Washington Travel Conditions

Refreshed 12 October 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.

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 12 October 2026. The sitewide notice says all parks are under a Level 2 or Level 3 burn ban, 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), Lake Chelan and Pearrygin Lake (both posted 25 September), Mount Spokane and Riverside (both posted 16 July) and Palouse Falls State Park Heritage Site (posted 28 May) at Level 2 on their own pages on 12 October. The same pages put Hope Island Marine State Park (Skagit County) at Level 3. Potholes State Park posts Level 3 at Perch Point and Level 2 at the O’Sullivan site, where wood fires are allowed only in designated fire rings, 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 12 October 2026 and updated by the park on 24 September, lists the Sunrise and White River closures described below. We could not verify the parkwide fire ban on 12 October 2026. Check Mount Rainier National Park directly: Mount Rainier alerts and conditions. North Cascades: we could not verify this on 12 October 2026. Check North Cascades National Park directly: North Cascades alerts and conditions. Olympic: the park’s alerts page, read 12 October 2026 and updated 10 October, lists no fire ban among its current alerts and says nothing about what rule applies, so we could not verify this on 12 October 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 states there are no current fire restrictions on that forest, dated 18 September, read 12 October 2026. Mount Baker Snoqualmie: its alert page lists Campfire Ban Lifted, dated 15 September, read 12 October 2026. Okanogan Wenatchee: its alert page, read 12 October 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 12 October 2026, lists the termination of fire public use restrictions, dated 11 September. Olympic National Forest: its alert page, read 12 October 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 12 October 2026. Each part above carries the date we read it, and the parts marked as unverified were not confirmed today.

Where we would and would not go right now

Our read, as of 28 September 2026, not re verified on 12 October 2026. We did not confirm the lines below 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.

RegionOur readWhat we would tell a friend
Olympic Peninsula and the Pacific coastCheck the bridge before you goGetting around it is the problem this fortnight. The Hoh River Bridge on Highway 101, south of Forks, is closed to all traffic from 5 a.m. Thursday 8 October to noon Tuesday 13 October, per the WSDOT project page read on 12 October 2026. The bridge then closes each night at 7 p.m. from Tuesday 13 October through Sunday 18 October and reopens at 5:30 a.m. each following morning. There is no detour across the river. Check the Washington State Department of Transportation before you drive: WSDOT Hoh River Bridge project page. While it is shut you cannot drive between the northern half of the peninsula and the southern half at all, and going round the east side adds at least four hours. Mora Road is also closed at the campground to everyone including bikes and walkers until 15 October, so Rialto Beach cannot be reached that way, and the park itself suggests Ruby Beach instead. South Shore Road at Lake Quinault is closed at mile 8 by a major wash out beyond the park boundary. Lightning fires are burning in remote back country near Mount Olympus with no closures attached, and the Staircase developed area is open while the wilderness around it stays closed for burn recovery.
Puget Sound, Seattle and the islandsCheck before you goAir read Moderate in Seattle Bellevue Kent Valley, Tacoma Puyallup and Everett Marysville Lynnwood, and Good in Olympia Lacey Tumwater, Bellingham and Bremerton Silverdale Bainbridge Island, on AirNow at 5:00 AM PDT on 12 October 2026. The full reading by area is in Smoke and air below.
South Cascades and Mount RainierGo, but check which roadParadise, Chinook Pass and Tipsoo Lake are open. White River Road and White River Campground reopened on 5 September, along with the White River and Sunrise trails. Sunrise Road stays closed to cars and is open for walking and biking only, so Sunrise is reachable but not drivable. Grand Park, the Northern Loop Trail and the Wonderland Trail between the Carbon River suspension bridge and Frozen Lake are still closed. 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. A new fire closure covering forest roads and trails in the Mount St Helens and Mount Adams ranger districts took effect on 9 September and runs until further notice, and separate fire closures cover ground in the Cowlitz Valley ranger district. 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 LakesCheck before you goThe Three Queens closure was cut back on 18 September and the new order lifts it from everything east of Highway 903, so the Teanaway trailheads are out of it: Esmeralda Basin, Ingalls Way and Longs Pass are no longer named as closed. Highway 903 and the Kachess Road are open. What is still shut runs up the Cle Elum River and around Lake Kachess through 31 October, including the Salmon la Sac, Cle Elum River, Owhi and Red Mountain campgrounds and the Rachel Lake, Pete Lake, Cooper River, Waptus and Davis Peak trails. 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 and stay shut to 31 October for a trailhead rebuild. The Forest Service reduced the Three Queens closure again on 1 October, so some of this may have reopened; read the current order and map 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 corridorCheck before you goFires are still burning 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 same fire closes the Stehekin Valley Road above Stehekin Valley Ranch to High Bridge, along with the camps around High Bridge, so the upper valley is off the table even though Stehekin itself is open. 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 order behind them runs to 15 October though, so 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 park posts Cascade River Road as closed to vehicles at milepost 20 (Eldorado), three miles before the trailhead, from 13 October for road maintenance, with foot and bicycle traffic allowed beyond the gate, per its conditions page read on 12 October 2026. 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 EntiatAvoid for now, and this is the hard oneThe fire is in much better shape than it was in August and evacuation levels have come down, so the news sounds better than the access is. The Forest Service closure order runs to 31 October and still covers a long list of trails, lakes and passes. The towns are open and worth your money. The country around them is largely still shut.
Methow Valley, Winthrop, Twisp and OkanoganImproving, still checkFires are still active, but the Pasayten trail closure has been formally reduced. One more to know about on the Okanogan side: the Colville National Forest ended its Sinlahekin fire closure on the Tonasket ranger district effective 7 October, per its alert page read on 12 October 2026. Check the Forest Service alert page for the particular trail you want before you go.
Spokane and the north eastMostly backMore 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. Note also that 7 Mile Road is shut for sewer work, which the park page read on 12 October 2026 says is expected to be completed at the end of October, so check the detour before you drive.
Yakima Valley, Walla Walla and the south eastCheck before you goFire activity has eased with the rain. Walla Walla still picks up smoke from fires burning across the Oregon line in the Blue Mountains.

Closures we know about by name

  • Okanogan Wenatchee National Forest, Wenatchee River and Entiat ranger districts. The Little Giant fire closure order was reissued on 3 September and runs to 31 October 2026, covering a long list of trails, roads and campgrounds around Leavenworth, Lake Wenatchee and Entiat. Orders can be lifted earlier than their end date, so check rather than assume. Verified 16 September 2026.
  • Cle Elum River and Lake Kachess, Cle Elum ranger district. The Three Queens fire closure was reduced on 18 September under a new order that runs to 31 October 2026, and the ground east of Highway 903 came out of it. The Forest Service reduced it again on 1 October under an order that still runs to 31 October, giving more access at the north end of Cle Elum Lake and around the north end of Kachess Lake, so some places on the list below may have reopened. Check the current order and map before you go. Esmeralda Basin, Ingalls Way and Longs Pass are no longer on the closed list, and Highway 903 and the Kachess Road are open. Still closed: the Salmon la Sac, Cle Elum River, Owhi and Red Mountain campgrounds, the Salmon la Sac, Rachel Lake, Mineral Creek, Lake Lillian, Pete Lake and Davis Peak trailheads, and the Rachel Lake, Pete Lake, Cooper River, Waptus Pass, Spade Lake, Deception Pass and Davis Peak trails, along with the Pacific Crest Trail from Ridge Lake to the Lake Vicente trail. The still closed list above was verified at the Forest Service on 21 September 2026, and the 1 October reduction was read there on 12 October 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. Verified 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 has been closed since 31 August between Highway 291 and the 7 Mile bridge for sewer work, expected to be completed at the end of October, per the park page read on 12 October 2026, so check the park detour 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 also posted on 9 October that from Tuesday 13 October the St. George Trail will be intermittently closed during a forest health project expected to take several months. Verified 12 October 2026, except the Aubrey L. White Parkway 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. White River Road and White River Campground are open again, with the White River and Sunrise trails. Sunrise Road remains closed to cars and is open for walking and biking only. 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 to Frozen Lake, and the backcountry camps in that area. Paradise, Chinook Pass and Tipsoo Lake are open. Separately, as of 28 September the Summerland trailhead parking near Fryingpan Creek Bridge is unavailable on either side of the bridge while it is replaced, a project expected to run into 2029, and White River Road is carrying one lane of alternating traffic with delays of up to thirty minutes. Verified 28 September 2026.
  • 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 16 September 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 replacement construction is not scheduled to begin until 2028. The parking lot, restrooms, and the Eastside and Silver Falls trails keep their normal seasonal access. Verified 25 September 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. Forest Road 7305 and its spur, west of the White River, stay closed under an order that runs to 31 October. 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 is closed at the campground to all traffic including bicycles and pedestrians from 8 July to 15 October 2026 for flood repairs, so Rialto Beach cannot be reached by road. Mora Campground stays open, and the park suggests Ruby Beach instead. South Shore Road at Lake Quinault is also closed at mile 8 by a wash out beyond the park boundary. Verified 12 October 2026.
  • 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 order behind them stays in force to 15 October, so the Forest Service can close a site again if the work runs on. Roadwork rather than fire, and worth a check before an autumn larch drive over the pass. Verified 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. 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.
  • Gifford Pinchot National Forest fire closures, south Cascades. A closure covering forest roads and trails in the Mount St Helens and Mount Adams ranger districts took effect on 9 September and runs until further notice. In the Cowlitz Valley ranger district, a separate order closes national forest land to all entry and travel inside a defined area, and another closes one forest road and its spurs. 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 12 October, shows no extension, so the trail may have reopened; check the alert before you go. Verified 16 September 2026.
  • Highway 101 at the Hoh River Bridge, Olympic Peninsula. The Washington State Department of Transportation project page, read 12 October 2026, lists the bridge south of Forks as closed to all traffic from 5 a.m. Thursday 8 October to noon Tuesday 13 October, with no detour across the Hoh River, and says the bridge then closes each night at 7 p.m. from Tuesday 13 October through Sunday 18 October and reopens at 5:30 a.m. each following morning. Check the agency before you drive: WSDOT Hoh River Bridge project page. While the bridge is shut you cannot drive between the north and south sides of the peninsula, and going round the east side adds at least four hours.
  • 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 park posts Cascade River Road as closed to vehicles at milepost 20 (Eldorado), three miles before the trailhead, from 13 October for road maintenance, with foot and bicycle traffic allowed beyond the gate, per its conditions page read on 12 October 2026. 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 are closed from 21 September to 31 October 2026 for a trailhead expansion project. Neither is fire related, and both are popular enough to ruin a day if you turn up anyway. Verified 28 September 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.

Smoke and air

AirNow, read at 5:00 AM PDT on Monday 12 October 2026, by reporting area. Puget Sound: Moderate in Seattle Bellevue Kent Valley, Tacoma Puyallup and Everett Marysville Lynnwood, Good in Olympia Lacey Tumwater, Bellingham, Mount Vernon, Anacortes and Bremerton Silverdale Bainbridge Island, and AirNow showed no current reading for Maple Falls or Oak Harbor. Olympic Peninsula and coast: Good in Port Angeles, Port Townsend, Aberdeen, Shelton, Raymond, Taholah and the Makah reservation area. Cascade foothills and Darrington: Good in Darrington and the east King and Pierce Cascades, and AirNow showed no current reading for the Cascade foothills of King and Pierce counties. Central and eastern Cascades: Good in Wenatchee, Twisp, Omak, Ellensburg, Yakima, Sunnyside, Moses Lake and the Yakama Nation area, and AirNow showed no current reading for Leavenworth or Chelan. Spokane and the northeast: Good in Spokane, Pullman and Colville. Southeast: Good in Clarkston, Kennewick and Walla Walla. Southwest: Good in Longview, Chehalis and Yacolt, and AirNow showed no current reading for Vancouver. 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 12 October 2026, from AirNow readings taken at 5:00 AM PDT that day.

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.

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.