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Washington Park Road Opening Dates

In Washington the opening date is a plowing question, not a calendar question. Below: the normal season for every road, entrance, campground and visitor centre the parks here publish one for, drawn on a single calendar; the years of actual opening dates where a park keeps that record; and the link to the page where the park posts today. Every date carries the park's own last-updated stamp, read on 3 September 2026.

Sunrise Road normally opens late June, and the park will not put a date on it any tighter than that
Parks with a season
3
Roads and facilities
10
Open year round
2
What sets the dates
plowing progress

Washington, in one paragraph

Sunrise Road normally opens late June.

Usually opens in late June or early July and closes in late September to early October. Washington is where the snow is deepest and the seasons shortest. Mount Rainier requires tyre chains in every vehicle in the park from 1 November to 1 May, the Sunrise Road usually waits until late June or early July, and the North Cascades Highway across the top of the state is closed by an avalanche programme run by the state, not by any park.

28 June
Where the normal season starts on the calendar below
1 October
And where it normally ends
8
Seasonal entries in Washington
2
Open all year, weather permitting

That season is Mount Rainier National Park's own description, from a page the park stamps last updated December 5, 2025.

The visual answer

Everything seasonal in Washington, on one calendar

Check the park’s own page before you drive. Seasonal roads open when the plows get through and close again for storms, rockfall and fire, sometimes within the same week. What you get here is the normal season for each road and facility in the park’s own words, the years of actual opening dates the parks publish, and a link to the page where that park posts today. Every date on this page shows the park’s own last-updated stamp rather than ours.
Henry M. Jackson Memorial Visitor Center at ParadiseMount Rainier
1 May to 10 October
State Route 20 over Washington Pass and Rainy PassNorth Cascades
1 May to 20 November
Wilderness Information Center, MarblemountNorth Cascades
15 May to 10 October
North Cascades Visitor Center, NewhalemNorth Cascades
18 May to 27 September
White River Wilderness Information CenterMount Rainier
25 May to 15 October
Obstruction Point RoadOlympic
15 June to 15 October
Sunrise RoadMount Rainier
28 June to 1 October
Sunrise Visitor CenterMount Rainier
5 July to 7 September
Hurricane Ridge RoadOlympic
Open year round, weather permitting
Nisqually Entrance to Paradise, winter gate seasonMount Rainier
Open year round, weather permitting
  • Opens on plowing progress
  • Park published dates
  • Fixed by rule each year
  • Open year round, storm closures

Every road, entrance, campground and visitor centre in Washington with a published season, ordered by when it normally opens. Bars are the park's own description, not a status and not a forecast. The colour says what governs the date.

These are the dates Mount Rainier and Olympic and North Cascades published for the 2026 season, read on 3 September 2026. The park says of them: “Roads typically open at 8:00 a.m. on the first day. All dates are subject to change depending on weather conditions.”

“All vehicles are required to carry tire chains when traveling in the park during the winter season: November 1 - May 1.”

Mount Rainier National Park, Road Status

National Park Service, public domain. That page carries the park’s own stamp: last updated August 11, 2026.

Mount Rainier National Park

5 seasonal entries on this page

  • Henry M. Jackson Memorial Visitor Center at Paradise. Normally from early May
  • White River Wilderness Information Center. Normally from late May
  • Sunrise Road. Normally from late June
  • Sunrise Visitor Center. Normally from early July
  • Nisqually Entrance to Paradise, winter gate season. Year round

Olympic National Park

2 seasonal entries on this page

  • Obstruction Point Road. Normally from mid June
  • Hurricane Ridge Road. Year round

North Cascades National Park Complex

3 seasonal entries on this page

  • State Route 20 over Washington Pass and Rainy Pass. Normally from early May
  • Wilderness Information Center, Marblemount. Normally from mid May
  • North Cascades Visitor Center, Newhalem. Normally from mid May
A tracked bulldozer cutting through deep snow walls on the Sunrise Road in Mount Rainier National Park, surrounded by conifers
Cutting the Sunrise Road open in mid May at Mount Rainier. The road usually takes until late June or early July even after work like this, because the snow keeps coming back. “Snow plowing Sunrise Road 2018-05-16 (41474452424)” by Mount Rainier National Park, CC BY 2.0
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Everything, with its source

10 Washington park seasons, and where each one comes from

The last column is the one nobody else shows you: the date the park itself last touched the page each season came from. Read a two-year-old stamp as the park saying nothing has changed, and a stamp from last month as the park saying something has.

Every seasonal road, entrance, campground and visitor centre in Washington, ordered by when it normally opens. Each season is the park's own description from the park's own page. None of these is a current status.
Road or facilityParkNormal seasonWhat sets the datePark last updated
Henry M. Jackson Memorial Visitor Center at ParadiseMount Rainierusually daily from May to early October, then weekends only from mid October through AprilFixed by ruleJune 22, 2026
State Route 20 over Washington Pass and Rainy Pass5,477 ftNorth Cascadesthe North Cascades Highway is a state highway, closed most winters between Ross Dam and Early Winters and reopened by WSDOT in springMoves with the snowMay 15, 2025
Wilderness Information Center, MarblemountNorth Cascadesopen daily 15 May to 10 October in 2026Published datesJune 5, 2026
North Cascades Visitor Center, NewhalemNorth Cascadesopen daily 18 May to 27 September in 2026Published datesJune 5, 2026
White River Wilderness Information CenterMount Rainiergenerally open late May through mid OctoberFixed by ruleAugust 31, 2026
Obstruction Point Road6,150 ftOlympicweather and snow permitting, open from mid June through 15 OctoberMoves with the snowMay 26, 2026
Sunrise Road6,400 ftMount Rainierusually opens in late June or early July and closes in late September to early OctoberMoves with the snowDecember 5, 2025
Sunrise Visitor CenterMount Rainieropen from early July to early SeptemberMoves with the snowDecember 5, 2025
Hurricane Ridge Road5,242 ftOlympicplowed through the winter but closable at any hour, which is why the park runs a recorded phone line for itStorm closuresMay 26, 2026
Nisqually Entrance to Paradise, winter gate seasonMount Rainierthe only winter vehicle access to the park, gated at Longmire overnight, with tyre chains required in every vehicle from 1 November to 1 MayStorm closuresAugust 11, 2026

State Route 20 over Washington Pass and Rainy Pass. This is the one road in this vertical that no national park controls. State Route 20 runs through the park complex but it belongs to the Washington State Department of Transportation, which decides when the avalanche crews finish and the gates come up, and which publishes its own opening and closing history. The park links WSDOT rather than restating it, and so does this page.

Summarised from the state transport departments that run the highways outside park boundaries in our own words.

8
Roads and facilities with a season
Of 10 covered in Washington
4
Where a plow crew sets the date
The date moves with the snowpack
4
Where the park publishes dates
A schedule or a standing rule
2
Open all year
Storm closures rather than a season
Where today’s answer lives

Each Washington park publishes its own status

Nothing on this site knows what a road is doing this afternoon, and nothing on this site pretends to. Each block below is the park’s own page, with what it carries and the caveats that go with it.

Common questions

Washington park opening FAQ

Keep going

The rest of the Washington season

Park openings in the Pacific Northwest

Every state with a park season

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Every season and quotation on this page comes from a National Park Service page on www.nps.gov, read at build time on 3 September 2026 and shown with the park’s own last updated stamp rather than ours. NPS material is a work of the United States government and is in the public domain. Washington is one of 7 states where the opening date turns on plowing progress. In Glacier National Park’s words about its own status map: “This report contains the most recent information available for road, hiker/biker, and entrance closures as well as snowplow status. It may be outdated and inaccurate as our information can change quickly.” National picture: park road opening dates in every state