Tuolumne River Salmon Run in La Grange: New Habitat and Bridge Updates

On Friday, September 4, an excavator lifted one last bucket of gravel from the bank of the Tuolumne River at La Grange. Then the crew stopped the machines and watched the water fill a quarter-mile of channel that hadn't existed a season earlier. Yosemite Rivers Alliance, the group that built it, says people cheered and a few got emotional. That makes sense once you know what the channel is for. Fall-run Chinook salmon spawn on the Tuolumne from early October into January. This is the first run with that new bend of gravel waiting for it.

The river is ready for the fish. The two places most of us would walk out to look for them are not. Basso Bridge and Old La Grange Bridge have been closed since February 24, 2026, and Stanislaus County expects repairs on both to run to the end of October. For anyone hoping to watch salmon from the bridges this year, the season starts later than the fish do.

What went into the river this summer

The new channel is part of a project with a long name. Its current phase is listed with the Wildlife Conservation Board as the La Grange Salmonid Habitat Restoration, Phase 2a. It sits inside a broader effort called the Basso La Grange Reach Floodplain Restoration and Spawning Habitat Project, along the river about 50 river miles above where the Tuolumne meets the San Joaquin.

In one summer, crews dug the new meander, graded the banks and a new floodplain, and laid clean spawning gravel in the channel. Several acres of that floodplain are slated for replanting with native trees, shrubs, and wetland plants.

The bare cobble banks along this reach have a local history. A 1960s-era aerial of the site shows mining tailings piled along the river, which had been pushed north into a narrow path. Those tailings were later scraped up and hauled off as material for the New Don Pedro Dam, leaving the cobble-armored banks behind. Restoration Director Julia Stephens pulled up that aerial the morning the new channel was connected. Some of the gravel in the dam upstream came off this stretch of river. Now crews have put gravel back.

The partner list is long. The Union Democrat named FlowWest, Applied River Sciences, Triangle Land Restoration, the Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians, Stanislaus Fly Fishers, the Merced-Tuolumne Salmon Alliance, the Upper Merced Watershed Council, Stanislaus County Parks and Recreation, and participating landowners. The same report put total awards for the first two phases at roughly $8.5 million since 2020. The Alliance credits Phase 2a funding to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, CDFW's Office of Spill Prevention and Response, and the Wildlife Conservation Board.

Why a quarter-mile matters on a run this size

A quarter-mile of gravel sounds modest until you set it against how many fish actually come back.

The Alliance says the fish that make it this far upriver find long, straight stretches with little gravel for spawning and not much healthy habitat for young fish. When a year's return is counted in the hundreds, a new spawning riffle near town is a real share of the usable spawning ground.

One more number shows the river can surprise people. On July 16, 2025, Turlock Irrigation District counted 1,154 spring-run Chinook across nine pools, and its biologists estimated that group could top 1,500. TID described those fish as experimental hatchery strays from the San Joaquin River Restoration Program that found cold water on the Tuolumne. They are a separate run from the fall fish arriving now. Still, that one summer count was more than double the 2022 fall estimate.

The bridges that usually do the viewing

Both bridges are old timber crossings the county turned into footbridges decades ago. Basso Bridge, off Highway 132 west of town, was built in 1911 and became pedestrian-only in 1987. Old La Grange Bridge dates to around 1914 and closed to cars in 1989. The county specifically notes that the area around Old La Grange Bridge has been the focus of habitat restoration work for trout and salmon spawning.

A 2024 inspection by Consor, with the final report delivered in April 2025, found problems serious enough for the county to declare an emergency.

• Old La Grange Bridge, 560 feet and 14 spans. The timber cap at Bent 10 has fully failed, several columns show advanced decay, and the railing has missing rails and posts.
• Basso Bridge, 357 feet and 4 spans. Stringer 14 has fully failed, the bearing areas at the east abutment and Pier 2 are sagging, and the railing is rated poor.

The county's September 29 update says contractor Myers & Sons has replaced two deteriorated wooden spans on the east approach and finished the wooden handrail repairs at Basso. Concrete deck placement was scheduled for the week of September 21, with final paving the week of September 28. After Basso, the crew moves to Old La Grange Bridge. So Basso is the one most likely to reopen first.

Reading the fall calendar from the river

Put the river dates and the repair dates side by side and the season looks like this:

1. Now through October. Spawning gets underway in early October, and CDFW's Tuolumne carcass survey usually starts the first week of the month. Both bridges stay closed while the work moves from Basso to Old La Grange.
2. October 13. County staff report to the Board of Supervisors on the emergency repairs, and again every 14 days after that. Those agenda items are the most reliable way to track reopening.
3. October 31. This is the last day of Basso's fishing season, which runs January 1 through October 31. The county also expects all bridge work to be done by the end of October.
4. November 1. The river closes to fishing for the salmon run. At Fox Grove downstream, the county lists the closure as November 1 through December 31.
5. November 6. Yosemite Rivers Alliance and the River Management Society have listed "Paddle with the Salmon," an intermediate-level guided trip on the lower Tuolumne, set to run from 9 to 3 with kayaks and guides provided. Registration hadn't opened yet, and the page asks people to fill out an interest form.

If the repair schedule holds, the bridges reopen right around the time the fishing season ends. From then on, the river through La Grange belongs to the spawning fish and the people watching them.

"End of October" is a forecast, though, so check the county's latest update before you drive out. The closure covers the bridge structures. County community parks keep day-use hours of 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., but the county hasn't said whether every riverbank path near the bridges is open during the work. When Basso does reopen, the site has a parking lot, restrooms, an informal boat launch, a gravel beach, trails, picnic tables, and ADA-accessible amenities.

Paddlers have one more access point to know about. CDFW identifies a controlled nonmotorized boat-access path upstream of Old La Grange Bridge on river left. No public overlook of the new meander has been confirmed. The work sits on a mix of private and public land, so the only sure way to see the new channel is a site tour, which the Alliance offers by arrangement.

Don't plan on Turlock Lake State Recreation Area as a backup this year. It's closed, and State Parks says it may reopen as soon as summer 2027.

I've watched this stretch of the Tuolumne for a long time, and seeing gravel go back into ground that once fed the Don Pedro dam is one of the good stories of this fall. If you're curious which river-access spots near La Grange are reopening, or want to compare notes on the season, I'd be glad to hear from you. Elaine Hogan is always happy to talk about the river. Let's Connect.