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Two of Washington’s great rivers converge at Wenatchee Confluence State Park. This place connects different geologic terranes, Indigenous nations, fruit growers, packers and distributors, transportation networks, residents and visitors.

An Island In the Salish Sea

Blake Island Marine State Park, located in the heart of Puget Sound, has long been a desired getaway spot, now surrounded by the homes of millions of people.

Pacific Pines State Park provides public access to the 27-mile-long beach fronting the Pacific Ocean on the Long Beach Peninsula, a stretch of sand and storm-driven waves dedicated to public recreation.

“The wife of Shabono our interpretr we find reconsiles all the Indians, as to our friendly intentions… a woman with a party of men is a token of peace.”      --William Clark, on the Snake River, October 13, 1805

An Underground Wonderland

Crawford State Park Heritage Site preserves Gardner Cave, one of the largest limestone caverns in Washington. The cave is adorned with fantastic and delicate natural decorations that have formed over thousands of years.

Griffiths-Priday Ocean State Park is set on a wide hard-sand beach where the Copalis River empties into the Pacific Ocean. The park’s waters and sands conceal evidence of a massive earthquake that transformed the surrounding landscape.

Ike Kinswa State Park encompasses a rich history about the ways in which natural resources have been stewarded and exploited at the historic confluence of the Tilton and Cowlitz Rivers, now flooded by the reservoir behind Mayfield Dam.

Lake Lenore Caves State Park Heritage Site offers visitors a window into the formation of the Grand Coulee and the lives of people who may have spent time here thousands of years ago.

Washingtonians generally experience shock each November as the weather turns cold and wet. But, being hardy souls, we often shift quickly to embrace winter and its opportunities for snow play. Then we set out on adventures like:

Fields Spring State Park has long been a summer oasis of wildflower-filled forest and a winter paradise for snowshoers and skiers. The park occupies a corner of the Blue Mountains, rising high above the arid landscape of the Columbia Plateau below.

Joemma Beach State Park provides access to the shores of southern Puget Sound. The sinuous saltwater passageways of the South Sound, including Case Inlet in front of the park, were molded and scoured by glacial meltwaters at the close of the Pleistocene ice age.

Tolmie State Park provides access to the shores and undersea gardens of southern Puget Sound. The winding saltwater passageways of the South Sound, including Nisqually Reach in front of the park, were molded and scoured by glacial meltwaters at the close of the Pleistocene ice age.

Steamboat Rock State Park preserves spectacular features of the Columbia Plateau Ice Age Floods. The 800-foot-tall butte of Steamboat Rock, sheer cliffs, and scoured coulees are remnants of a series of flood events that completely dwarf the imagination.

Place of the Cattail Mat

Kukutali Preserve protects an island attached to the mainland by a landform called a tombolo. This connecting spit is made of sand and gravel deposited by wave action in shallow water. It is covered with scattered driftwood.

The traditional name, Kukutali, means “place of the cattail mat.”

Lewis and Clark Trail State Park lies nestled in a grove of ponderosa pine trees in the valley of the Touchet River. The park is situated along a pathway used for thousands of years to connect the foothills of the Rocky Mountains with the salmon highway of the Columbia River.

Schafer State Park preserves the craftsmanship of Depression Era park facilities and provides a window into the story of the Satsop River Valley, dominated by the vast timber harvest operations that were undertaken in its rich forest land beginning in the early 20th Century.

Alta Lake State Park is located on the shores of an unusual body of water. Its namesake lake, perched 1,166 feet above sea level inside a meandering trench between the Methow and Chelan valleys, has no visible inlet or outlet.