Lake Easton State Park is the closest public park to us — the next interchange east on I-90, Exit 70 instead of our Exit 63. Guests ask about it constantly, usually some version of "is it worth a morning?" The honest answer is yes, with caveats, and the caveats are the part nobody puts in a listing.
Here is what the park actually is, from the state's own pages and from living down the road from it.
The park in one paragraph
Lake Easton State Park covers 697 acres at 150 Lake Easton State Park Rd, with what State Parks describes as "24,000 feet of freshwater access on the shores of Lake Easton." From I-90 you take Exit 70 and follow the signs half a mile to the entrance. Summer hours are 6:30 a.m. to dusk; winter hours start at 8 a.m. Day use needs a Discover Pass — $10 for a day, $45 for the year — and launching a boat is $7 more.
That is the whole transaction. It is a small, flat, genuinely pleasant park that most people drive past at 70 miles an hour.
The trail loop is the best reason to stop
The signature walk is a 5.2-mile round trip that the Washington Trails Association clocks at 451 feet of gain with a high point of 2,283 feet. Almost none of that gain is in one place, which is why it reads as a flat walk with a couple of rises.
The route runs southeast along the lakeshore, past the campground, then onto the Riverside trail beside the Yakima River. From there it joins the rail trail through the woods — there is a railroad tunnel on this stretch — crosses a trail bridge over the river, and comes back through the town of Easton past an old concrete bridge you can see from the freeway. WTA's summary of it is the most accurate sentence written about this park: "This hike makes for a good leg stretcher when you need a break from I-90."
Dogs are allowed on leash. It is good for kids. If 5.2 miles is more than you want, the lakeshore section on its own is an easy out-and-back, and the park has picnic tables, a playground, horseshoe pits, a basketball court, and an amphitheater if someone in your group would rather not walk at all.
For trails closer to our gate, our guide to hiking trails near Easton, WA covers the on-property loops and the bigger climbs up toward the pass, and our hiking page lists what is walkable straight from a cabin porch.
It connects to a 107-mile rail trail
The rail-trail section of that loop is not a park path. It is the Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail — the old Milwaukee Road grade, still called the Iron Horse Trail by most people around here. State Parks describes the central section this way: the "107 mile section of the PTCT begins at the Snoqualmie Tunnel and continues east through Ellensburg, over the Columbia River on the recently renovated and reopened Beverly Bridge and ends at Royal City Cut-off."
Two things worth knowing before you plan around it. First, the Snoqualmie Tunnel at Hyak "closes seasonally near the end of October and reopens in May," so the famous 2.3-mile dark ride is a summer outing, not a shoulder-season one — we cover the timing in our guide to Snoqualmie Pass in summer. Second, State Parks is blunt that the PTCT "is not a fully improved, continuous 'cross state' trail." Ride out and back from Easton rather than assuming you can string it together for a hundred miles.
What the lake is really like
This is the caveat people should read first. Lake Easton is a reservoir, not a natural mountain lake. The Easton Diversion Dam, completed in 1929, impounds the Yakima River here for irrigation, and the state's own park page puts it plainly: "Lake Easton is a shallow reservoir with stumps near the water's surface. High-speed activities are not recommended."
Accordingly, there is a 10-horsepower motor limit. The park has one boat launch with a 20-foot dock, and it opens in April depending on snow. Kayaks and paddleboards are welcome, and there is a swimming beach with no lifeguards. If you are towing anything fast, this is the wrong lake.
Vehicles over 20 feet are directed to park in the boat launch lot, and — a genuinely unusual rule — "by order of the Bureau of Reclamation, this park is closed to metal detecting indefinitely."
Fishing here is not what most people expect
Worth setting expectations, because the lake looks fishier than it is. The Department of Fish and Wildlife lists Lake Easton at 204.80 acres in Kittitas County and says flatly: "The lake is not stocked and has only fair fishing for Rainbow Trout, Cutthroat Trout, and Brook Trout after late May."
The rules are tighter than a general lowland lake, too. The season runs from the Saturday before Memorial Day to October 31. Trout other than brook trout are catch and release only, selective gear rules apply, and brook trout have no minimum size and no daily limit. Two-pole fishing is allowed. Shoreline access is rated good, which is the park's real contribution to fishing here.
We are an odd source for this, so the disclosure: our four private lakes are on our own property, which is why no Washington fishing license is required to fish them and why they are not tied to the state's lowland lake season. One of ours is catch and release; the others are not. Different product, different rules — bring a license if you plan to fish the state park, and do not assume our answer applies over there.
Winter turns it into a Sno-Park
From December 1 through March 31, Lake Easton is a Sno-Park, and the permit rules change. State Parks lists three permits: a one-day at $25, a seasonal at $50, and a special-groomed trail permit at $70. Lake Easton is one of eight Sno-Parks — with Cabin Creek, Crystal Springs, Hyak, Chiwawa, Lake Wenatchee, Nason Ridge, and Mount Spokane — where the special-groomed trail permit is required. Permits are sold November 1 through April 30, with a $3 handling fee at retail vendors.
What you get for it, per the state's winter recreation program: a 5-kilometer groomed ski trail winding through the woods with Yakima River viewpoints, snowshoeing on a lightly used snowmobile trail along the north border, snow play, heated restrooms, and about 30 parking spaces. Fat-tire bikes are allowed on the groomed trails on a trial basis. Dogs are not allowed on groomed ski trails during ski season.
Thirty parking spaces is the number to plan around — for a Sno-Park on a clear February Saturday, that is not many, so go early. Our guide to Snoqualmie Pass winter activities covers the other Sno-Parks in the corridor, including Cabin Creek at our own exit.
The camping dates people get wrong
The campground is closed November 1 through May 1. Not the park — day use stays open all winter, and the state allows off-season camping in the day use and boat launch parking areas — but the campground itself is shut for six months of the year. April reservations here do not exist, which surprises people every spring.
In season, State Parks says the sites "range from full to non-hookup," some accommodate RVs up to 60 feet, and there is a walk-in group camp for up to 50 people. Accessible restrooms and showers are available. One line from the park's own page deserves repeating before you book: "Due to the campgrounds' close proximity to I-90 and highway noises, earplugs are recommended."
We have written both sides of that trade-off up in detail — see Kittitas County camping for how the park fits among the county's forest, DNR, and BLM campgrounds, and RV park vs. state park camping for the honest cost and hookup comparison against a private park like ours.
A short history, because it explains the park
The land tells you why the park is shaped the way it is. State Parks' own history of the park traces the largest portion of it to an 1902 Northern Pacific Railway land grant, with the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific crossing the Northern Pacific inside today's park boundary on its way to the Snoqualmie Pass tunnel, completed to Seattle in 1909. That Milwaukee Road grade is the rail trail you walk today.
Then came the water. Construction on the Easton Diversion Dam and its canals started in 1925, and "the 66-foot-high dam was completed in 1929, impounding the Lake Easton reservoir." The Bureau of Reclamation and the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission signed a memorandum of agreement on June 4, 1957; park facilities went up in the summer of 1961 and the park opened that August. About 400 more acres came in through the Cascades Conservation Partnership in 2002.
A railroad grant, a rail line, an irrigation reservoir, and a park built on top of all three. That layering is why you walk past a tunnel, a river, and a freeway in the same 5.2 miles.
Before you go
Check the park page for current alerts. As of September 2026 it carries a smoke advisory tied to the Three Queens Fire and a Level 3 burn ban allowing gas and propane stoves only — no charcoal or wood fires. Fire restrictions in this corridor change fast, and the official page is the authority, not this one.
If you want the park as a morning walk rather than a destination, stay a few minutes west of it. We are at 3000 U-Fish Rd off Exit 63 with cabins, a 14-person lodge, RV sites, and tent camping on 54 acres — open year-round, including the six months the state park's campground is not.