Round up of I90 Sno Parks for 2026 (Bonus episode)

Jennie shares a round up of the current status of I90 Sno Parks based on her scouting mission on Monday!

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Transcript

 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.

Hi everyone. Happy almost New year. Uh, this is a fun little bonus episode that I wanted to record for you today. Um, tomorrow, Craig and I have a great episode for you that's all about our 2025 hiking goals and running goals and how those went and what our plans are for 2026. But today I wanted to give you a quick report.

On some recon that I did a couple days ago up at Sal Me Pass. So this episode is gonna cover the I 90 Corridor snow parks for the 2026 winter season. So of course the most official information is on the Washington State Parks Snow Park website. So always make sure to check that out. Of course there are many other snow parks across the state.

Um, I'm just gonna talk about these ones for today and I'm gonna review the passes a little bit as well. In our past episode, we talked about this, but um, I'll talk specifically about. Snow Park passes today. So I am going to cover, um, five snow parks today between sort of just west of Sal me pass on I 90 over to Lake Easton.

Oh, I guess there's six. I just realized I almost forgot one. Um, okay, so. If you are looking at kind of older information on the internet, you might see things, uh, are different. Like for example, many years ago there was a snow park called the Pipe Creek Snow Park. Um, that one. In Pipe Creek, is that what it was?

I'm not sure, but it was on Snow. Call Me Pass. It doesn't exist anymore since all the construction up there about 10 years ago. So, um, make sure you're going to like, look at the date that things have been updated, um, when you're looking at other information on the internet. Okay, so here we go. So I.

Intentionally chose to go on a sunny, busy day during winter break. So I think, um, this is kind of the worst case scenario for crowds. So in my experience with like many, many years of going to these snow parks all winter, from the time they open until the end of winter break, so that's, this weekend is the busiest time.

I, my experiences that they have been less busy on weekends after winter break, although still somewhat crowded. So my guess would be the experience I had on Monday would be pretty typical of a weekend day. In the next couple months. Um, the snow level, I'm also talking about one point in time, right? Some of these snow parks have kind of intermittent snow.

Um, some have consistent snow all winter. I think of being able to count on winter in the mountains till the end of February, and of course there's snow there until June or July. But as far as being able to enjoy a snow outing, um, sometimes March is amazing. Sometimes April is amazing. Sometimes by the end of February it's getting a little icy and.

Tricky. So, uh, keep, just keep that in mind. Um, sign up for my email list if you wanna get like the absolute latest. Um, I'll put that link in the show notes. It's always in the show notes, but, um, it is usually different content from what we're talking about in the episodes. Okay. So let's start with, um, a relatively new snow park called Lake Annette Snow Park.

So you're, you take exit 47 off of I 90. If you're going eastbound, well, even if you're going westbound, you still take exit 47. Um, if you're coming from Seattle or Tacoma or Bellevue, um, you will be. Going to the right when you get off the exit. There's another snow park to the left we'll talk about in a minute.

So the most important, there's two things I think are really important to know about Lake Anette. The first one is the actual lake net area has really high avalanche danger. There are signs indicating that at the trailhead, but going up as far as the Palouse to Cascades trail and along there, um, is not a particularly avalanche prone area.

But I would not plan on going to lake a net in the winter unless you're really skilled in evaluating avalanche danger and have training in that. But the snow park itself is great. There's also a short trail called the Hel Curtis Nature Trail that is, um, really. Wonderful as well has old growth trees at the moment.

There's a pretty big blowdown across it, about half a mile in. But um, if you weren't recovering from a broken shoulder, you could probably scramble over it. I declined to do that anyway, so that's the one thing is just the avalanche danger actually at the lake. The other one is that the road going from I 90 to the snow park is really bad.

It when I, I guess I shouldn't say bad, it has enormous potholes, so it's very short. It's not more than a mile or two, but it's, uh, it's really rough, so you gotta take it really easy. Otherwise, it's fine. Um, for Lake Annette, you just need a regular snow park pass. Um, not the special groomed one. So I will tell you the ones where you do need a special groomed one.

It's confusing in places like Lake Annette because in the summer it's a national. Forest Service pass the Northwest Forest Pass or the America the beautiful pass that you need because it's federal land, but Washington State Parks is the one to plow and maintain the parking area during the winter, and so that can be very confusing.

Okay, so that's a great spot. Um, it's not super steep. The snow cover at the trailhead is inconsistent, so I've been there when there was no snow there. I've been there when there was feet of snow. As you go up the trail, you tend to encounter more snow. When I was there on Monday. There were bap bear patches and snowy patches in the forest along the trail.

The parking lot was super icy. Um, I wore spikes, not snow shoes. Um, but again, that's gonna depend on when exactly you're there. Okay. Um. The next one is the ASA Health, Curtis Snow Park, which it looks like it's just been renamed. It used to be called the Franklin Falls Snow Park. And I wanna talk a little bit about Franklin Falls in particular.

This is really something that probably needs its own episode, but right at the moment, getting to Franklin Falls this winter is really difficult, which is really too bad. Um, because the last, last winter, Washington State Park snow Park program had opened the summer trailhead. It was, it's a brand new trailhead.

It's paved, it's huge, it has bathrooms, and they plowed. That parking area. So you could just do the summer trail head in winter to Franklin Falls, which is just over a mile. Um, when I was there on Monday, unfortunately, they've gone back to closing the road right next to the freeway, which makes it like an eight mile ranch trip hike, uh, which is a lot in the winter, especially since like.

Almost six miles of it is just walking on a forest service road where there may or may not be snow. So I was really frustrated by that, but that's the situation. The way that I used, you know, last winter it was awesome 'cause you could just go to their trailhead, you could go up to the waterfall. There are some big challenges when you get there as far as ice and safety, but in a couple weeks, um, our episode is gonna cover that a little more, so I won't go into that again today.

But, um, you used to be able to go down from the top, from the Summit West Ski area, and you could park at the ski area and go down there. But, um, Snoqualmie Pass has decided to not allow that anymore on weekends. Well, they do allow it, but they charge $55 for parking, which is really steep. You know, you can have your whole winter snow park pass for that.

You can have half a groom trail permit for that. So. That is not great. Now, they aren't requiring a parking pass on weekdays that are not holidays and not during winter break. So if you can go on a weekday, you could still park up there at Summit West and hike down. That's probably the best bet for Franklin Falls this winter.

I would love it if, uh, the snow park program would reopen that trail head butt. They haven't, and it doesn't appear on their website. It looks like you can go to the Trailhead, but at least on Monday you couldn't. And it looks very closed for the winter. To me, they have barricades up anyway. Um, I. So, yeah, there's also a wonderful, it's not a snow park, but there, it's a wonderful hike, snowshoe hike or sometimes spikes depending on the conditions on the Pacific Crest Trail at the summit, um, going north from the pass.

But again, without being able to park at the ski area, there's not an easy way to access it. But that would be another great place to go on a weekday or after 3:00 PM. Once our days start getting a little longer, um, the parking pass isn't required after three at the summit, as far as I understand it. So.

Um, the one thing I wanna mention about both of those spots, the PCT North from the pass and that upper road that goes down to Franklin Falls from Sno Call Me Pass. When I was there on Monday, there were probably 15 cars parked illegally, partially blocking a freeway interchange. So don't do that. Don't do it.

Even if other. People are parked there. If there's a no parking sign, it's a big deal. It's a safety issue, but also you could get towed or ticketed. So, um, hopefully none of you would do that. But if you are thinking about parking illegally anywhere, please don't. It creates a lot of problems, and we've talked about that on the pod before.

Okay. So let's go ahead and move on up to the past. So there's a couple other, um, and you probably know this already, but just in case at the ski area, summit West Summit Central Alp Andal, um, summit East, which used to be called Hayak. There's a snow park called Hayak, but also the ski area used to be called Hayak.

So now it's Summit East, but that can also be a little confusing. You can't hike, snowshoe, whatever at any of those places. That's for skiing. So, um, sledding is not allowed. Snow play is not allowed. There's lots of signs. Um, summit East does have a Nordic. Trail systems. So, um, and I believe they still have their Snowshoe program.

So there are organized places that you can go that's outside the Snow Park program. You would just buy a ticket from the summit. But that's another option up there if you wanna snowshoe or ski. Okay. So let's move on to Gold Creek and Hayak, which are at the same exit just east of the summit. So Gold Creek, uh, pond.

And Kendall Peak Lakes are two different routes that go from the Gold Creek, um, snow Park, which. Doesn't, again, this is one that really frustrates me 'cause there's a big parking lot at Gold Creek Pond. I wish they would plow that instead of having people just park along the side of the road. Because when it gets full, which is every weekend.

People park on both sides and then it's very difficult to drive through there and really hard to turn around. So I avoid that area on weekends, even though those trails are awesome, just because I don't want someone to hit me. I don't want to get stuck in there. But, um. If it's a weekday or later in the day, especially when our days get a little longer, those are great routes.

Gold Creek Pond is super chill. It's completely flat. Um, Kendall Peak Lakes is a, is kind of a tough climb, but it's beautiful. Um, there's some avalanche danger at the very top, but you can go. Many miles before you encounter that on a typical day. Um, great views of the past. So that is a great place for snowshoeing.

Um, and that is not a special groomed trail, um, permit. So just the regular snow park pass is good there. So other side of the freeway over at Hayak. So I'm talking about the Hayak Snow Park, which is different from the hayak. Ski area, which is now called Summit East, but the, the buildings there are still called Hayak.

Um, so this one has a fee booth, so, uh, there's often a pretty long line. There is a sledding hill, which makes it really crazy there. Um, just really, really, really busy. It does require a special groomed permit, so it's more expensive to park there because it's groomed for cross country skiing. And also the sledding hill is groomed.

So Hayak is a great place for cross country skiers. Um, you know, it's not crowded once you get through the first half mile. Um, if you're not. Cross country skiing, then it's not the best snow park 'cause it's really, really busy and it costs more. And if you're not skiing, um, if you're not cross country skiing, then you don't need opinion about that one.

But it's a great beginner cross country ski place because it's almost completely flat. Um. So, yeah, and Hayak is, is really beautiful. It's on the Palouse to Cascades Trail and you can go quite far. Alright, cont, we've got a few more continuing over the pass. Um, the next one is the Cabin Creek Snow Park. So again, a.

In my opinion, this one is best for cross-country skiing. It's really busy. There are youth ski teams and races and things like that on weekends, if you're, it's wonderful if you're a cross country skier, especially when you're ready for a little bit more challenge, but it's. Not again, you're gonna pay for the special groom trails permit.

It's probably not worth it if you just wanna go for a walk. Uh, also you have to really stay off the trail. It's really important. Anywhere you're at a Nordic Cross Country ski trail, um, make sure if you're snowshoeing or walking that you stay well off that trail. It's a safety issue. And also for people paying more for a permit so that they can walk, have a groom trail to ski on.

Um, if people wreck it with their snowshoes or their boots, that sucks. So I. Please don't do that. Okay. The next one is Crystal Springs, which is, um, again, better for skiing and in particular for people who wanna ski with their dogs. It's a dog friendly, uh, groomed ski ski. Trail, and it's pretty cool to see people dog mushing and stuff there, but if you're not into that, that one probably isn't the best either.

So I saved what, in my opinion, is the best for last. It's also the furthest east, it's the Lake Easton snow park, so it's exit 70. You're getting quite close to CLE if you're coming from the west side at that point. And when I was at Hayak on Monday, I talked to the Ranger there 'cause it was late in the day.

There wasn't a line. And she was talking about how uh, wonderful Lake Easton is in the winter. And I totally agree. And she said it's not busy. People don't seem to know about it as much. It does require a special groomed trails permit. Which is more expensive because they do groom it for cross country skiing.

But unlike say, Hayak and Cabin Creek, this one is really worth it, even if you're not skiing. Um, the skiing honestly is not great there. It can be really icy, it can be amazing, but it gets icy more easily. Um, it's on the dry side, so it, um, it gets bear patches earlier than at the summit. But, um, it's great for snowshoeing and snow play, and they have a Ranger snowshoe hike every Friday and Saturday at 9:00 AM this winter.

So that's pretty cool. If you haven't been there and you don't like crowds, definitely check it out. I would say if you don't like crowds and you wanna go to a snow park in the I 90 corridor, make it the lake and net snow park, the first one I talked about, or Lake Easton. And, um, lake Easton also has, you know, heated flushing restrooms and, and that kind of thing.

So yeah, that's kind of the rundown for this winter, at least how it was this week in. And like I said, in my experience, that tends to be pretty typical. The rest of the winter watch out for conditions. Um, they change really rapidly, whether or not there's snow, how icy it is, what the temperature is, what the road conditions are.

All the parking lots I went into were super icy on Monday, but the roads were bare and dry. So just, um, yeah, make sure you check, uh, the DOT app or website for road conditions. Um, some of the parks that have grooming for cross-country skiing, like Hayak and Cabin Creek have updates for grooming sometimes like Easton on their website.

And I think that's it. Happy New Year everybody. And Craig and I will be here tomorrow with a special New Year's episode. I.

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.