John Puschock asked on the state park closure and birder's access. I see that posts so far haven't answered him, so wanted to take the opportunity to do so. The term closure here means something completely different than "closed off-limits". As state parks are primarily for recreational activites such as family, boat launching, camping etc.. the parks close down and close their gates in the winter and you can't camp, drive in, launch your boat, bathrooms are closed etc.. etc.. however if you want to park a car outside of the gate and walk in, this is still state of Washington land and a public park and nobody will have a problem with it. Wanapum state park near Vantage is closed in the winter for camping, and day use so the day use and campground areas are gated off. If I see the ranger I'll usually ask permission (which is always granted) but one doesn't need to. The reason for closure in these areas isnt to protect anything, its that due to limited state budgets the parks service has to make decisions on which parks get the lowest winter use and thus not worth keeping open. You probably wont find any facilities open like restrooms, but nobody is going to have a problem with you hiking around the park grounds to look for birds.

Scott Downes
downess at charter.net
Yakima WA