Christmas tree permit near Enumclaw, $10 for up to 15 feet

To cut your own Christmas tree in the forest near Enumclaw you need a Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest Christmas tree permit, which as of October 2026 costs $10 a tree plus Recreation.gov's reservation fee, is sold online at Recreation.gov and is limited to five per household. The site lists the 2026 season as Saturday, November 14 through Thursday, December 31, with sales opening on Thursday, November 12 at 7 a.m. Pacific. The tree may be up to 15 feet tall, and it must come from national forest land, which from Enumclaw means the woods up State Route 410 and not a state park, private timberland or Mount Rainier National Park.

The firs that used to supply those trees outgrew the permit years ago. In November 2011 the Courier-Herald reported that the noble and silver fir stands behind the Christmas tree harvest in the Snoqualmie Ranger District, the part of the forest run from Enumclaw and North Bend, had come up on ground logged commercially in the 1960s and 1970s and had by then grown past the 20 feet a permit allowed. The supply was a by-product of logging, and it kept growing.

How much is a Christmas tree permit near Enumclaw?

The permit is $10 for each tree, with a limit of five per household, according to both the Recreation.gov permit page and the forest's list of forest-product permits. Recreation.gov, the federal booking site, adds a reservation fee, $2.50 by its article on tree permits and by the Mt. Hood National Forest's permit page.

Can you buy a permit at the Enumclaw ranger station?

As of October 2026 that was uncertain, and it is worth a phone call before a drive. The forest's announcements for 2017 and 2018 both listed the Enumclaw office, at 450 Roosevelt Avenue East, among the places selling permits. Its pages in 2026 disagree. The Forest Service's page for the highway says, "In November buy a permit at the Enumclaw office and take the family out to the woods to cut your own Christmas tree." The Enumclaw office page, updated in June 2026, sends questions about passes and permits to the North Bend office and lists hours of Wednesdays and Fridays only, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. with an hour's closure for lunch at noon, and says the office is closed on federal holidays. Whether the counter will sell tree permits in 2026 could not be confirmed. The number is (360) 825-6585.

When do Christmas tree permits go on sale?

As of October 2026, Recreation.gov's permit page says permits will go on sale Thursday, November 12 at 10 a.m. Eastern time, which is 7 a.m. in Enumclaw, and lists the season as running from November 14 to December 31. The forest sets the dates each year and posts them on that page, and they move little. The forest's 2017 announcement gave November 13, its 2018 announcement was dated November 13 and said permits were on sale now, and the three it issued from 2017 through 2019 were dated between November 5 and November 13.

The last day is less settled than it looks. Recreation.gov says December 31. The forest's products list says "Until Christmas," and the Washington Trails Association's guide says December 24. The Recreation.gov page is the one attached to the permit you buy, so read it the week you go.

Where can you cut a Christmas tree near Enumclaw?

Only on national forest land, inside the limits on the permit page. The page rules out state and private land, wilderness areas, research natural areas, tree plantations, active timber sales, newly planted ground and anything posted. It also bars cutting within 150 feet of a stream, lake, pond or wetland, or within sight of a campground, picnic area, trailhead or administrative site.

That disposes of the temptations along State Route 410, one of the numbered roads out of Enumclaw. Federation Forest State Park is state land. In Mount Rainier National Park a federal regulation prohibits destroying, injuring or removing plants.

The page links six cutting-area maps. From Enumclaw the one to open is titled Snoqualmie Ranger District South. It covers the State Route 410 corridor, shades its no-cutting areas in gray, among them wilderness and a checkerboard of blocks north of the Greenwater River, and tells cutters to be aware of them. The district runs south to the national park boundary, the Forest Service says. Read it beside the forest's alert on road damage in the Enumclaw area, dated June 30, 2026, which lists Forest Road 73, the Huckleberry Road, as washed out at Huckleberry Creek and Road 74, up the West Fork White River, as closed at its gate at milepost 1. The alert does not say either road leads to trees.

How tall can the tree be?

Fifteen feet is the limit, with a stump no more than 12 inches high. The permit page also says to take the whole tree, which rules out lopping the top off a bigger one, and to clear snow from the base before measuring.

The Washington Trails Association's guide, written for all of Washington's national forests, gives 12 feet and under six inches in diameter as general guidelines. Twelve feet is also this forest's older limit. In 2017 and 2018 the forest sold a $10 permit good for a tree up to 12 feet and charged $20 for anything taller. Its 2019 announcement said $10 for a tree up to 15 feet. A general Forest Service notice posted on the forest's site in December 2021 advised a trunk under six inches and a tree no closer than 200 feet to main roads, recreation sites and campgrounds. The permit page for this forest sets no trunk size and no distance from roads. It names no species either, though it says each forest limits them. On tools it suggests a handsaw and forbids nothing by name.

Is the permit free for fourth graders?

The Forest Service says it is, less a fee. Every Kid Outdoors is the federal program that gives fourth graders, and home-schooled children of the same age, a free pass to federal recreation lands; the pass for the 2026 to 2027 school year expires August 31, 2027. Recreation.gov's article on tree permits says pass holders are also eligible for a free Christmas tree permit: check the box at checkout, enter the pass or voucher number, and pay the $2.50 reservation fee. This forest announced the free permit in 2020 and 2021. Its 2026 permit page does not mention the offer, so look for the box when sales open.

Do you need chains or a Sno-Park permit?

Carry chains whatever you drive. The forest's cutting map for this district says, "High clearance 4x4 vehicles with chains are recommended to access these roads." The permit page also warns that forest roads may not be plowed and tells cutters to bring tire chains, a shovel and a tow chain. Enumclaw's snowfall is no guide to roads that gain 2,000 to 5,000 feet, by the district ranger's account in 2011.

On the state highway the rule is in the Washington Administrative Code, at WAC 204-24-050. When the state Department of Transportation posts a traction sign, it is unlawful to enter the posted stretch unless the traction device the sign names is mounted on the drive tires. All-wheel-drive vehicles are exempt from a chains-required sign only when all wheels are in gear and fitted with approved traction devices, and chains for one set of drive tires are in the car. The department said in October 2025 that drivers who fail to chain up risk a $500 fine. The Enumclaw to Crystal Mountain guide covers the same highway in more detail.

What you pay to park depends on where you stop, and the prices that follow are the ones posted as of October 2026. A Sno-Park is a parking area kept up under the state's winter recreation program, and using one takes a Washington Sno-Park permit: $25 for a day or $50 for the season from State Parks, which sells them online from November 1. A Forest Service trailhead that charges a fee takes a Northwest Forest Pass, $5 a day or $30 a year. The state Discover Pass is not valid on national forest land.

The trees were a by-product of logging

Before online sales, a permit was bought over a counter, and in Enumclaw that meant the ranger station on Roosevelt Avenue. The Courier-Herald's 2011 story said the Enumclaw and North Bend offices together sold about 4,500 a year. In the same story Jim Franzel, then the district ranger, said there was not enough money to plow and monitor the steep, single-lane gravel roads into the high country. The Forest Service would not plow two roads off the Highway 410 corridor that season, as it had in past years. The long-range goal, the paper said, was to plant noble fir at lower elevations, a crop that takes seven to 10 years to reach cutting size.

Forest-wide, the Daily Herald of Everett reported in December 2016 that some of the forest's permit money had recently gone to planting about 10,000 noble firs.

Before you go

Print the permit. The page says you must print it and bring it, and a 2021 Forest Service release said to display it on the dash on the day of the trip. That morning, check the Recreation.gov page for dates and the map, the forest's alerts for closures, and WSDOT's Crystal to Greenwater report for State Route 410. In winter the state gates the Chinook Pass road at Crystal Mountain Boulevard, and by tree season the highway may end there: in 2025 the gates shut on October 24; as of October 8, 2026, WSDOT's Chinook Pass report showed no restrictions on the pass.

The page warns that cell service may be spotty or absent, so tell someone your plan and carry a paper map. Start early and be out of the woods before dark, as the page advises. Pack a handsaw, a tape measure, gloves, a tarp, rope, food, water and dry clothes. If the dog comes, the page says it must be on a leash. And buy the permit first: Forest Service regulations prohibit cutting or removing a tree without authorization, on pain of a fine, up to six months in jail, or both.