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Outdoors & River

Trails, river conditions, parks, foothills, weather-adjacent recreation, and getting outside.

Clear blue water of Mowich Lake under a cloudless sky, with a forested ridge and gray cliffs rising behind it and a drift log at the right edge of the shore.

Outdoors & River/October 9, 2026

How to get to Mowich Lake with the Fairfax Bridge closed

How to get to Mowich Lake with the Fairfax Bridge closed: no road, no public detour, and a walk of about 27 miles each way. Tolmie Peak is farther still.

Snow lies heavy on the drooping branches of tall evergreen trees beside a snowy slope, with low sunlight showing between the trunks.

Outdoors & River/October 9, 2026

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

A Christmas tree permit near Enumclaw costs $10 a tree at Recreation.gov, plus a fee. Sales open Nov. 12, 2026; the season runs Nov. 14 to Dec. 31.

A two-lane mountain highway under fresh snow, marked by tire tracks and a double yellow centerline, curves between snow-laden evergreens and a rocky bank under a gray sky.

Outdoors & River/October 9, 2026

When does Chinook Pass close? As early as October 24

When does Chinook Pass close? Usually in November: the median since 1935 is Nov. 16, but it has closed for winter as early as Oct. 24. How to check today.

A weathered wooden sign reading Kanaskat Palmer State Park and Welcome, with the Washington State Parks shield, stands behind boulders and fallen leaves at the edge of a forest road.

Outdoors & River/October 9, 2026

Which pass do I need near Enumclaw? Park by park

Which pass do I need near Enumclaw? Discover Pass, Northwest Forest Pass or none: it depends on who runs the lot, and two parks near town list no fee at all.

A small lookout cab with windows on every side glows from inside atop a short timber tower, its railed deck and outside stairs dusted with snow, above deep snow and snowy, tree-dotted ridges under a dark blue night sky.

Outdoors & River/October 8, 2026

Fire lookout rentals in Washington, and how to book one

Fire lookout rentals in Washington: which lookouts you can rent, what each costs, when booking opens, and which are closed as of October 2026.

Snow drifted to the eaves of the Paradise Inn, its steep roof, row of dormer windows and stone chimney heavy with snow under a clear blue sky, with two workers in hard hats at a tunnel entrance cut into the drift.

Outdoors & River/October 8, 2026

Mount Rainier snowfall at Paradise averages 53 feet a year

Mount Rainier snowfall at Paradise averages 637 inches a year, the park says. The record is 1,122 inches, the low 266, and 2025-26 brought 479.

A Japanese woodblock print in the ukiyo-e manner of a small steep forested hill rising alone from flat farmland beneath a great snow mountain, with a twin-rotor helicopter lowering the steel frame of a lookout tower on a cable toward tiny figures on the summit, and in a band of mist below, the pale shape of a toppled wooden tower behind a small tractor.

Outdoors & River/October 2, 2026

Mount Peak fire lookout: gone in 1966, back in 2021

Mount Peak's fire lookout came down in 1966, to protect children, the state said. The history, the hill's three names, the 2021 helicopter lift and a visit.

A watercolor and ink field sketch on cream paper of a 1930s steel arch road bridge whose stone-faced supports stand in a braided glacial creek, the milky water curling around and undercutting the stone, with a longer, paler bridge sketched from bank to bank behind it.

Outdoors & River/October 1, 2026

Summerland trailhead closed through 2029 for a new bridge

Why Mount Rainier's Summerland trailhead is closed through 2029: a 1931 bridge with its feet in Fryingpan Creek, the longer hike in, and the road delays.

A stained-glass window of a snowy peak made of clear crystal glass with silver-leaded ridges, a small miners' cabin and a gold-flecked creek at its foot, and three skiers on a near ridge looking across the valley at it.

Outdoors & River/September 30, 2026

The skiers who built Crystal Mountain named its silver peaks

Crystal Mountain's founders were scouting Corral Pass when they spotted it in the 1950s. Then, one founder said, they named its silver peaks.

A surreal rainforest scene in which an old gravel road with a parked 1950s car runs beside a glacial river shown in cross-section like an aquarium, its rocky bed and milky water standing higher than the car's roof, with a trickle spilling onto the road.

Outdoors & River/September 30, 2026

Carbon River Road didn't sink. Its river climbed over it.

Why Mount Rainier's Carbon River Road closed to cars: its riverbed rose up to 31 feet, a 1929 warning, the 2006 flood, the rain forest walk and 2026 access.

Two glass terrariums on a table: a small one holding a strip of 1930s highway between a thin row of topped firs, and a much larger one holding a dense old-growth forest with a pale green river.

Outdoors & River/September 29, 2026

Federation Forest State Park: the forest clubwomen saved

Federation Forest on SR 410 is the second old-growth forest Washington's women's clubs saved. The first, by Snoqualmie Pass, lost to the highway.

A moonlit view of a great glaciated mountain face, a towering ice cliff with an avalanche falling, and a line of tiny headlamps climbing the ridge up its center.

Outdoors & River/September 28, 2026

Willis Wall: the side of Rainier almost nobody climbs

Enumclaw faces Rainier's north side: the Willis Wall, Liberty Ridge and the Carbon Glacier. About one climber in a hundred goes that way. History and risk.

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