Washington Parks and Recreation Areas with Interpretive Programs

Glacier capped mountains, wild Pacific coast and magnificent stands of old-growth forests, including temperate rain forests -- at Olympic National Park, you can find all three. About 95% of the park is designated wilderness, which further protects these diverse and spectacular ecosystems. Olympic is also known for its biological diversity. Isolated for eons by glacial ice, and later the waters of Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the Olympic Peninsula has developed its own distinct array of plants and animals. Eight kinds of plants and 15 kinds of animals are found on the peninsula but no where else on Earth.

Phone: (360) 565-3130   Price Range: $5 - $10   Open Season: N/A   Camping: Yes
Nearest Popular City: Port Angeles   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: National Park   Activities: Backpacking, Biking / Bicycling, Birding, Boating and Watercraft, Cross Country Skiing, Downhill Skiing, Fishing, Hiking, Horseback Riding, Kayaking, Rock Climbing, Swimming, Whitewater Rafting, Wildlife Watching, Auto Touring, Nature Walks, Interpretive Programs, Snowshoeing, Star Gazing   Details Provided By: Olympic National Park

Here the beautiful Stehekin Valley, with a portion of fjordlike Lake Chelan, adjoins North Cascades National Park. Lake Chelan National Recreation Area (62,000 acres, 24,800 hectares) rests in a glacially carved trough in the Cascades Range. Lake Chelan is one of the nation's deepest, reaching a depth of 1,500 feet (450 meters). It offers boating, fishing, and lakeshore camping. The average width is less than two miles (3.2 kilometers), but Lake Chelan extends 50 miles (83 kilometers) into the Cascade Mountains. The lake's northernmost four miles (6.4 kilometers) are in the National Recreation Area, including the remote community of Stehekin and the Stehekin River Valley. This is a remote part of North Cascades National Park Service Complex. See the national park homepage, Focus on Stehekin and the North Cascades Challenger publications for more information about visiting Lake Chelan National Recreation Area and vicinity.

Phone: 360/856-5700   Price Range: $5 - $10   Open Season: N/A   Camping: Yes
Nearest Popular City: Sedro-Woolley   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: National Park   Activities: Backpacking, Birding, Boating and Watercraft, Fishing, Hiking, Horseback Riding, Hunting and Shooting, Rock Climbing, Wildlife Watching, Nature Walks, Interpretive Programs   Details Provided By: Lake Chelan National Recreation Area

The Upper Columbia River is rich in cultural and natural significance. For more than 9000 years, people have gathered along the banks of the river to fish and trade with each other. Missionaries and explorers for the Hudson Bay Company and the Northwest Trading Company mapped the area and developed relationships with the tribes, which lived here. In 1941, damming of the Columbia River as part of the Columbia River Basin project created a 130-mile long lake. Named for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the lake is now the largest recreation feature in the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area. Opportunities for boating, fishing, swimming, camping, canoeing and visiting historic Fort Spokane and St. Paul's Mission are highlights of visiting Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area.

Phone: 509-633-9441   Price Range: $6 - $10   Open Season: N/A   Camping: Yes
Nearest Popular City: Coulee Dam   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: N/A   Activities: Boating and Watercraft, Fishing, Hiking, Hunting and Shooting, Kayaking, Sightseeing, Swimming, Wildlife Watching, Auto Touring, Nature Walks, Interpretive Programs, Star Gazing   Details Provided By: Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area

Few fully know the intense and rugged beauty of the North Cascades jagged peaks, deep valleys, cascading waterfalls and over 700 glaciers. North Cascades National Park Service Complex contains the heart of this mountainous region in three park units which are all managed as one and include North Cascades National Park, Ross Lake and Lake Chelan National Recreation Areas. Each area offers different experiences and contains wilderness. A vast majority of the park complex, over 93%, is managed as the Stephen T. Mather Wilderness, which was established by Congress in 1988. The wilderness area was named in honor of the first director of the National Park Service.

Phone: 360/856-5700   Price Range: $0 - $5   Open Season: N/A   Camping: Yes
Nearest Popular City: Sedro-Woolley   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: National Park   Activities: Backpacking, Biking / Bicycling, Birding, Boating and Watercraft, Cross Country Skiing, Fishing, Hiking, Horseback Riding, Kayaking, Rock Climbing, Whitewater Rafting, Wildlife Watching, Auto Touring, Nature Walks, Interpretive Programs, Snowshoeing, Star Gazing   Details Provided By: North Cascades National Park

In 1897 news of a gold strike in the Canadian Yukon reached Seattle, triggering a stampede North to the Klondike Gold Fields. From 1897 to 1898, tens of thousands of people from across the United States and around the world descended upon Seattle's commercial district. While in Seattle, the hopeful miners purchased millions of dollars of food, clothing, equipment, pack animals, and steamship tickets. The final outcome of this great stampede helped shape the Seattle we know today, bolstering the city's reputation as the Queen City of the Pacific Northwest.

Phone: (206)553-7220, ext 0   Price Range: N/A   Open Season: N/A   Camping: No
Nearest Popular City: Seattle   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: National Historic Site   Activities: Interpretive Programs   Details Provided By: Klondike Gold Rush- Seattle Park