Allentown Fish Hatchery

A really nice midsize park with fishing and a fish hatchery. Walking trails are very nice and there is plenty of parking. We went for about 45 minutes and it was very nice and well populated on a holiday. We liked the birds and out buildings too.

I’d say the hatchery is a great place to visit for any age. My husband and I took our two year old son, and we all enjoyed ourselves immensely. There was a camp group there (elementary-​school-​aged kids), some other parents with toddlers, and a couple of teens. And no one looked bored.
The white building in the right rear area of the property is where you can go to buy food if you’d like to feed the fish. It’s free to park and walk around if you prefer to just do that, but it’s a lot of fun to feed the trout as well. There are a few different sizes of bags, priced at 50 cents or one, two, or five dollars. We bought a dollar bag and it was more than enough for all three of us.
There’s a covered pavilion with picnic tables in the back as well as some picnic tables on the lawn shaded by trees. I would eat first if you bring a lunch because the food makes your hands smell pretty rough. We used baby wipes before getting back in the car and I could still smell it a little bit.
There are hiking trails as well, but we didn’t check those out so I can’t say how good they are… but if they’re as beautiful and well-​kept as the rest of the property (not a speck of trash, which was so refreshing to see!) then they’re probably pretty nice.
All in all, this is an excellent place to visit. We’ll probably return later in the summer; we all had a great time.

What a cool place! We were looking for something to do on our way home from the Poconos and found this place. Our four kids loved it, although my ten year old was grumpy at first when I told him where we were going. His mood quickly changed when we arrived. We were able to purchase fish food from the white house in the back of the property. There are also restrooms on site, but please note even though it looks like a normal restroom it’s really just a huge portapotty. After buying the fish food (very cheap – spent $ 3 and that was enough for 6 of us to feed them for a while) we looked at the various taxidermied animals – the man working there was a great sport as my six year old asked him a million questions. We then made our way around to the numerous open areas where we could feed the fish. I had no idea these trout would actually jump out of the water for the food – it was fun to watch and all the kids got a kick out of it. We come up this way a few times a year and will definitely revisit – it’s something different to do and buying the food from them helps support their cause.

Just spent 6 hours at the Fish Hatchery!!! How is that even possible you may ask? Well, when you have a 3 and 4 year old and a pocket full of $ 1s the day is never ending! Feeding the fish is great, but the picnic pavilion overlooking the river, the well-​maintained trails, the abundant wildlife… this is just about kid heaven. And we totally went overboard spending a whopping $ 7 for the whole day! ;-) Great times!

It’s definitley cool! Every kid who grew up in the Lehigh Valley went to the fish hatchery on a school field trip. Amazing how they can get so many fish in one pool. Feed ‘em and watch the madness!!!

A nice place to visit if you are in the area with your kids. (My kids are 8 and 5) The hatchery is free of charge. The primary attraction is feeding the trout. The fish are very active when being fed, the kids will be amazed. Worth a quick stop.

I enjoy taking my kids here to look at and feed the fish. Picnic tables and benches are around. It’s a nice free thing to do on a nice day out. If you wanna feed the fish they sell 50cent dollar and 2 dollar bags of food. But def bring some hand sanitizer bc the fish food smell is awful.

Smelled like fish

Can’t really add anything terribly witty to the prior posts except that unless you go during the summer when the «white house» is open everyday or on the weekend when it’s open during the off-​season the vending machines with the fish food will probably be unplugged/​not working so you will not be able to feed anything.

This is a fantastic place to bring you kids a date or to go by yourself! I have been coming here since I was a kid and now i bring my son here. We love feeding the fish and walking. They have a nice path you can follow. You can buy food on the back right side of the park. If the shop isn’t open, there is a really old vending machine that has been there for at least 25 years and still works! There is lots of open space and a few picnic tables so picnic away! Sometimes you can see guys fishing when you come and that is a nice bonus, just be quiet so you don’t scare their fish away!

I’ll be honest… I think I enjoy this place moreso than the kids. There is not very much more to cover than the previous four entries. The parking is spacious, and even when there are 60 people there… it does not feel crowded at all.
The hatchery actually called the «Lil — Le — Hi Trout Hatchery»…and from what I’ve been told is the oldest, continuously operating trout nursery in the nation. It is surrounded by plenty of park property… many enjoy the area for other forms of recreation. At the fish hatchery itself though, there are plenty of holding tanks as they are raising trout for sale to places that stock trout and the local creek nearby.
Food can be purchased inside the white house on the FAR side of the holding tanks from the parking lot, or at a vending machine right next to it (Note: bring quarters as once in a while I’ve had problems finding a dollar bill it accepts). If you catch the hatchery at a time when the white house (which is the HQ for the group at runs it), you can actually see some pretty need animals that have been through the taxidermy process… and the retired guys hanging out in there are extremely friendly and want you to enjoy the park.
Listen…the whole thing can be an entirely free experience, but take 2 bucks along and let the kid in you shine as you see fish topple over one another eating the fish food you throw in. It really is a good time and brings back childhood memories (oh…and it’s open 365… an easy way to get out on a cold winter day for even just a few minutes if you want)

A fun place to spend some time, and it’s educational as well. It was neat to see all those trout swimming around in the tanks. You can visit a little store and buy food to feed them, or plunk some change in a vending machine to get the food. For $ 2.00 you can buy a nice size bag of food, and you can even buy a $ 5.00 bag which could last all day. There is also a soda machine, which looks like it’s broken and from the 1980’s, but amazingly it works. There is a nice park nearby and an Indian Museum. Check it out.
Note: The fish food will make your hands smell, so bring some wipes to help get the oils off of your hands when done feeding the fish.

Aww this is a nice place to go for some relaxing time. My dad used to take me here back when I was in grade school, and we would always have fun feeding the little fishies.
There’s also a huge park adjacent from the hatchery, so check that out too! Great walking/​biking paths!

The Trout Nursery is a BLAST, in an understated, old fashioned fun way. If you want to amuse small children, take them here. As long as you keep throwing the fish food in the pools, the thrills will keep coming. You can feed them slow, one pellet at a time, or dump the whole bag in at once and witness a literal feeding frenzy.
The previous reviewer is right about the whole experience. Afterward you can go to the nearby Museum of Indian Culture, or walk along the Little Lehigh Parkway until you reach the red covered bridge. Cool.

The fish hatchery is the most underrated tourist attraction in all of Allentown. It’s a trout farm which raises the fish to stock the Little Lehigh River. Trout farm, Julie? Fun? Oh trust me.
You pull into the lot and there’s usually no one there, neither ranger nor tourist. Walk over to the big cement pools of fish roiling and rumbling around each other. It’s incredible. Keep on walking to the vending machines in the back where 50 cents or a dollar buys you a bag of fish food. Throw a handful of little fish pellets into the ponds and watch the fish FREAK OUT. I did this as a child and it still makes me squeal like a little girl. You can do it over and over and the fish freak and then you freak and it’s fabulous. The fish have different colors and sizes. There are some big old granddaddies in a pond in the back.
Everyone I’ve ever brought there thinks it’s one of the coolest thing to do in the area, and all of them were over the age of 30. Kids? Forget it. They’ll love it. They’ll want to be marine biologists. It’s part of Lehigh Parkway too, so you can go for a picturesque walk afterwards. Turns out Fish Hatchery Road is not just the name of a road!