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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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.
McMicken Island is so small, you could easily miss it. But boaters who love Puget Sound would not want to miss it. This small state park, in the fold of Harstine Island, is only reachable by boat. Low tide allows you to walk across a tombolo to and from Harstine Island for a few hours each day.
An oasis that many locals have yet to discover, Helen McCabe is a small wayside park at the northern entrance to the Yakima Canyon Scenic Byway, near the intersection of Interstates 90 and 82 in central Washington State.
OLYMPIA – April 5, 2022 – As a member of the Washington Clean Coast Alliance, the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission will participate in this year's Washington Coast Cleanup.
The event will take place from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, April 23.
Application period closes May 10
OLYMPIA – April 20, 2023 – The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission (Parks) will establish a statewide Scenic Bikeways program. As part of that effort, the agency will establish an advisory task force to work with agency staff throughout the development and implementation of this new program.
Learn about the fauna of Harstine Island and the tracks they make with a lively game of Bingo! All ages welcome.
Test your boating knowledge and try to win a prize! Trivia questions are designed for ages 12 and up.
Tuesday, June 10th from 10AM-2PM: We will meet across the street from the Bear Creek Lodge at the entrance to Mt. Spokane State Park and work on sanding and staining the bridge near the old tubing hill!
OLYMPIA – Gov. Jay Inslee has appointed Scott Merriman of Thurston County as the newest member of the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission.
…a seacoast fortification may be said to have most efficiently performed the function for which it was intended, if it is never called into action at all.
-Eben Eveleth Winslow, US Army Corps of Engineers
Clayton Beach access trail closes Nov. 1 until late spring of 2023
OLYMPIA – Oct. 27, 2022 – Larrabee State Park is getting an exciting renovation this winter that will significantly improve safety and access to Clayton Beach.
State Parks is building a new bridge over the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railroad track, which, supported by a new trail reconfiguration, will provide safe passage between this popular beach and the Lost Lake parking lot.
Doe Island Marine State Park preserves an entire island along the southeastern coastline of Orcas Island in the San Juan Archipelago. It takes its name from the prevalence of deer in the area—nearby place names include Doe Bay, Deer Point and Buck Bay.
A Rocky Island
The San Juan Islands are distinct from most of Puget Sound in that they feature shorelines with exposures of hard bedrock, rather than the bluffs of clay, sand and gravel left by Ice Age glaciers that are predominant on most of Washington’s Salish Sea, the state’s inland saltwater passages.
Learn to identify common crabs of Washington!
OLYMPIA — The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission invites the public to nominate winter sports enthusiasts for the agency’s snowmobile advisory committee. Three positions are available statewide to snowmobilers, and one is available statewide to individuals involved in non-motorized winter sports.
OLYMPIA – Washington State Parks’ Folk and Traditional Arts Program (FTAP) announces its lineup of concerts and festivals this spring and summer, including the popular Waikiki Beach concerts at Cape Disappointment and the longstanding American Roots concerts at Deception Pass.
Monticello Convention State Park Heritage Site commemorates two meetings attended by Euro-American men that helped set in motion the establishment of the Washington Territory.
Despite the fact that the territory had fewer than 4,000 settlers, the petitions ultimately succeeded in influencing the passage of legislation establishing the Territory of Washington, approved by President Millard Fillmore on March 2, 1853.
The Boring Volcanic Field
Battle Ground Lake is a part of a geologic formation called the Boring Volcanic Field (named for the town of Boring, OR), but the stories revealed in its bedrock are actually quite interesting!
Forest thinning project will reduce wildfire risk to Roslyn, Cle-Elum
OLYMPIA – May 12, 2022 – Washington State Parks will begin work to thin approximately 90 acres on the Bullfrog State Park Property near Cle Elum this month. The hired contractor will remove smaller, weaker and less fire tolerant trees to reduce fuel loads and promote fire tolerant species. The project will return the forest to historic site conditions and improve the health of remaining trees by reducing competition.
Planners will discuss facility improvements at Blake Island Marine State Park
OLYMPIA – April 20, 2022 – Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission invites the public to a hybrid in-person and virtual public meeting on Bainbridge Island to learn more about planned facility improvements at neighboring Blake Island Marine State Park.
OLYMPIA – Feb. 22, 2022 – This month, Gov. Jay Inslee appointed Holly Williams of Vancouver as the newest member of the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission.
Ebey’s Landing State Park Heritage Site is situated at a point where tall bluffs of ice age glacial outwash that ring most of Whidbey Island gently lower to the sea, affording easy access from the saltwater beach to the open prairies of the island’s interior. People have lived here for more than 10,000 years. It is among the most culturally significant settings in the Pacific Northwest.
Steptoe Battlefield State Park Heritage Site preserves a significant site in the running battle that occurred on May 17, 1858, between allied Indigenous warriors under the leadership of Chief Kamiakin (Yakama/ Palús) and US Army soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Edward J. Steptoe. The battle was a significant victory for the Indigenous warriors in their drive to protect their way of life against the incursion of American colonists into their homelands.
OLYMPIA — The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission is seeking applications from winter sports enthusiasts for the agency’s snowmobile and non-motorized advisory committees. Five positions are available statewide to snowmobilers, and two are available statewide to individuals involved in non-motorized winter sports.
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.