Last checked: 24 August 2026
Wildfire, smoke and closures change faster than any travel guide can keep up with. So we keep the current picture here, in one place, and our guides point at this page instead of trying to hold a status that goes stale a week after it publishes.
This page tells you where we would and would not send someone right now. It does not report fire sizes or containment percentages. Those numbers are unreliable in every free source we tested, and they are not what you need in order to decide whether to go. Everything here carries a date, and every source we use is linked at the foot so you can check for yourself.
A statewide burn ban runs through 30 September 2026
Governor Ferguson declared a statewide emergency on 1 August 2026, and the proclamation bans most outdoor burning through 30 September.
What it stops: yard debris burning, trash disposal, land clearing, weed abatement, bonfires, and campfires that are not contained in a structure such as a fire ring.
What it still allows, and this is the part most people get wrong: liquid fuel and gas stoves and grills, used over a non flammable surface and at least five feet from anything that will burn. And campfires contained in a fire ring or fire pit at state, county and municipal parks and campgrounds, or on private property.
So a campfire in the ring at your state park campsite is not banned by the proclamation. What the proclamation does not do is override anything stricter. The Department of Natural Resources, the national forests, and individual counties and parks can all go further, and several have. DNR protected land, including DNR campgrounds, sits under its own restrictions. Check the place you are actually going before you light anything, using the DNR Burn Portal.
This section expires on 30 September 2026. After that date, treat it as out of date until we have replaced it.
Where we would and would not go right now
Our read, as of 24 August 2026. Towns and businesses in every region below are open and want visitors. What changes by region is whether the outdoors people travel here for is reachable.
| Region | Our read | What we would tell a friend |
|---|---|---|
| Olympic Peninsula and the Pacific coast | Go | The most reliable corner of the state this month. Clear air, and no fire closures we are aware of. |
| Puget Sound, Seattle and the islands | Go | Air has been good on onshore flow. Nothing fire related in the way. |
| South Cascades and Mount Rainier | Go, with one check | There is a small fire in the park’s north east corner and another in the Gifford Pinchot, and neither closes the main routes. Check the park’s alert page for the trailhead you want. |
| Snoqualmie Pass, Cle Elum and the Alpine Lakes | Check before you go, and this changed recently | Three fires opened in this corridor over the weekend of 22 August. It was safe ground a week ago and it is not a safe assumption now. Separately, Gold Creek Pond is closed and will be for years, for a restoration project rather than a fire. |
| North Cascades and the Highway 20 corridor | Check before you go | Active fires in the back country either side of the highway. |
| Leavenworth, Lake Wenatchee, Chelan and Entiat | Avoid for now, and this is the hard one | This is the part of Washington most people build a September trip around. A Forest Service closure order across the Wenatchee River and Entiat ranger districts runs to 31 October and has closed more than sixty trails, which covers the whole of September. The towns are open. The trails, lakes and passes people come for are largely not. |
| Methow Valley, Winthrop, Twisp and Okanogan | Avoid for now | Large active fires, and a federal disaster declaration covering the county. |
| Spokane and the north east | Mostly back | Riverside State Park partially reopened on 14 August, including the Bowl and Pitcher suspension bridge, which came through untouched. Parts of the park remain closed, so check which section you want before you drive. |
| Yakima Valley, Walla Walla and the south east | Check before you go | A fire opened near Toppenish on 22 August and grew quickly. Walla Walla’s air is coming off fires burning across the Oregon line in the Blue Mountains. |
Closures we know about by name
- Okanogan Wenatchee National Forest. A closure order across the Wenatchee River and Entiat ranger districts, 1 August to 31 October 2026, covering more than sixty trails. Orders can be lifted earlier than their end date, so check rather than assume.
- Ingalls Lake, Esmeralda Basin and Longs Pass, Cle Elum ranger district. A fire closure order covering the Three Queens, King and Goat fires shuts Ingalls Way, Esmeralda Basin, Longs Pass and a long list of upper Cle Elum River trails and campgrounds through 31 October 2026. Verified 1 September 2026.
- Gold Creek Pond, Cle Elum ranger district. Closed since 4 May 2026 for a multi year restoration project. Not fire related, and not reopening soon.
- Riverside State Park, Spokane. Partially reopened 14 August 2026. Some areas remain closed.
This is not a complete list, and we will not pretend it is. Nobody publishes a single closure list for Washington. If a particular trail matters to your trip, check it at the source.
Smoke and air
The pattern right now is the reverse of earlier in the month. Western Washington is mostly clear on onshore flow, and the smoke sits east and north central, at its worst near the fires and around Walla Walla.
This is the weakest thing on this page, and we would rather say so than let you assume otherwise. The state smoke blog publishes every few days rather than daily, and air can turn in an afternoon. Check AirNow for the day you are travelling.
Air last checked: 20 August 2026, Washington Smoke Blog.
Check it yourself
This section works even when everything above it has gone stale. If the dates on this page look old, come straight here.
- Watch Duty for active fires. The fastest and most complete source we found.
- AirNow for air quality by reporting area.
- Washington Smoke Blog for the smoke outlook and what it means.
- Washington DNR wildfire portal for official state fire information.
- DNR Burn Portal for burn restrictions in a specific place.
- Forest Service Pacific Northwest alerts for closure orders, forest by forest.
- Washington State Parks alerts for park by park closures.
- WSDOT mountain passes for road and pass conditions.
- Washington Trails Association trip reports for what hikers actually found this week.
How we keep this page
We check it weekly, and again before we publish anything with a date on it. If a section above shows a date more than a week old, treat it as a starting point and use the links in Check It Yourself. We would rather send you to the source than have you trust a page that has quietly stopped being true.
- About the Author
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Explore Washington State has been covering the real Washington for more than a decade. State parks, small towns, back roads, rest stops, and the people who make this place worth exploring. What started as a hyperlocal project covering individual communities grew into a full media project with more than 340 podcast episodes, a weekly newsletter with over 5,300 subscribers, and coverage of all 146 Washington State Parks. The content here comes from people who have actually been to these places: locals, regulars, and lifelong Washington residents who care more about getting it right than getting clicks.