The Parks headquarters Information Center is moving from its current location in Tumwater to the Department of Ecology building at 300 Desmond Drive SE in Lacey. Our customer service team is located at the front desk, just inside the main entrance.
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Who are some of the fine-feathered friends who call Battle Ground Lake home? Join us to learn about them.
Washington State Parks, in partnership with the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust, will create improved in-stream habitat along the lower 6,000 feet of Issaquah Creek that flows through Lake Sammamish State Park. The result will be an environment that is more hospitable to Chinook and other salmon species, where they can migrate, spawn and survive.
Hike Options
1.5 Lake Trail – Open to all ages
Meet at the Legacy Pavilion at 1pm. The hike will begin there and will go around the lake, 1.5 miles. The trail can be slippery and muddy, so rain/mud boots are heavily recommended.
Forest Bathing Stroll
Forest bathing, or shinrin-yoku, is a Japanese practice of immersing in nature for health and wellness benefits. The hike will begin at the Legacy Pavilion. The walk is a gentle easy stroll through the park and group camp.
.5 Mile Kids Hike
Our kids hike begins at the legacy pavilion. The group will be led by staff over the bridge and up through group camp and back toward the dam and back to the legacy pavilion. Along the way plant species and little critters will be discussed.
1.5 Lake Trail – Open to all ages
Meet at the Legacy Pavilion at 1pm. The hike will begin there and will go around the lake, 1.5 miles. The trail can be slippery and muddy, so rain/mud boots are heavily recommended.
Forest Bathing Stroll
Forest bathing, or shinrin-yoku, is a Japanese practice of immersing in nature for health and wellness benefits. The hike will begin at the Legacy Pavilion. The walk is a gentle easy stroll through the park and group camp.
.5 Mile Kids Hike
Our kids hike begins at the legacy pavilion. The group will be led by staff over the bridge and up through group camp and back toward the dam and back to the legacy pavilion. Along the way plant species and little critters will be discussed.
Formed by Glacial Meltwaters
Pearrygin Lake owes its existence to a quirk in the timing of melting glaciers. At the close of the Pleistocene ice age around 13,000 years ago, the huge Methow Valley glacier responsible for deepening the U-shaped Methow Valley persisted later than the tongues of ice that had flowed into the Chewack River Valley from a giant ice cap centered in today’s British Columbia.
Enjoy a 2-hour guided snowshoe hike.
OLYMPIA – Lake Sylvia State Park will close June 10 through Sept. 30 for an improvement project at the park’s entrance.
The $2.9 million Capital project will replace a culvert beneath the entrance road with a bridge and a new road. The new bridge will provide safer and more sustainable infrastructure to the park’s entrance, particularly in heavy rain events.
Join the Wenatchee Valley Astronomy Club under the stars where they will answer your deepest cosmic questions, dive into the depths of the cosmos, explore our small harmonious Solar System, and massive chaotic celestial objects.
OLYMPIA – Lake Wenatchee State Park has acquired a new Fixed Frame Beach Wheelchair that allows visitors with mobility needs to access the park’s sandy lakeshore. The chair’s large, wide wheels make it more stable and maneuverable in soft, shifting sand and uneven terrain.
Join us at the Sun Lakes-Dry Falls Amphitheater for an Interpretive program about bats.
As you enter Sun Lakes-Dry Falls, you may feel like you’re on another planet. The park is surrounded by one of Washington’s most striking and historically significant landscapes.
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.
This social camping park pulses with life in the summer. Generations of families return to the blue lake every year; they even try to book the same campsite they've used since the 1960s and '70s. But, while they'll jockey online for their favorite spot, veteran Chelan-goers happily share this gem with first-timers, and many lifelong friendships begin there.
Visitors will see intermittent closures on three trails this summer
ISSAQUAH – Beginning this week, visitors will see construction activity on lower Issaquah Creek at Lake Sammamish State Park.
Enjoy the 1-mile forested hike around the lake to learn how it was formed and developed, and about the native plants and animals that call the park home. The perfect shady outdoor activity for a warm summer morning.
OLYMPIA – May 3, 2022 – On May 1, Washington State Parks began managing more than 15 recreation sites owned by Avista Utilities. The properties sit around the Spokane River, Nine Mile Dam, Lake Spokane and Long Lake Dam.
According to a new five-year agreement, State Parks will operate the Avista sites as part of Riverside State Park. The land parcels, which total 2,000 acres, include six trailheads, two water access sites, two overlooks,10 boat-in campsites and one picnic area on Lake Spokane.
The trailheads are:
Gather with us at the Upper Campground Amphitheater for ranger-led talks about the park, complete with a cozy campfire—weather and fire conditions permitting!
Join us at the Sun Lakes-Dry Falls Amphitheater to learn about owls!
"Whoo" knows what you will hear and learn...
"Whoo" knows what you will hear and learn...
Come on out and camp in Schafer's new campground, join the park's centennial commemoration event and do some fishing.
"Its grim black walls of basalt frown across a broken chain of linear lakes, some of them as wide as the coulee floor ….. potholes a hundred feet deep in rock, dry cataracts one hundred to four hundred feet high, and river bars one hundred to two hundred feet thick … under the present semiarid climate it lies naked of forest mantle, every detail of its form clearly displayed." -J Harlen Bretz, Geologist
What do all fish have in common besides being water dwellers? That's the thousand-dollar question that will be answered. Plus, learn the specifics of fishing at Battle Ground Lake.
Join Friends of Lake Sammamish State Park as we learn how to find art while walking…even if you don’t think you’re an artist!
OLYMPIA – March 7, 2023 – Lake Sammamish State Park is one of the most popular parks in the Seattle area for families and communities to come together and enjoy a dose of nature near the city. That's why, in just a few weeks, the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission plans to begin work on several improvements and upgrades that will revitalize the Sunset Beach area.
Plan your winter adventures with help from our winter schedule. Learn about scheduled winter closures for campgrounds, boat launches and day-use areas in Washington state parks.
Concessionaires offer many services that State Parks cannot, in most cases, provide. Concessions range from food service and campground stores to recreational equipment rentals, equestrian experiences, guided tours and glamping.
What do Battle Ground Lake and Mount St. Helen's have in common? They were both formed by volcanoes! Learn what survived during the 1980 Mount St. Helen's eruption and nature's amazing recovery.