The Washington State Hiking Podcast

Snow hikes and Snowshoeing in Washington in 2026

• Jennie Thwing Flaming and Craig Romano • Episode 98

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 Welcome to the Washington State Hiking Podcast. I'm your host, Jennie Thwing Flaming, 

and I'm your co-host Craig Romano.

Craig and I are happy to have you here. We provide practical and timely seasonal hiking advice for hikers, trail runners, and potential hikers and trail runners of all skill and ability levels that is helpful, accurate, fun, and inclusive.
 

Hey everyone. Jennie here. As you may all know, Craig is not a fan of snow hiking and snowshoeing, and so it falls to me to talk about that topic, which I am happy to do. Um. In December, 2024, so just over a year ago, I did a snowshoeing near Seattle episode. This one was, is going to be about snow hikes, uh, statewide and slightly different.

Also, some things have changed for snow near Seattle. So, um. Just saying that as we get started. Also, happy New Year again. I feel like anytime in the first half of January it's appropriate to wish you a happy New Year. So happy new Year. Alright. Today we're talking about Snow. I. And some of my favorite snow places in Washington State.

Before we dive into that, I just want to make sure if you missed it before, at the end of last winter on March 12th, episode 54 was with the Northwest Avalanche Center with Devon, and we talked about avalanche safety, and if you are considering going out into the snow, then. I want you to listen to that episode.

It's really important. Um, staying on top of the avalanche forecast is important anytime you're going on the snow, especially in the Cascades and Olympics. So, uh, just go back and listen to that if you haven't already. I wanted to talk a little bit about some etiquette and passes before we dive into specific locations.

So. It's super important if you are snowshoeing in a place where there are also people either fat biking or cross country skiing, and the trails are groomed for that use, it's super important not to snowshoe or walk without snowshoes. On those groomed areas. And the reason for that is it messes up the trail and in addition to being super annoying, it's also really dangerous, um, for other types of trail users.

So you can avoid that by going to a place that is not groomed for any other use. Um, but if you are somewhere where there is, this is super important. If you're hiking or snowshoeing, you need to be off that groom trail. Very important. Okay. Let's talk about passes. So in Washington we have this snow park pass system and there are three kinds of snow parks just to make it really confusing.

The first one is motorized. So that doesn't concern us with this podcast 'cause it's about hiking. But the motorized snow park permit is for people who are, for example, snow mist. Snow machining or snowmobiling. Uh, as you know, I lived in Alaska for a long time and there it's called snow machining. Here it's snowmobiling.

So anyway, that doesn't apply to us, but just know, don't pick that option if you're a hiker, unless you're also a snowmobiler. So, uh, then there's groomed, like the special groom trail sticker. I would recommend, unless you're going to do cross country skiing. Don't pay for that permit and, and snowshoe in those areas.

'cause there are lots of other places to go. And it costs a lot more, a lot more, um. For something that you're not gonna be using now, you can still do it. I'm, I'm not saying you can't, I'm just saying I would recommend if you're not going to cross country ski, that you go to places where you're not paying extra for that and you don't have to worry about staying out of the way of, um, skiers.

And I just, full disclosure, I am a cross country skier. I am also a snowshoer and I also sometimes hike on packed snow trails without snowshoes. So I'm familiar with all these. Different things. So, uh, just make sure you have the right pass for where you're going to sort of pile it on. The Snow Park program is managed by the state of Washington, but some snow park locations, for example, the Gold Creek Snow Park, which is at Snoqualmie Pass, are actually National Forest land, but you buy the permit in the winter from the state, so.

If you're thinking that's crazy. It is a little crazy. But the reason is that Washington, DOT is responsible for plowing and maintaining the parking area, and that's really what you're paying for. Um, of course, you're also paying for grooming in those special groom trails, uh, locations. But here we're just talking about, um, ones where that's not the case.

And then mostly you're paying for plowing, which is done by the state even though it's on federal land. So that is why. It is like that. So you can buy your snow park pass online, you can buy day passes or seasonal passes. You can also buy them at, um, any ranger state, well, some ranger stations. Um, you can also buy them places like REI and you can look on the state parks website to see where you can get them.

Um. Some places like Hayak, which requires a special groomed trails permit, which is at snow Call Me Pass. But they also have a tubing hill for like snow play. You can actually buy the pass there, but not everywhere is that an option. So I would recommend getting it online ahead of time. Um, and then deciding if you're just gonna go once, then a day passes is great.

If you're gonna go more than once, then a seasonal pass makes sense. Okay. Um, I know that all that stuff about passes is, is confusing, especially around here. So let's talk about some good snow hikes and, and when we're talking about snowshoes versus just hiking on snow without snowshoes. What snow shoes really do is they give you loft when there's deep snow and keep you from what's called postholing, which is falling in up to your thigh in deep snow.

Um. There's no like law that says you have to be wearing snowshoes. And certainly you can wear snowshoes even when the trail is very packed down. But there may be times, especially around here where it freezes and thaws a lot, where maybe you don't need snowshoes to walk on the snow, or maybe you just want to use, um, micro spikes, which we talked about in the December episode.

Um. You know, it's kind of up to you, but you're going to want snow shoes if there's fresh snow. Um, because it's gonna be really exhausting to, um. To hike without snowshoes in deep snow. Even with snowshoes, it's quite exhausting. So, um, alright, so some specific places. So I'm gonna start in Eastern Washington 'cause a couple of my all time favorite places are there.

Um. There. I mean, I actually, I really love getting out in the snow. I love that about winter. Not everybody does. Like I said, Craig doesn't, he's talked about that before, but I really do. So one of my favorite places, um, is in the Blue Mountains, which is kind of. Kind of near Walla Walla, kind of near, uh, Lewiston and Clarkston.

It's far southeast Washington on the border with Oregon, and in fact, the Blue Mountains go into Oregon. You can access them from that side as well. Uh, they're. There are lots of great trails out there. Um, there are several like Forest Service managed cabins that you can rent, and I've done that a couple times.

Um, the, it's nice 'cause for those of us who live in western Washington, it's often sunny there. The snow season can be fairly short. It could, might just be, you know, January and February, but you get to see great views. Um. And you know, there are some harder trails, but a lot of them are kind of ridge walks without like too or ridge hikes without too much climbing.

Some of them are, but that is just a gray area that I really love. Another one is Echo Ridge, which is near Lake Shalan. And that is also for cross country skiing, by the way. Um, it is, there's a small daily feed, a park, I think it's $5. And basically you go to Lake Chelan and then you go up from Manson. So you drive along the lake a little bit and then you go up this very windy.

Forest Service Road, you pass the Echo Valley ski area, which has like a tubing hill and, and a, a small downhill ski area. And then you get up to the parking area for Echo Ridge and lots of skiers there, but you can also snowshoe there. It's also pretty dry, so they don't have a super long season, but when.

Man, when the snow is good there, it's just incredible. It's also probably my favorite place to ski in Washington, even though the number of days that it's awesome is limited. Uh, but that's a wonderful place. And also in like March, you can, if you have just spikes, you may not need snowshoes. There's definitely bear patches and it's not as busy, but if you just have spikes, you can, you can walk on the trail after grooming ends and that is pretty cool.

So I would recommend that as well. Okay. Let's move over to Western Washington now. So I also really love Hurricane Ridge. It is another place where. You know, there's usually a lot of snow. The conditions are super variable. It can be really icy. The snow depth can vary because of the wind, there's avalanche danger.

So again, you need to be on top of these things. But, um, often you can go from where the. The visitor center used to be, uh, to the trailhead for the summer trail and beyond that, the avalanche danger can get more significant. But even just going that far, which is about three miles ran trip and a little bit of up and down, but not much.

Absolutely stunning. So that is a really fun adventure. Okay. Um. In sort of the I 90 corridor, but over on the east side, both Lake Easton, uh, state Park, which is a snow park in winter and salmon sac, which is kind of near cle, you kind of go. Up the road until it ends and there's a snow park there. Those are both places that, again, have a short season 'cause it's fairly dry sometimes just January or January, February.

Those are great places both for skiing, uh, snowshoeing. The skiing could be icy, so watch out for that. But for snowshoeing, for hiking, um, the trail along the Cooper River, which is there from Salmon Las Sac, really beautiful, wonderful place to get out in the snow. I mentioned that some things changed last winter at Sno Callie Pass.

So the reason I'm not super emphasizing that is that Sno Callie Pass is really bananas for parking, and that's become even more challenging because the ski area no longer allows you to park for free in the ski area parking lot, so you can pay and park there. But some of those options are a lot less appealing than they were a couple years ago.

And before that. Um, you pro, you don't need this podcast to know about Gold Creek Snow Pond or Gold Creek Pond. Um, it is a great spot, but it's really, really crowded all the time in the same area. I really love the Snowshoe trip up to Kendall Peak Lakes, and if you're looking for a challenge, this is a good one.

You don't have to go the whole way either. There's. Quite a bit of avalanche danger at the very top, but not so much on the way up. Some great views. Um, you do have to compete for parking with lots of other people. There's not really a parking lot, you're just, it's just kind of next to the road. Um, there's a lot of towing of vehicles that are parked illegally on freeway interchanges and blocking roads.

Please don't do that. Um, but I do really love that, uh, for a snowshoe or snow hike outing. Uh, in winter, despite the busyness and the craziness in the parking area. One other place I wanted to just mention at Still Me Pass and. Well, there's two places that you kind of park in the same area. Again, like I said, this isn't as great as it used to be 'cause you can't park for free at the ski area.

But the Pacific Crest Trail going north from the pass is a great snowshoe or snow hike outing. Um. You can go a couple miles kind of through the forest. It's, it's wonderful you will encounter some, um, backcountry skiers along that route. I've never found that to be a problem. Um, but just keep in mind, keep that in mind.

And another area is Franklin Falls. I, that's a tough one to talk about because. You can't really start from the top very easily anymore again because of the parking problem, but they reopened the parking area at Franklin Falls. That's actually by the Trailhead and made that a snow park. So that's probably the best place to go for Franklin Falls.

It's just tough because sometimes there's insane amounts of snow at Franklin Falls and it's super icy and beautiful, but also really dangerous. Other times it's just the same as it is in the summer. So man, it's such a cool place to go, but the conditions vary so much. I have had some of the most magical winter days of my life at Franklin Falls, um, when I had.

Spikes and was willing to sit down to slide to get down there when there wasn't avalanche danger, but the falls were frozen. You just kind of have to decide if that adventure is right for you or not. Um, I keep thinking I should do an episode about that. Dunno, it's just, it's wonderful. But it also, you might be like, this is just a forest walk between two freeways, Jenny.

That's also true. So, uh, anyway, I'll put my article about Franklin Falls in the show notes if you wanna read more about that one. 'cause that one is. That one is just tough. It's awesome, but also sometimes it's not. Alright, those are my suggestions for snow hikes and snowshoeing this winter. I hope you get out there and enjoy the snow if that's your thing.

If it's not, you have the other 51 episodes of the year to enjoy. So I hope, uh, you have a wonderful 2026. Enjoy the snow or enjoy the non snow, and we'll see you next week.

if you are enjoying the Washington State Hiking Podcast, Craig and I would love to have you leave us a rating and a review that helps other people find us. And if you wanna support us financially, you can leave us a tip through the show notes. No account, no commitment, nothing like that. Thank you so much for listening and see you next week. 

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Jennie Thwing Flaming

Host
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Craig Romano

Co-host