Sno-Parks 101

Our climate in Washington blesses us with some of the deepest winter snowpacks anywhere in the world. However, this climate also creates unique challenges for winter recreation in that snow. For most of the state’s population, our winter pursuits take place on state or federal land at higher elevations in the Cascades. This begs the question: how do we access those areas, and how is that access initially established, maintained, and funded?

What Are Sno-Parks?

In order for Washington residents to take advantage of our wintertime mountains, the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission created a network of managed access points to the mountains in the winter. These are known as Sno-Parks and can be as simple as plowed pull-outs on the side of roads to large parking lots with facilities leading to groomed trails for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, or snowmobiling.

The Washington State Parks Sno-Park program dates back to 1966 when Washington State Parks allowed snowmobile access in three state parks for a one year trial program. This program expanded the following year and served as the basis for the Washington State Snowmobile Act of 1971. Similar legislation was desired by the cross-country ski community and in 1975 this lead to the establishment of the Winter Recreation Parking (Sno-Park) Permit program.[1]

Today the Sno-Park program manages 144 Sno-Parks throughout the state.[2] These Sno-Parks serve a variety of winter recreational pursuits including snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, snow play/sledding, snowmobiling, and more. In addition to plowed parking areas for access, the Sno-Park program also provides approximately 3,300 miles of groomed trails for both snowmobile and non-motorized uses.[1]

Sno-Park Funding

Since its establishment, the Sno-Park program has consisted of two main components: the motorized snowmobile program and the non-motorized program. The former is funded by snowmobile registration fees and state gas taxes from their fuel use. The latter is funded by Sno-Park pass sales (both seasonal, daily, and for access to the groomed trails). Individual Sno-Parks serving each of these programs therefore have independent funding sources.

Given that the Sno-Park program is completely funded by user sales, its financial stability is heavily dependent on the quality of a given year's winter recreation season. In good snow years, pass sales surge, providing excess funding. Likewise, in poor snow years, pass sales decline, potentially causing the program to operate at a loss. This variability creates challenging planning considerations. For instance, during the COVID years, pass sales doubled from years prior leading to a massive influx of revenue of $2.25M in 2020-2021.[3] However, by the poor snow year of 2023-2024, revenue had decreased to $1.7M against $1.9M in expenditures leading to a shortfall.[4]

This dual structure is also why some Sno-Parks may close in a given year while others open. For example, in 2024, 14 motorized Sno-Parks were closed due to 25% reduction in funding from the motorized program that year alone. In fact, since the peak of 2002, snowmobile registrations in Washington have declined by 50% taking with them crucial funding for the motorized program.[5] Meanwhile, the non-motorized Franklin Falls Sno-Park was established in order to alleviate booming demand for non-motorized winter recreation along the I-90 corridor.

Why Do We Focus On Sno-Parks?

Cascade Backcountry Alliance's mission is to preserve, promote, and improve backcountry access. We find that the Sno-Park program provides an excellent avenue for accomplishing those goals. There are a few reasons for this:

State and federal agencies are familiar with Sno-Parks. This means far less time and effort is needed to educate the relevant land managers about how winter access to a particular plot of land would be managed and funded.
The existence of the Sno-Park program allows us to make use of pre-existing machinery for user-funded winter recreation programs. Without the Sno-Park program, establishing winter access to a given area would require an ad-hoc implementation. But with Sno-Parks, new areas fit within a broader program thus greatly streamlining the process for expanding the network.
There is an accessible format for proposing new Sno-Parks from everyday community members. The Winter Recreation Advisory Committee (WRAC) controls which Sno-Parks are funded and anyone can bring a proposal for a new Sno-Park to their annual meetings, which are accordingly open to the public for anyone that wishes to provide input on the management of the Sno-Park program (Cascade Backcountry Alliance attends each of these meetings!).
The Sno-Park program exists at the state level and is self-funded via pass sales. This means that its funding is less susceptible to the shifting political winds and budget whims at the federal level.

Sno-Parks For Backcountry Skiing

To date, Sno-Parks have been dedicated to pursuits such as snowmobiling, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing. There are currently no Sno-Parks focused on backcountry skiing. This is mainly due to the existing Sno-Parks not being in amenable locations for backcountry skiing access.

Traditionally, backcountry skiing was something of a niche in the overall umbrella of winter recreation. The managed backcountry skiing access that existed was tightly coupled with the commercial ski areas in the state. This setup worked fine for decades, but we are now experiencing massive growth in both backcountry and in-bounds popularity. Coupled with a lack of parking capacity at the ski areas, it creates new challenges for backcountry access.

As such, we see the Sno-Park program as uniquely positioned to take a more active role in serving the needs of Washington's backcountry community. The Sno-Park program provides the funding and mechanisms to expand access near existing zones and potentially open entire new zones for winter access.

In a future post, we hope to share more details around exactly what the process is like for proposing a new Sno-Park and bringing it into existence.