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Same-day reservations program expands across Washington
OLYMPIA – June 6, 2024 – Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission (Parks) is excited to announce its same-day reservation pilot program has expanded to 26 parks across the state.
OLYMPIA – Dec. 13, 2021 – The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission will hold a special commission meeting on Tues., Dec. 14. The purpose of this special meeting is for the Commission to establish the qualifications for the initial screening of applicants for the State Parks director position and to delegate authority or take other actions in the discretion of the Commission for the director recruitment and hiring process.
“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
OLYMPIA — The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission welcomes Lourdes E. Alvarado-Ramos (Alfie), its newest member, to the Commission.
The Commission is made up of seven citizen members appointed by the governor. Commissioners are responsible for guiding the policies that steer the agency. Other duties include approving the agency’s strategic plan, setting Parks budget priorities and approving changes to Parks-related Washington Administrative Code.
Restored bridge closes major gap in 285-mile Palouse to Cascades Trail
OLYMPIA – April 4, 2022 – Washington State Parks invites the public to join community leaders, trail enthusiasts, public lands agencies and elected officials for the grand opening of the refurbished Beverly Bridge.
Skagit Island Marine State Park is a delightfully pristine small island located in Skagit County near Deception Pass.
Rock From Spreading Tectonic Plates
The bedrock that makes up Skagit Island is part of a larger assemblage of rocks that outcrop on nearby islands and collectively make up an ophiolite sequence, a distinctive formation of rocks formed where the sea floor has spread apart at a tectonic plate boundary.
Stuart Island Marine State Park is a favorite boating destination with an interesting convergence of personal histories.
Sediments and Folds
The rocks that make up Stuart Island are made of siltstone and sandstone that formed from sediments deposited by river deltas and massive underwater landslides on the sea floor about 75 million years ago, at a location hundreds of miles south of today’s Stuart Island. Geologists call this formation the Nanaimo Group.
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.
A visitor to Old Ruby State Park Heritage Site is likely to find themselves alone among tall ponderosa pines gently swaying in the breeze. But if one could travel back in time to the late 1800s, there would have been a bustling town with a population of more than 1,000 on the site. Ruby City was one of the most consequential silver mining locations in the history of Washington, and its development generated intense excitement just as Washington became the 42nd state in the United States.
Long-term contract with concessionaire Argosy Cruises comes to an end
OLYMPIA – Dec. 13, 2021 – The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission announced that Tillicum Excursion at Blake Island Marine State Park will close. Argosy Cruises, the concessionaire that operated Tillicum Excursion (formerly known as Tillicum Village) made the difficult decision to opt out of their long-standing contract with Parks due to challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park preserves a swath of semi-arid shrub-steppe in central Washington that hides a secret. Buried within the gravelly and sandy soils of the park’s landscape are remnants of an ancient forest, turned to stone by a fortunate convergence of geologic events.
Flood Basalts and Lahars
Ginkgo Petrified Forest lies near the western margin of the Columbia River Basalt Group, a geologic formation made up of hundreds of distinct lava flows that flooded over 80,000 square miles of Washington and Oregon.
OLYMPIA – Oct. 5, 2022 – Washington State Parks will hold a public open house to hear from the community and answer questions about the Miller Peninsula State Park Property.
The open house is scheduled for Oct. 18, 2022 from 6-7:30 p.m. and will be held at the Blynn-Bay meeting space located inside the 7 Cedars Hotel in Sequim.
Programs are offered in-person and virtually
OLYMPIA – Oct. 12, 2021 – Washington State Parks offers unique learning opportunities for children and students in person and virtually throughout the year.
Twenty-Five Mile Creek State Park lies at the farthest uplake point accessible by road on Lake Chelan, just about midway from its toe in the sun-kissed rain shadow of central Washington to its head among the ramparts of the North Cascades.
OLYMPIA — The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission will hold a virtual work session on May 21.
Commission meeting agenda items include a financial update, a presentation on the current 2025-2027 budget outlook, a look at the 2026 operating supplemental budget request, a legislative update and a discussion of Commission priorities.
OLYMPIA — The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission will hold in-person-only planning meetings on Dec. 10 and 11 at its headquarters in Tumwater.
Commission planning meeting agenda items for Dec. 10 include a 2024 review presented by Commission Chair Sophia Danenberg, highlights from each Parks division presented by the agency’s Executive Leadership team and budget and priorities planning.