iampam

Parking (as far as mothballed parks go as a whole) will probably depend on where people are parking and if it's legal or not. The whole point of mothballing parks is that they stop using any Ranger time which costs money. So if people are parked on State Parks property, no Park Rangers are going to go there and ticket them. I am not sure if local law enforcement would have authority to do so, that's something to discuss with your local rangers. But I bet at many of the parks, they'll block them off close to the main access point, so if there is no parking on the public roads outside the park, people are going to have to get creative. There's no easy solution in most of those cases. But good luck at Peshastin, I hope you all are able to organize and find a solution that still gives you climbing access.

There is no "all access pass" for Washington State Parks. If there ends up being problems with the local law enforcement, beyond illegal parking, I suggest taking it straight to the State Parks board of commissioners, as they seemed convinced that there would still be some level of access at the mothballed parks. However, writing to Parks with vague promises of wanting to help won't do much good. You need an organized group, such as a Friends of group, and a concrete plan that covers volunteer hours and the money it takes for things like pumping vault toilets.

I was at the State Parks Commission meeting a few weeks ago where they made the decision to mothball 6 parks. As mentioned earlier, they chose this option, which meant closing less parks and eliminating more staff positions over the option that would mean closing more parks but better staffing for the existing parks. It was mentioned several times that they do not intend to ticket or fine people who visit mothballed parks (obviously assuming they are not doing anything else illegal). In the case of Peshastin, it sounds like part of the issue is a lack of legal parking if the parking lot is closed? I suggest working with the rangers at Wenatchee Confluence to try to find a solution, and if they're not helpful try the Commissioners. I think the toilets at Peshastin are just vault toilets, no? Maybe if a group could raise money to have them pumped when needed, and come up with volunteers to man them they could stay open. It takes some pretty dedicated volunteers to clean toilets though... people do NASTY things in park restrooms.