesday evening in summer, the City of Issaquah hosts Concerts on the Green, a free, family-friendly concert series on the lawn of the Issaquah Community Center, running an eight-week season from early July through late August. Thursdays belong to Gas Station Blues, a free outdoor blues series at the Historic Shell Station on Front Street, running the same July-through-August stretch. Bring a chair and a picnic and it's as close to a standing weekly neighborhood tradition as a city this size gets.

Issaquah Farmers Market Video

Saturdays belong to the Issaquah Farmers Market, held rain or shine at the historic Pickering Barn from May through September, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. It's a genuine destination market: over 100 vendors on a typical weekend, live music, cooking demonstrations, and seasonal traditions like the Strawberry Festival and Kids' Day built right into the schedule.

Then August brings Al Fresco on Front, when the city closes Front Street to vehicle traffic every weekend, Saturday morning through Sunday night, and turns Olde Town into a walkable, mall-like stretch of outdoor dining, sidewalk shopping, live music, and pop-up activities. Restaurants spill out into the street, shops set up displays outside their doors, and for four weekends a year, downtown Issaquah becomes a place built entirely for wandering on foot.

Layer in the rest of the community calendar: ArtWalk & Music Stroll through historic downtown on first Fridays each summer, the classic-car gathering at Fenders on Front Street, and a steady stream of smaller festivals, markets, and Village Theatre productions. Salmon Days starts to look less like a once-a-year event and more like the biggest expression of something Issaquah does constantly: give people a reason to show up downtown.

Why This Matters When You're House-Hunting

A festival is just a festival, until you realize it's a proxy for something buyers actually care about: does this place have an identity, or is it just rooftops? Issaquah's answer is unambiguous. Between Salmon Days, the historic downtown core, and a genuine, decades-deep relationship with the creek and hatchery at its center, this is a city that knows what it is. For families relocating from out of state, or Eastside buyers comparing Issaquah to newer, less-defined developments, that sense of place is often exactly what tips the decision.

For Buyers & Sellers

Neighborhoods within walking distance of downtown Issaquah, think the historic core, Olde Town, and the streets around Sunset Way, let buyers market a genuine "we walked to the parade" lifestyle, not just a listing bullet point. If you're selling near downtown this fall, consider timing photos or an open house around Salmon Days weekend, when the neighborhood is at its most alive.

Curious which Issaquah neighborhoods put you close enough to downtown to make Salmon Days part of your own family tradition? Let's talk. Kelly Azzarello Real Estate can walk you through the options block by block.

Kelly Azzarello Real Estate | Compass
📧 kelly@kellyazzarello.com  |  📞 (425) 830-6457  |  🌐 kellyazzarello.com

Because You Can Do a Costco Run at Costco's Actual Backyard

Why Issaquah? Because You Can Do a Costco Run at Costco's Actual Backyard

Gilman Village and Olde Town cover the charm side of Issaquah shopping, but most weeks, buyers care just as much about the unglamorous stuff: where's the closest Target, is there a real grocery store nearby, can I get errands done without driving to Bellevue? On that front, Issaquah punches well above its size, with two full retail corridors and a genuinely funny bit of local trivia involving the world's largest warehouse retailer.

Issaquah Commons: The Valley Floor's One-Stop Corridor

Right on Gilman Boulevard, Issaquah Commons packs a Target, Trader Joe's, Safeway, and an REI flagship into one walkable, open-air center, alongside Sephora, Athleta, and, as of a 2024 expansion, a full Barnes & Noble. It's the kind of everyday retail spread that lets most households handle groceries, home goods, and outdoor gear in a single stop, all just off I-90.

Grand Ridge Plaza: The Highlands' Own Retail Hub

Up on the plateau, Issaquah Highlands residents don't have to head back down the hill for essentials. Grand Ridge Plaza brings its own Safeway, Dick's Sporting Goods, Marshalls, HomeGoods, Ulta Beauty, and a 12-screen Regal Cinemas into one center, built specifically to serve the Highlands' master-planned community without a trip down to the valley floor. It's a small but meaningful detail for buyers comparing life on the plateau versus downtown: the Highlands genuinely functions as its own self-contained neighborhood, errands included.

The Costco Detail Most Buyers Don't Know

Here's the fun one: when Costco moved its world headquarters to Issaquah, it deliberately built the corporate campus right next to an actual working Costco warehouse, specifically so buyers and executives could walk over and check real merchandise and real customer behavior on the sales floor. That warehouse, at 1801 10th Ave NW, is still open to the public today, which means a routine Costco run in Issaquah happens in the literal shadow of the company's global headquarters. It's a small thing, but it's the kind of only-in-Issaquah detail that tends to stick with relocating buyers.

Groceries, Covered Every Way

Beyond the big anchors, Issaquah's grocery scene covers the full range of shopping styles: Safeway and Fred Meyer for full-service, one-stop trips, QFC for a smaller neighborhood option, Trader Joe's for the specialty/value middle ground, and PCC Community Markets, an organic, community-owned grocery co-op near Pickering Barn, for buyers who want a farm-to-table, locally sourced option close to home.

The city's ethnic and specialty grocery options have grown too. Mayuri International Foods, a South Asian grocer with a halal butcher counter, bakery, and prepared foods, opened in Pickering Place in early 2025. Uwajimaya, the well-known Pacific Northwest Asian grocery chain with longtime stores in Seattle, Bellevue, and Renton, has announced a fifth location taking over the former Rite Aid space at Town & Country Square; it hadn't opened as of this writing, so confirm current status before publishing.

Round it out with a Michaels craft store at Pickering Square, and the day-to-day errand list is about as covered as a suburb this size gets.

For Buyers & Sellers

Which retail corridor a home sits closest to is worth calling out specifically: Issaquah Commons for valley-floor and downtown-adjacent listings, Grand Ridge Plaza for Highlands listings. For buyers moving from a market without easy big-box or grocery access, being able to say "Target and Trader Joe's are five minutes away" answers a practical question before they have to ask it.

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Curious which Issaquah neighborhoods put your daily errands closest to home? Reach out to Kelly Azzarello Real Estate. We can map it out for you.

Kelly Azzarello Real Estate | Compass
📧 kelly@kellyazzarello.com  |  📞 (425) 830-6457  |  🌐 kellyazzarello.com

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NOTE: Uwajimaya's Issaquah store was announced but not yet open as of this post (September 2026).

Because the View From Poo Poo Point Never Gets Old

Ask a longtime Issaquah resident what makes this city different from anywhere else on the Eastside, and there's a decent chance the answer involves a hillside covered in colorful nylon wings. Welcome to Poo Poo Point, the summit on West Tiger Mountain where hikers earn a jaw-dropping view of Mount Rainier and Lake Sammamish, and where, on a clear day, you'll watch paragliders run straight off the grassy knoll and disappear into the sky.

A Trailhead That's Basically a Neighborhood Amenity

Most cities point to a park. Issaquah points to a mountain. The Chirico Trail climbs about 1,700 feet over roughly 3.8 miles round trip, steep enough to feel like an accomplishment, short enough to knock out before lunch. The longer, gentler route starts right from Issaquah High School, which tells you everything about how woven into daily life this trail really is. Kids grow up here treating a 4-mile mountain hike the way other towns treat a walk around the block.

The name itself is local lore: it's said to come from the steam whistle sound of old logging equipment that once worked this hillside, not the joke every second-grader assumes. Around the 1970s the timber company cleared the summit so thoroughly that the open, grassy launch point was born, and pilots noticed. Tiger Mountain has since become one of the best-known paragliding and hang-gliding sites in the country, with a local outfitter running tandem flights right from the base.

You Don't Have to Fly to Love It Up There

Here's the part that surprises newcomers: most of the people at the top on any given weekend aren't gliding at all. They're hikers who came specifically to watch. Poo Poo Point has two separate viewpoints, the South Launch and the North Launch, both of which double as some of the best spectator seating in the state. Families spread out a picnic on the grassy knoll, dogs nap in the sun, and everyone watches for that moment when a pilot takes a few running steps and simply lifts off the hillside. It's become its own kind of local ritual: a genuinely free, genuinely spectacular way to spend a Saturday morning, whether or not you have any interest in leaving the ground yourself.

The Company Behind the Wings: Seattle Paragliding

If watching from the grass turns into wanting to try it yourself, the outfitter most pilots and first-timers know by name is Seattle Paragliding, based right at the foot of Tiger Mountain on Issaquah-Hobart Road, next to the landing zone. They offer tandem flights with a certified instructor pilot doing all the technical work. No experience, and essentially no age limit, required; they've flown passengers from age 5 to well into their 90s. You either ride their shuttle up to the launch or hike up yourself and pay a smaller fee to have your gear shuttled, then run a few steps downhill with your instructor and the wing does the rest. Beyond one-time tandem flights, they also run a full paragliding school for people who want to get certified and fly solo, complete with a private training hill, plus tandem "party" packages for groups. For a lot of visitors, watching from Poo Poo Point on one trip and booking a flight on the next is basically the Issaquah bucket-list arc.

What It's Really Selling: Proximity to the Extraordinary

Here's the thing buyers relocating from denser markets don't always expect: this isn't a drive-an-hour-to-the-trailhead kind of outdoor access. Poo Poo Point, and the rest of the Issaquah Alps, sit inside the city limits or a few minutes past them. You can have a normal Tuesday and be standing on a ridgeline watching someone launch off a mountain by 6 p.m.

For buyers weighing Issaquah against other Eastside cities, this is often the tiebreaker. It's not just that there's a trail nearby. It's that the trail is dramatic, the payoff is real, and it's part of the identity of the place rather than an afterthought.

For Buyers & Sellers

Homes within easy reach of the Poo Poo Point / Tiger Mountain trailheads, particularly in the Issaquah Highlands and neighborhoods off Newport Way and SE Issaquah-Fall City Road, consistently draw buyers who list "outdoor access" as a top priority. If you're selling in one of these pockets, it's worth calling out trail proximity explicitly in your listing; it's a detail relocating buyers search for by name.

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Thinking about a move to a neighborhood where a mountain view, or a mountain launch pad, is part of daily life? We'd love to show you around. Reach out to Kelly Azzarello Real Estate to talk about which Issaquah neighborhoods put you closest to the trails that matter most to you.

Kelly Azzarello Real Estate | Compass
📧 kelly@kellyazzarello.com  |  📞 (425) 830-6457  |  🌐 kellyazzarello.com

14: Lakes of Sammamish: Where to Swim, Fish, Paddle, and Live on the Water

Lakesof Sammamish: Where to Swim, Fish, Paddle, and Live on the Water

The city is named for a lake, but Lake Sammamish is only part of thewater story. Up on the plateau itself there are three smaller lakes,Pine Lake, Beaver Lake, and Yellow Lake, and each has a very differentrelationship with the people around it. Pine Lake has a city park andseasonal lifeguards. Beaver Lake has a lodge and a rack of free loanerlife jackets. Yellow Lake sits inside Klahanie, where access is ahomeowners’ association question.

That’s the real question with Sammamish’s lakes: not which one isprettiest, but who is allowed to use it. Some are public, some areresident-only, and a few are hard to spot from the road. Below is eachlake, its rules in one line, and, at the end, what it means if you wantto live on the water instead of just visiting.

Lake Sammamish

The big one. Lake Sammamish covers roughly 4,850 acres, withSammamish along its eastern shore, Issaquah at the south end, andRedmond and Bellevue to the north and west. Most of the shoreline isprivate, so the handful of public access points matter:

• Sammamish Landing (Sammamish). An 8-acre park onthe eastern shore with three small beaches, two docks, a picnic shelter,and a display on the railroad that once ran along today’s East LakeSammamish Trail. It’s the only public property on the lake’s shorelineinside Sammamish city limits.

• Lake Sammamish State Park (Issaquah). The lake’ssouth end, and the main public boat launch. It also has swimming beaches(Tibbetts and Sunset), picnic shelters, and athletic fields.

• Idylwood Park (Redmond). Public access on thelake’s west shore.

At the north end, Marymoor Park in Redmond is where the 11-mile EastLake Sammamish Trail begins, a flat paved ride or walk along the waterthat comes up again and again in what people love about living here.

For anglers, wild coastal cutthroat, smallmouth bass, and yellowperch are the main draws. Kokanee, the lake’s landlocked sockeye, spawnin creeks like Laughing Jacobs, Tibbetts, and Issaquah Creek, and areclosed to fishing.

The rules, in one line: swim only at designatedbeaches (Sammamish Landing or the state park), launch boats at the statepark (fees apply), and check WDFW’s current rules before fishing, sincekokanee, steelhead, and some salmon are closed.

Pine Lake

Pine Lake is Sammamish’s most neighborhood-scale lake: a small lakewith a city park on its shore and homes around it. Pine Lake Park hassandy beaches, a designated swimming area, and calm water for kayaks andpaddleboards, and it’s a good example of what the plateau’s lake parksdo well. We introduced the Pine Lake neighborhood in 8Sammamish Neighborhoods Worth Knowing.

The rules, in one line: swim only in the designatedarea (lifeguards are on duty only during specific summer weeks), andfishing season runs from the fourth Saturday in April through October31, with a license.

Beaver Lake

Beaver Lake is actually a chain of three lakes, and the main lake iswhere the recreation happens. Beaver Lake Park covers 83 acres, with aswimming area, forested trails, a big meadow, and the historic BeaverLake Lodge, which began as a private resort in the 1930s. In summer thepark lends out life jackets for free, and the lake hosts the swim leg ofthe annual Beaver Lake Triathlon. One quirk: the public boat ramp isn’tin the park, it’s a state Fish & Wildlife access site on the lake’ssoutheast side. We covered the park in more detail in GettingOutside in Sammamish.

The rules, in one line: swim in designated areas,borrow the free life jackets in summer, fish year-round with a license,and use electric motors only, since gas motors aren’t allowed on thelake.

Yellow Lake

Yellow Lake is tucked into Klahanie beside Klahanie Park. It’s small,about 10 acres, and named for its yellow water lilies. A forested buffersurrounds it and a walking trail circles it, so it functions more asurban wildlife habitat than a swimming hole. It’s shallow and edged withlily pads, so don’t picture a beach.

Ownership and access are worth confirming rather than assuming.Reports describe the lake as owned by the Klahanie HOA, and the trail’sstatus isn’t as clear-cut. The Klahanie HOA can tell you what’s open tonon-residents: klahanie.com.

The rules, in one line: treat it as resident-onlyunless the HOA says otherwise, and don’t assume any swimming, fishing,or boating access.

The lakes you’ll hearabout but rarely see

• Laughing Jacobs Lake. It’s the source of LaughingJacobs Creek, which runs through Sammamish and Issaquah to LakeSammamish. Below the creek’s falls is a primary spawning ground for thebig lake’s kokanee. The lake itself is reportedly private, so this oneis a story rather than a destination.

• Ames Lake. It sits north of the city inunincorporated King County, near Union Hill-Novelty Hill. It shows up onregional maps, but we couldn’t confirm public access details, so ifyou’re house hunting up north, ask about it by address.

• Ebright Creek Park. It’s not a lake, but thisneighborhood park has trails and a creek, and it’s a good stop for waterwithout a beach.

If you want to live on thewater

“Lake living” in Sammamish can mean three different things, and theprice, permits, and day-to-day experience differ a lot between them.

• True waterfront. The property touches theshoreline, usually with a dock. You’ll find these on Lake Sammamish’seast shore, Pine Lake, and Beaver Lake. Frontage and views command apremium, and docks, lifts, and shoreline improvements add both lifestyleand regulatory complexity. It isn’t unusual to see a Beaver Lake listingwhere the frontage is tied to a shoreline variance.

• Deeded or HOA lake access. The home isn’t on thewater, but the owners get access through an easement or acommunity-owned park or beach. Several developments around LakeSammamish own small private parks for residents. This can be the mostaffordable way to have a dock or beach, but the details live in thelegal documents, so read them.

• Lake-adjacent. You live near the water and use thepublic parks: Pine Lake Park, Beaver Lake Park, Sammamish Landing, orthe state park. Because most of the shoreline is private, these publicaccess points are the whole story for many households.

Before you buy on or near a lake, ask about:

• The dock’s permit history, and whether it’s allowed to stay asis.

• The exact wording of any water-access easement or HOA beachrights.

• Whether the lot sits in a mapped flood area, and whether floodinsurance will be required.

• Shoreline rules that could limit a remodel, addition, or newdock.

• The lake’s own rules: Beaver Lake, for example, allows electricmotors only.

Not sure which of the three fits? Tell us how you’d use the water,and we’ll search accordingly.

Helpful links

• Cityof Sammamish Parks & Trails, for current hours, lifeguard weeks,and swimming rules

• BeaverLake Park & Lodge, including the life jacket program

• SammamishLanding Park

• WDFW:Lake Sammamish and BeaverLake, for fishing rules and access

Where they sit

Official City of Sammamish street mapannotated with callouts for Sammamish Landing on Lake Sammamish, PineLake, Beaver Lake, and Yellow Lake in Klahanie

Base map: City of Sammamish Public Works – Engineering – GIS,Sammamish Street Map (April 13, 2016). Callouts and markers added by us,plotted from real coordinates; not an official city product.

This is a supplementary post in our Why Sammamish?series.

Kelly Azzarello Real Estate | Compass 📧 kelly@kellyazzarello.com 📞(425) 830-6457 🌐 kellyazzarello.com