Washington Travel Conditions

Refreshed 4 November 2026. Each section below carries its own verified date, and where we could not verify a section today it says so.

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.

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The statewide burn ban ended on 30 September 2026

Governor Ferguson declared a statewide wildfire emergency on 1 August 2026, and his proclamation banned most outdoor burning until noon on 30 September. That statewide ban has now ended. Fire season is not over, though: counties, cities and fire districts can keep bans of their own, and King County and Seattle kept theirs in place through 1 October. Check with your local fire department before you burn anything at home.

For camping, what matters now is the rule of the place you are going. Most state parks, national parks and campgrounds still set their own fire rules, and those are below.

Washington State Parks, read at the agency on 4 November 2026. The alerts page says a burn ban is in effect at all Washington State Parks at all times, with most camping parks at Level 1 or higher year round, and each park posts its own level on its own page, so read the one you are going to. Level 2 allows a wood fire in a fire pit in a designated area, with gas and propane allowed and charcoal possibly restricted. Level 3 allows gas and propane stoves and gas and propane fire pits and allows no charcoal or wood fire. We read Deception Pass (posted 14 September) and Lake Chelan (posted 25 September) at Level 2 on their own pages on 4 November. The alerts page of 4 November also posts Level 2 for Pearrygin Lake (posted 25 September) and Palouse Falls State Park Heritage Site (posted 28 May). Riverside posts Level 1 on its own page, read 4 November, which allows fires in designated fire pits and grills, with propane and gas grills allowed. We did not re read the Mount Spokane page this run, so check its level before you go. Potholes State Park posts two levels on the alerts page, posted 2 October: Level 2 at the O’Sullivan site, where wood fires are allowed only in designated fire rings, and Level 3 at Perch Point, where no wood or charcoal fires are allowed. The Hope Island Marine State Park (Skagit County) entry on the alerts page, read 4 November 2026, says no fires are permitted at any time. Parks differ from one another, so do not assume every park matches the rest. We did not re read the other parks we listed on 28 September on their own pages this run, so treat their level as unconfirmed until you read their pages. National parks. Mount Rainier: the park’s alerts page, read 4 November 2026, lists a wildfire closures alert that the park posted on 19 October for Sunrise and the northern trails, described below. We could not verify the parkwide fire ban on 4 November 2026. Check Mount Rainier National Park directly: Mount Rainier alerts and conditions. North Cascades: we could not verify this on 4 November 2026. Check North Cascades National Park directly: North Cascades alerts and conditions. Olympic: the park’s alerts page, read 4 November 2026 and updated 3 November, lists no fire ban among its current alerts and points to a separate fire conditions page instead of stating the rule, so we could not verify this on 4 November 2026. It does list the Elwha and Olympic Hot Springs Road as closed to vehicles at Madison Falls and open to walkers and cyclists. Check Olympic National Park directly: Olympic alerts and conditions. National forests. Gifford Pinchot: its alert page, read 4 November 2026, lists a Fire Restrictions alert dated 18 September that says there are no current fire restrictions on that forest. Mount Baker Snoqualmie: we could not verify this on 4 November 2026, because its alert page no longer lists a campfire ban or the lifting of one. Check Mount Baker Snoqualmie directly: Mount Baker Snoqualmie alerts. Okanogan Wenatchee: its alert page, read 4 November 2026, lists the termination of the Stage 1 public use restrictions and campfire ban, rescinding all fire use restrictions across the forest as of 18 September. Fire closure orders are still posted there: Okanogan Wenatchee alerts. Colville: its alert page, read 4 November 2026, lists no fire restriction and no Sinlahekin closure, so we could not verify a campfire rule there on 4 November 2026. Check Colville directly: Colville alerts. Olympic National Forest: its alert page, read 4 November 2026, lists no fire restriction among its alerts, so check the Forest Service directly: Forest Service Pacific Northwest alerts. A fire closure order is a different thing from a fire restriction, and plenty of those are in force, so the ground itself may be shut even where a fire is allowed.

So check the specific place you are going before you light anything. Start with the state parks alerts page if you are camping at a state park, and the DNR Burn Portal for everywhere else.

Updated 4 November 2026. Each part above carries the date we read it, and the parts marked as unverified were not confirmed today.

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Where we would and would not go right now

Our read, as of 28 September 2026, not re verified in full on 4 November 2026. Only the sentences below that carry a date from this run were confirmed at the agency this run, so treat any place named here as open or worth a visit as a starting point, and check the agency link before you go. 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	Check the bridge before you go	Getting around it is the problem right now. The Hoh River Bridge on Highway 101, south of Forks, is down to one lane, with temporary signals alternating traffic and a reduced speed limit, per the WSDOT project page read on 4 November 2026 and last updated on 26 October. The page says the restrictions will stay in place until a permanent repair is made. Expect delays and check the Washington State Department of Transportation before you drive: WSDOT Hoh River Bridge project page. Mora Road, the way to Rialto Beach, is listed as open on the Olympic National Park alerts page, last updated 3 November and read 4 November 2026. We could not confirm on 4 November 2026 whether South Shore Road at Lake Quinault is still closed at mile 8, so check Olympic National Forest before you drive. The Olympic National Park alerts page, read 4 November 2026, says Hurricane Ridge Road is closed because of ice and reopens when conditions permit, and lists the Staircase developed area as open while the wilderness around it stays closed as repair and recovery continue.
Puget Sound, Seattle and the islands	Check before you go	Air read Moderate in Seattle Bellevue Kent Valley, Everett Marysville Lynnwood, Tacoma Puyallup, Olympia Lacey Tumwater, Bellingham and Kitsap County, and Good in Anacortes and Mount Vernon, on AirNow at 5:00 AM PST on 4 November 2026. The full reading by area is in Smoke and air below.
South Cascades and Mount Rainier	Check before you go	The park’s Paradise Road Status alert, dated 3 November and read 4 November 2026, says the road is open to Longmire, all vehicles must carry tire chains, and the gate at Longmire to Paradise was closed for the night and projected to open, conditions permitting, at 9:00 AM on Wednesday 4 November. The park road status page said on 29 October that regular nightly closures of that gate began on 29 October for the winter season. We did not re read that page this run, so check the park road status page before you drive. We did not confirm Chinook Pass or Tipsoo Lake with WSDOT this run, so check WSDOT too. The park alerts page, read 4 November 2026, says White River Road, Sunrise Road, Paradise Valley Road, Ricksecker Point Road and Stevens Canyon Road are closed for the winter season, so the Sunrise side is not reachable by car. The park posted on 19 October that Grand Park, the Northern Loop Trail and the Wonderland Trail from the Carbon River suspension bridge are closed until further notice. The park alert says that trail closure runs to Frozen Lake and the park notice says White River Campground, so read the park trail conditions before you plan a hike. Separately, the Fairfax Bridge on State Route 165 is closed to everyone, so there is no access to Carbon River or Mowich Lake, and Ohanapecosh Campground is closed for construction all year. The other half of this region is the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, and it is the part we had been quiet about. The Gifford Pinchot alert page, read on 4 November 2026, lists one fire road closure in the Cowlitz Valley ranger district, Backbone from 10 October to 31 December. The Skyo closure we described on 23 October is no longer listed there, and we could not confirm whether it still applies. The closure we described on 9 September for the Mount St Helens and Mount Adams ranger districts is no longer listed there, and we could not confirm whether it still applies. The mountains themselves are not shut, but pick your road off the Forest Service alert page rather than off a map.
Snoqualmie Pass, Cle Elum and the Alpine Lakes	Check before you go	The Forest Service alert page, read 4 November 2026, says the Three Queens closure was reduced again effective 1 November and now runs to 30 April 2027. On the west side the boundary was pulled back to the north side of the 4930 road, which opens the Box Canyon and Rachel Lake trailhead. In the south, between Little Kachess Lake and French Cabin Creek, it was pulled back about a mile west of the Cle Elum River. In the east, the 4600 and 4616 roads to Cooper Lake and the Pete Lake trailhead are accessible again, and the upper east edge now sits just west of Tired Creek, which opens the Waptus River Trail and Waptus Lake in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Pete Lake and Spectacle Lakes remain closed. Read the order and map for the exact boundary before you go. Snow Lake Trail’s posted closure for trail work ran through 25 September and has not been extended, so it should be open again, though the Forest Service alert is worth checking before you go. Talapus Lake Trail and the forest road to it closed on 21 September for a trailhead rebuild, and the posted end date of 31 October 2026 has passed. The Mount Baker Snoqualmie alert page, read 4 November 2026, still lists the closure, so check it before you go. 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	Fire closures are still in force in the back country either side of the highway, and the Sisi fire closure shuts the Pacific Crest Trail and the Stehekin side trails in the Chelan ranger district for the rest of the year. Inside the national park complex, the park fire closures page, last updated 6 October and read 4 November 2026, lists the Sisi fire closing the Agnes Gorge Trail, the Agnes Creek section of the Pacific Crest Trail, the Company Creek Trail and the Stehekin River above Sun Creek. The paving closures at the Rainy Pass, Washington Pass, Cutthroat, Lone Fir, Bridge Creek and Klipchuck trailheads and campgrounds have all passed their posted dates, the last on 4 September, so the larch walks should be reachable again. The Okanogan Wenatchee alert page, read 4 November 2026, no longer lists the paving closure order, but check the Forest Service alert before you drive. The overnight closures of the Skagit River bridge at Marblemount are finished: the last one ended at 4 AM on Friday 18 September, but the North Cascades conditions page, read 4 November 2026, says Cascade River Road is closed to vehicles at milepost 21 (Johnson’s Cabin), two miles before the trailhead, with foot and bicycle traffic permitted beyond the gate. Further west, on the Darrington side, a fire closure shuts the upper Suiattle River Road above the Downey Creek trailhead along with Downey Creek Trail, and it runs to the end of December.
Leavenworth, Lake Wenatchee, Chelan and Entiat	Check before you go, the closure order was updated	The Forest Service alert page, read 4 November 2026, lists an updated Little Giant fire closure order, updated 31 October and effective 1 November through 30 April 2027. It covers roads, recreation sites, campgrounds and trails in the Wenatchee River, Entiat and Chelan ranger districts. Read the order and map for the exact boundary before you go.
Methow Valley, Winthrop, Twisp and Okanogan	Check before you go	We could not confirm the Pasayten trail closure on 4 November 2026, because the Okanogan Wenatchee alert page no longer lists it, so check the Forest Service for the trail you want. One more to know about on the Okanogan side: the Colville National Forest alert page, read on 4 November 2026, no longer lists the Sinlahekin fire closure, which it had posted as ended on the Tonasket ranger district effective 7 October. Check the Forest Service alert page for the particular trail you want before you go.
Spokane and the north east	Mostly back	More of Riverside State Park reopened on 28 August, including the Bowl and Pitcher suspension bridge, which came through untouched. Sections are still active fire zones and remain closed, and there is no drinking water in the Nine Mile Recreation Area, so take your own. We could not confirm on 4 November 2026 whether 7 Mile Road is still shut for sewer work, because the park page no longer lists it. It was expected to finish at the end of October, so check with the park before you drive.
Yakima Valley, Walla Walla and the south east	Check before you go	AirNow, read at 5:00 AM PST on 4 November 2026, showed Moderate in Yakima, Sunnyside, Kennewick, Clarkston, Walla Walla and the Yakama Nation area. We did not check fire activity there this run, so check the agency before you go.

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Closures we know about by name

• Okanogan Wenatchee National Forest, Wenatchee River, Entiat and Chelan ranger districts. The Forest Service alert page, read 4 November 2026, lists an updated Little Giant fire closure order, updated 31 October and effective 1 November through 30 April 2027. It prohibits entry or use of roads, recreation sites, campgrounds and trails inside a defined area of the Wenatchee River, Entiat and Chelan ranger districts. Check the order and map for the exact boundary. Verified 4 November 2026.
• Cle Elum River and Lake Kachess, Cle Elum ranger district. The Forest Service alert page, read 4 November 2026, says the Three Queens fire closure was reduced again effective 1 November and now runs to 30 April 2027. On the west side the boundary was pulled back to the north side of the 4930 road, which opens the Box Canyon and Rachel Lake trailhead. In the south, between Little Kachess Lake and French Cabin Creek, it was pulled back about a mile west of the Cle Elum River. In the east, the 4600 and 4616 roads to Cooper Lake and the Pete Lake trailhead are accessible again, and the upper east edge now sits just west of Tired Creek, which opens the Waptus River Trail and Waptus Lake in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Pete Lake and Spectacle Lakes remain closed. Check the order and map for the exact boundary. Verified 4 November 2026.
• Pacific Crest Trail and the Stehekin trails, Chelan ranger district. The Sisi fire closure shuts the section of the Pacific Crest Trail that runs through the Chelan ranger district up to the North Cascades National Park boundary, along with the Agnes Gorge, Agnes Creek, Company Creek, Devore Creek and Swamp Creek trails. It runs to 31 December 2026, which is the rest of the season, as the Forest Service alert page showed on 4 November 2026. The list of trails was verified on 16 September 2026.
• Gold Creek Pond, Cle Elum ranger district. Closed under a Forest Service order that runs from 23 June 2026 to 23 June 2028 for a restoration project, with the closure in force each year from 1 April to 30 November. Not fire related, and not reopening soon. Verified 16 September 2026.
• Riverside State Park, Spokane. More of the park reopened on 28 August 2026. Sections are still active fire zones and remain closed, and there is no drinking water in the Nine Mile Recreation Area, so take your own. Separately, 7 Mile Road was closed from 31 August for sewer work and was expected to reopen at the end of October. The park page, read 4 November 2026, no longer lists it, so we could not confirm whether it has reopened, so check with the park before you drive. The short closure of Aubrey L. White Parkway for tree debris clearing has ended, and the road is open again, as last confirmed on 25 September 2026. The park posted on 9 October that from Tuesday 13 October the St. George Trail is closed while the DNR works on a forest health project expected to take several months. Verified 4 November 2026, except the Aubrey L. White Parkway sentence and the 7 Mile Road sentence.
• Sunrise and the northern trails, Mount Rainier National Park. Closed since 13 August because of fires on the north side of the park, and partly reopened on 5 September. The park alerts page, read 4 November 2026, now says White River Road and Sunrise Road have closed for the winter season, and lists Paradise Valley, Ricksecker Point and Stevens Canyon roads among the regular winter road closures. Closed roads may be open to bicycling when work is not underway, so read the signs on the road gate. Still closed until further notice: the Grand Park area and its trails, the Northern Loop Trail, the Wonderland Trail from the Carbon River suspension bridge (the park alert says to Frozen Lake and the park notice says to White River Campground, so read the park trail conditions), and the backcountry camps in that area. The park’s Paradise Road Status alert, dated 3 November and read 4 November 2026, says the road is open to Longmire, all vehicles must carry tire chains, and the gate at Longmire to Paradise was closed for the night and projected to open, conditions permitting, at 9:00 AM on Wednesday 4 November. The park road status page said on 29 October that regular nightly closures of that gate began on 29 October for the winter season. We did not re read that page this run, so check the park road status page before you drive. We did not confirm Chinook Pass or Tipsoo Lake with WSDOT this run, so check WSDOT too. The park alerts page, read 4 November 2026, no longer lists the Summerland trailhead closure at the Fryingpan Creek Bridge or the White River Road pedestrian restriction that we described on 28 October, so we could not confirm whether either still applies. Check the park before you go. Verified 4 November 2026 on the park alerts page, except those two items.
• Carbon River and Mowich Lake, Mount Rainier National Park. State Route 165 is closed at the Fairfax Bridge to vehicles, bicycles and people on foot, and there is no alternate route. There is no public access to Carbon River or Mowich Lake from SR 165 at all. This is separate from the fire closures and it is the one that catches people out, because the map still shows a road. Verified 4 November 2026.
• Ohanapecosh, Mount Rainier National Park. The whole Ohanapecosh Campground area is closed for construction for all of 2026, including every campsite, the visitor center, the restrooms, the picnic area and river access. Separately, the Grove of the Patriarchs Trail remains closed to all entry, a closure in place since flood damage to its access bridge in November 2021, and the park says, in a notice read on 4 November 2026, that replacement construction will take place during the 2027 and 2028 summer seasons. The parking lot, restrooms, and the Eastside and Silver Falls trails keep their normal seasonal access. Verified 4 November 2026.
• Highway 410 corridor, Snoqualmie ranger district. The Forest Service has rescinded most of its Grand Park 2 fire closures along Highway 410. Ranger Creek Campground, the Ranger Creek airstrip, Suntop Trail, Huckleberry Creek Trail, the Lonesome Lake day use area and Forest Road 75 are open again. The Mount Baker Snoqualmie alert page, read 4 November 2026, still lists Forest Road 7305 and its spur, west of the White River, as closed, and the order’s posted end date of 31 October has passed, so we could not confirm whether it has ended or been extended. The highway itself is open and this is national forest land rather than the national park. Verified 16 September 2026.
• Mora Road and Rialto Beach, Olympic National Park. Mora Road was closed at the campground to all traffic from 8 July to 15 October 2026 for flood repairs. The Olympic National Park alerts page, last updated 3 November and read 4 November 2026, now says Mora Road is open, and it lists Mora Campground as open. We could not confirm on 4 November 2026 whether South Shore Road at Lake Quinault is still closed at mile 8 by a wash out beyond the park boundary, so check Olympic National Forest before you drive. Verified 4 November 2026, except the South Shore Road sentence.
• Highway 20 trailheads and campgrounds, Methow Valley ranger district. Rainy Pass, Washington Pass, Bridge Creek, Cutthroat, Lone Fir and Klipchuck were closed in turn for a paving project, and every posted closure window has now passed, the last one on 4 September. The Okanogan Wenatchee alert page, read 4 November 2026, no longer lists the paving closure order, so we could not confirm whether any of those sites is still closed. Roadwork rather than fire, and worth a check before an autumn larch drive over the pass. Verified 4 November 2026, except the dates of the individual closure windows, which we last read on 16 September 2026.
• Electric Fire and Miner’s Fire closures, Mount Baker Snoqualmie National Forest. Because of the Electric Fire, Forest Road 1060 is closed for its whole length from the junction with Highway 20, along with Forest Road 1064, from 2 September to 31 October. The Mount Baker Snoqualmie alert page, read 4 November 2026, still lists that order and its posted end date has passed, so we could not confirm whether it has ended or been extended, so check the Forest Service before you drive. On the Darrington ranger district, the Miner’s Fire closure shuts the Suiattle River Road above the Downey Creek trailhead through to the Suiattle trailhead, along with Downey Creek Trail, from 15 August to 31 December 2026. The lower road was already shut at milepost 4 by a winter washout, so the upper Suiattle has been out of reach by car since February. Verified 16 September 2026, except the Electric Fire listing, read 4 November 2026.
• Gifford Pinchot National Forest fire closures, south Cascades. The alert page, read on 4 November 2026, lists one fire road closure in the Cowlitz Valley ranger district. The Backbone fire closure shuts Forest Road 5290000 and its spur roads and Forest Road 5290082 and its spur roads from 10 October to 31 December 2026. The Skyo closure we described on 23 October is no longer on the alert page, and we could not confirm whether it still applies. The closure we described on 9 September for the Mount St Helens and Mount Adams ranger districts is no longer on the alert page, and we could not confirm whether it still applies, so check the Forest Service before you drive there. None of this shuts the mountains, but it does mean you check the Forest Service alert page for the road you plan to drive. Separately, High Bridge Trail in the Cowlitz Valley ranger district was posted as closed for its whole length, from Forest Road 29 to the Tongue Mountain Trail junction, from 21 September to 9 October while its bridge is replaced. That window has passed and the Forest Service alert, read on 4 November, shows no extension, so the trail may have reopened; check the alert before you go. Verified 4 November 2026.
• Highway 101 at the Hoh River Bridge, Olympic Peninsula. The Washington State Department of Transportation project page, read 4 November 2026, says the bridge south of Forks is down to one lane, with temporary signals alternating traffic and a reduced speed limit. It says the restrictions will remain in place until a permanent repair is made. Expect delays and check the agency before you drive: WSDOT Hoh River Bridge project page.
• Marblemount bridge, North Cascades. The nightly repair closures ran from Monday night 14 September to Friday morning 18 September, 8 PM to 4 AM, and the last one has now ended. The bridge is open and Cascade River Road, which is the road to Cascade Pass, was reachable at any hour again once the last overnight closure ended. North Cascades National Park has posted no further closure for this bridge. Separately, the North Cascades conditions page, read 4 November 2026, says Cascade River Road is closed to vehicles at milepost 21 (Johnson’s Cabin), two miles before the trailhead, with foot and bicycle traffic permitted beyond the gate. Bridge verified 18 September 2026.
• Snow Lake and Talapus Lake trail work, Snoqualmie ranger district. Snow Lake Trail’s posted closure for trail work, from the trailhead to the Alpine Lakes Wilderness boundary, ran through 25 September 2026 and the Forest Service has not posted an extension, so the trail should be open again, though the alert page is worth a check before you go. Talapus Lake Trail and Forest Road 9030 were posted closed from 21 September to 31 October 2026 for a trailhead expansion project. That end date has passed, and the Mount Baker Snoqualmie alert page, read 4 November 2026, still lists the closure, so check it before you go. Neither is fire related, and both are popular enough to ruin a day if you turn up anyway. Verified 28 September 2026, except the Talapus listing, read 4 November 2026.

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.

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Smoke and air

AirNow, read at 5:00 AM PST on Wednesday 4 November 2026, by reporting area. Puget Sound: Moderate in Seattle Bellevue Kent Valley, Everett Marysville Lynnwood, Tacoma Puyallup, Olympia Lacey Tumwater, Bellingham, Custer and Kitsap County, Good in Anacortes and Mount Vernon, and AirNow showed no current reading for Maple Falls or Oak Harbor. Olympic Peninsula and coast: Good in Port Angeles, Port Townsend, Aberdeen, Taholah and the Makah reservation area, and Moderate in Shelton and Raymond. Cascade foothills and Darrington: Good in the Cascades of East King County, Moderate in Darrington, and AirNow showed no current reading for the Cascade foothills of King and Pierce counties. Central and eastern Cascades: Moderate in the Yakama Nation area, Yakima, Sunnyside, Ellensburg, Wenatchee, Twisp, Omak, Quincy, Moses Lake and Mesa, and AirNow showed no current reading for Chelan or Leavenworth. Spokane and the northeast: Moderate in Spokane, Colville, Ritzville, Pullman and Rosalia, and AirNow showed no current reading for Lacrosse. Southeast: Moderate in Kennewick, Clarkston, Dayton, Pomeroy and Walla Walla. Southwest: Moderate in Chehalis, Vancouver and Longview, and Good in Yacolt. This is an early morning reading, not a forecast.

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 section updated 4 November 2026, from AirNow readings taken at 5:00 AM PST that day.

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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.

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How we keep this page

We check it on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, 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.