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Friant, CA

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San Joaquin Fish Hatchery

4.4 (25 reviews)
Closed • 7:00 am - 3:00 pm

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Loads of trout being raised
Patrick T.

A fun place to take the kids or for a cheap date. The atmosphere was quiet and tranquil. You can come and learn something about the hatchery and how they supply all the different lakes with trout. You can even feed the fish and watch them go crazy. There is a small trail for you to walk and a picnic area for you to enjoy. Looks like a place that is under utilized. It's a must visit and it's free!

Victoria K.

I had a great experience here. Since I fish for stock trout, I wanted to see the process of how they're raised. They had a section for baby trout, then the medium sized and larger trout. You can feed them too, which was the best part. They leave a bucket of fish food out for you. There's no lid on it so birds that can fit through the fence and ground squirrels will come in to eat the fish food. There's a sign where it says to only feed a handful to the fish and not to touch the water since that can affect the water.

Jennafer F.

Fun free activity to take kids/family to. Didn't see the trail wish we could have experienced it. We started at the office and the gentleman there was kind and broke down how everything worked. It's self guided which worked with my introverted side. The first raceway didn't have any food which was a bummer but we found some at the end so we were happy we got to try that. So much opportunity to bring in more people to visit.

Steps leading to trail
Lindee S.

Fun, free, and educational outing with the kids. Take extra time and visit the Small Fry Trail as well, for a very easy little trail hike with the kiddos. The hatchery has restrooms and a small grassy area with a couple of picnic tables, so you can go in the morning, and then have a little picnic lunch before heading home.

Beautiful flowers on the trail
Amber J.

I am really excited to see how this place evolves as they expand their trail to connect to Lost Lake park & as the salmon conservancy building is completed/opened to the public. We were just our for a relaxing Saturday morning drive when the large sign visible from the road intrigued us. It was still fairly early when we went (just before 9am). The Small Fry trail was absolutely adorable & clean. If you have children, they have an awesome & creative children's playground built into the nature trail. They even have a canoe that kids can sit in & pretend play in. It's not a huge play area but it's tastefully done to blend into surroundings. The trail is currently very short due to construction of the salmon conservancy but it's still pretty & well-maintained. We did not go to the fish hatchery. All the signs indicated it opened at 7am but the gates were closed so that was a little odd/unwelcoming. However, I think with the projects that are in process here, it will become a destination worth visiting for local residents.

Raul I.

Amazing little place to bring the family to and hang out for a couple hours feeding some fish. They no longer charge to get fish food from the machines so get here early to get some fish food. They only re-fill the containers twice a day and once it's done, it's done. They have several picnic tables on the property and your typical creepy state park restrooms which are clean, but still creepy. There's not much shade so I recommend bringing a hat and some sun screen. Bring the fam and enjoy feeding some fish.

Jessica H.

This place is great. I've been coming here since I was a kid. Be sure to bring quarters for fish food. There are rows and rows of fish during all stages of development. Great place to walk around at and learn more about our ecosystem and where lake fish come from. Trout is what is grown here and it is truly fun to see all the fish. They have really clean bathrooms too which is a great plus! Entrance is free.

Korina Y.

Such a neat place to visit for all ages . It's off Friant Road and Fleming Road. A brand new parking lot opened with bike parking and a map display. The new parking lots is on Friant road just before Fleming Road but there's more parking spaces down by the hatchery also. It's opened from 7:00 am to 3:00 pm daily. No fee. Clean restroom. A new trail called " Small Fry Children's Trail" opened up recently. It's really neat with all the displays. Starting 4/3/17 part of the section of San Joaquin River Parkway Trail is closed due to construction of Salmon Conservancy. There's two lots for the bus parking. My son came here with a school trip once. You can volunteer every Friday and Saturday morning to pull the weed at children's trail to keep it nice and safe.

You can park all the way to the back using the Fleming Avenue entrance. Be sure to remove your vehicle before 3 PM!

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4 months ago

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4 months ago

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2 years ago

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2 years ago

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3 years ago

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1 year ago

Best time to come here is during fall and the picnic tables barely have any shade i almost passed out and i had lots of fun feeding the fish

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3 years ago

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2 years ago

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2 years ago

I love coming here and learning about the whole process of how fish are raised. Children are especially fun to be with.

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4 years ago

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4 years ago

This is a fun place to go as a family. If you just want to get outdoors, I recommend this place. Not fancy but really fun!

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2 years ago

Very fun place to take your kids, you could feed the fish and there are so many different sizes of fish. Rainbow Trout mostly.

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8 years ago

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9 years ago

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16 years ago

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3 years ago

Amazing for kids to run around. Open space and safe to let the kids walk around and see the toddler walk thru with lots of things for kids

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11 years ago

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10 years ago

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9 years ago

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4 years ago

I take daily walks here it is wonderful I recommend it!also afterwards you can walk across the road and have a really good burger

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16 years ago

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Ask the Community - San Joaquin Fish Hatchery

Can you fish here?

You cannot fish there, this is a hatchery where they farm the fish.

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Review Highlights - San Joaquin Fish Hatchery

“There's no lid on it so birds that can fit through the fence and ground squirrels will come in to eat the fish food.”

Mentioned in 7 reviews

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Forestiere Underground Gardens - Skylight looking up from below

Forestiere Underground Gardens

4.8(634 reviews)
15.4 mi

I recently put together a fairly substantial road trip to see a bunch of California I'd never…read moreproperly explored, including a handful of stops, like this one, to see things that had gone on mental my list to see "eventually" like a decade ago, that I decided to cross off as many of as I could, at once. Honestly, I didn't entirely know what to expect - I'd seen pictures of the place, but pictures don't do the *scale* of the place justice. Indeed, having now taken the tour of what is left, the most mindboggling thing I learned about it is, by the time anyone had started working to preserve what was left, a majority of the land Forestiere had converted to his home, had long been sold to developers, who just filled it all back in. It was originally even several times larger! Anyway, the part I did already know, but it was still impressive to see in person: from ground level, it hardly looks like anything, just a standard small orchard, if that. But as soon as you descend, you can see, and *feel*, instantly why he built it. Unlike the sprawling Winchester house I originally had mentally compared it to, which was built by a rich person slowly going insane, in this case, it was built by someone with fairly modest wealth (indeed, when he started, no wealth whatsoever), just loads of time and the willingness to learn how to construct and then, for the rest of his life, continuously improve, a wonderfully air conditioned house using no electricity (it was a hundred million degrees outside the weekend we were there, and a perfect temperature once the tour started), that everything he built, was built to make it a more comfortable place for himself to live and grow citrus, as he slowly McGuyvered himself a megamansion out of nothing but primitive tools, a couple donkeys, and decades worth of time and effort. Super cool! (Well, we did learn, eventually he realized what he was building could be turned into a hotel, and had started working on that when he died. It's too bad he didn't complete it - I'd have loved to stay in that hotel!) It's even more impressive that, while it eventually turned into quite a home, he *started* digging it as a temporary fix to try to grow his citrus, after he moved to Fresno hoping to farm citrus, so when he discovered the topsoil sucked too much to grow citrus trees, he dug deeper down, planted citrus there, and built an underground citrus grove so successfully, with fruit of all shapes and sizes, that a majority are still the same citrus trees growing there now - and they look *seriously* juicy. I just wish they could sell them to us when they were ripe - I wanted to eat one! (I asked - they aren't legally allowed to sell produce to consumers themselves. Every once in a while some local business will buy produce and make snacks they can sell themselves, but mostly they just have to let the produce fall naturally and decompose back into the soil.) I wouldn't feel the need to come back now that I've seen it - it's not like anything is likely to *change* at this point (unless maybe they eventually could get a license to sell the citrus grown there?) - but it was definitely worth making the detour to see the place finally. p.s. Parking was not *nearly* as much of a big deal as I'd worried it would be. The website indicates that due to construction on the next big street over, it's street parking, so get there early. Turns out the street they said to park in, is basically a glorified alley - admittedly, we were the first tour of the day, it might get busier later, but there was *tons* of free parking. I was mostly worried about our car being broken into, being in what is now a fairly sketchy-looking neighborhood with zero foot traffic most of the time. It was fine, though, obviously.

Shoutout to Kelsey, our awesome tour guide. She walked us through the Forestiere's underground…read moregarden and spoke proudly about its history. My family came here to visit not knowing what to expect. It was a great experience learning how Forestiere built these tunnels so intentionally and with innovation. The guided tour is about 60 minutes and includes a lot of walking with some stairs, so be prepared with comfy shoes. However, there's also benches in the tunnels if you need a quick seat. The tour ends in the grand ballroom which connects to the gift shop. There you can find citrus sorbet made from the fruits of this garden. I had to give that a taste and it was sweet and zesty. I went home with some postcards to send to friends too. This place is also California State National Landmark No. 916! You must add it to your bucket list of adventures.

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Forestiere Underground Gardens
Forestiere Underground Gardens - Placing a pin in home state.

Placing a pin in home state.

Forestiere Underground Gardens

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San Joaquin Fish Hatchery - aquariums - Updated October 2026

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