Within twenty minutes of our gate there are four different passes governing where you may leave a car, and a fifth that is free if you already hold a fishing license. None of them substitutes for another. One place a few miles up the road takes none of them.
We mention these passes on about a dozen pages without ever stopping to explain them, so here is the whole system in one place: what each one costs, what it actually covers, and which to buy for the specific trailheads and lakes around Easton.
The rule that explains most of the confusion
Washington's recreation land is split between two sets of owners, and their passes do not cross over. The Forest Service states it plainly: "Federal and State recreation passes are different and usually not accepted for one another's sites."
So a Discover Pass is a state pass — Washington State Parks, the Department of Natural Resources, and the Department of Fish and Wildlife. A Northwest Forest Pass is a federal pass — national forest land. Hold one and you are covered on roughly half the parking lots around here. Most people who get a ticket at a trailhead were holding the other agency's pass.
The Discover Pass — state land
This is the one most guests already own. It covers parking at Washington State Parks and on recreation land run by WDFW and DNR.
As State Parks lists it: $45 for the annual pass, $10 for a one-day pass, with the note that "Transaction fees may apply." Those fees are not trivial and are worth planning around — buying through the WDFW licensing system or a license dealer, WDFW lists the annual at $51.50 including a $6.50 processing fee and the one-day at $11.50 including a $1.50 processing fee. The sticker price and the checkout price are two different numbers.
Three details worth knowing:
- One pass, two vehicles. State Parks: "One pass can be used by two vehicles, but is only valid for one vehicle at a time." You write both plates on it.
- You do not need one where you are camping. "If you're staying overnight with us, you will not need a Discover Pass to park in the state park you're staying in" — but you do need one for any other state park you drive to that day, and for DNR and WDFW land.
- It is not valid at Sno-Parks. Different permit entirely, covered below.
The free one almost nobody claims
If you buy an annual Washington hunting or fishing license, WDFW issues you a Vehicle Access Pass at no charge. It covers WDFW water access areas and wildlife areas, transfers between two vehicles, and costs nothing on top of the license you already bought.
The limits are real: it "grants access only to WDFW lands," so it does nothing at a state park or on DNR ground, and razor clam or shellfish licenses do not qualify. But if you are already licensed to fish in Washington, check whether you were handed one — a lot of people pay $51.50 for a Discover Pass they only ever use at a boat launch the free pass would have covered. (On our own four lakes no license is needed at all, which is a separate story.)
The Northwest Forest Pass — federal trailheads
This is the one for national forest trailheads, and around Snoqualmie Pass that means most of the hiking. The Forest Service lists the Northwest Forest Pass at $30 annually and a National Forest Day Pass at $5.
What it covers is day use and entrance fees — developed trailheads included. What it does not cover is campgrounds. In Forest Service language, campground fees are "Expanded Amenity Fees," and the pass coverage on those is listed flatly as "No." Your $30 gets you parked at the trailhead; it does nothing for the $27 site you booked at Kachess.
America the Beautiful, and the senior pass that quietly beats it
The federal interagency passes are honored at Forest Service, Park Service, BLM, Reclamation and Fish & Wildlife sites, which means they stand in for a Northwest Forest Pass everywhere one is required. Current prices from the same Forest Service page:
- Interagency Annual Pass — $80 for residents, $250 non-resident
- Senior Annual Pass — $20, for U.S. citizens and permanent residents aged 62 or older, obtained in person
- Senior Lifetime Pass — $80, same eligibility
- Access Pass — free, with documentation of blindness or permanent disability, obtained in person
- Military Annual and Lifetime Passes — free when obtained in person
If you are over 62, the $80 lifetime pass is the obvious buy, and it is also the only pass on this entire page that does anything at the one site where nothing else works.
The Sno-Park permit — November to April
From the start of November the state parking rules change completely. Washington State Parks: "Parking at a Sno-Park requires at least one type of permit for your vehicle." There is no free option and no Discover Pass workaround.
Posted prices are $25 one-day, $50 seasonal, and $70 for the Special Groomed Trail permit, each $3 more at a retail vendor, which charges "a $3 handling fee." Permits are sold November 1 through April 30 and cannot be bought at the trailhead.
The trap is the Special Groomed Trail permit, which is required in addition to the seasonal permit at eight Sno-Parks: Cabin Creek, Lake Easton, Chiwawa, Lake Wenatchee, Crystal Springs, Mount Spokane, Hyak and Nason Ridge. Three of those eight — Cabin Creek at our own Exit 63, Crystal Springs at Exit 62, and Lake Easton at Exit 70 — are the three nearest this property, so a full season of local skiing is $50 plus $70 rather than $50. For a single weekend the $25 one-day permit covers groomed areas too, which makes it the cheaper instrument by a wide margin. Our guide to snow play and sledding near Snoqualmie Pass works through which to buy for a family trip, and our winter activities page lists which local sites are groomed.
The exception that defeats every pass you own
Now the part that generates genuine irritation at the fee station, because it contradicts everything above.
Day use at Kachess is $11 per vehicle per day, and the Forest Service page says: "Recreation Passes not accepted for day use fees." Not the Northwest Forest Pass. Not America the Beautiful. Certainly not a Discover Pass, which is a state pass on federal ground.
The reason is a single line further down the same page: "Day use facilities are operated by the concessionaire, not by the Forest Service." Region 6's own pass guidance carries the matching caveat — interagency passes waive day-use fees "except at some concessionaire-run sites." A private operator runs the gate, so the federal passes stop at it. Wish Poosh on Lake Cle Elum charges the same $11.
One pass still works, partially. The Forest Service lists a "50% discount for camping single site or day use fee" with an Interagency Senior, Interagency Access, Golden Age or Golden Access pass — so the $80 lifetime senior pass turns that $11 into $5.50 where the $80 annual pass does nothing at all. The discount does not apply to double or group sites.
If you would rather not pay at all, Speelyi Beach on the south end of Lake Cle Elum is Forest Service land with no fee station: "No fees are required."
Free days, and what they do not cover
The state agencies publish twelve Discover Pass free days a year, when no pass is needed to park at State Parks, DNR or WDFW land. The 2026 list: January 1 and 19, March 9 and 19, April 22, June 6, June 7 and 19, August 9, September 26, October 10, and November 11. A new list is published each year, so check before you count on one.
Two limits. Free days cover day-use parking only — camping, rented facilities and other fees still apply. And they do not reach Sno-Parks: a Sno-Park permit is still required on a free day from November 1 through March 31.
Free days are also a federal/state split again. They are state days. They do nothing at a national forest trailhead.
Which pass for which place near us
- Lake Easton State Park (Exit 70, 10 minutes east) — Discover Pass. In winter, Sno-Park permit plus Special Groomed Trail permit. See our park guide.
- Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail through Easton — Discover Pass at the state trailheads. See our rail-trail guide.
- Snoqualmie Pass area trailheads (Snow Lake, Talapus and Olallie, Franklin Falls, Gold Creek Pond) — Northwest Forest Pass or an interagency pass. Details in hiking trails near Easton.
- Teanaway Community Forest — DNR land, so a Discover Pass.
- Kachess and Wish Poosh day use — $11 cash equivalent, no pass accepted, 50% off with an Interagency Senior or Access pass.
- Forest Service campgrounds (Kachess, Wish Poosh, Cle Elum River, Salmon La Sac) — the site fee is separate from every pass above; see camping in Kittitas County.
- Cabin Creek, Crystal Springs, Hyak, Lake Easton Sno-Parks — Sno-Park permit, November through April.
Prices move. Every figure here is linked to the agency that publishes it, and the agency page is the one to trust on the morning you leave.
On our 54 acres, none of the above
There is no pass, permit or fee station on this property. Parking is included with a stay, the four private lakes need no fishing license, and the kayaks and paddle boats come with the room.
That is worth something on a Saturday in February when Hyak is full and you have already spent $120 on season permits — but it is not an argument against the passes. Buy the right one and this corridor is one of the best-value recreation areas in the state. We are at 3000 U-Fish Rd off I-90 Exit 63, with cabins, a 14-person lodge, 22 full-hookup RV sites and tent camping on 54 private acres, about 80 minutes from Seattle. What there is to do beyond the gate is on our activities page.