Heads up - as of tomorrow (1 July) The Man is requiring cars to display the new Discovery Pass in order to park legally at many of the local access points (i.e., Kanasket Palmer)

http://discoverpass.wa.gov/

Info from the site...

The Discovery Pass is good for parking at all State Parks, Department of Natural Resources and Fish and Wildlife locations.
A one day pass costs $10.00 plus a $1.50 dealer fee and a one year pass is $30 plus a $5 dealer fee.
You can purchase a pass online and are able to print a temp pass until the real one arrives in the mail.
The Discovery Pass is also sold at all locations where fishing licenses are sold (i.e., Fred Meyer).

The fine is $99 for not displaying the pass.

Thanks for the link and reminder.  At least it covers both the DNR and State Park one - I seem to recall the last time there was a state park fee we had to pay for a separate State Park one.  That blows about the 1 car only rule.

yes, the bridge upstream of the park, but parking is pretty limited....

Also, I just bought a new fish and wildlife pass back in March...bummer...should have waited...

I know somebody that did that once with temporary car tabs....

It's a criminal offense then, pretty sure it would be as well with these passes, just an FYI...

Before everyone gets all crazy, I have some good information.

First I called Fish and Game and was given the following web link. I was pissed because the old WDFW parking permit that was given with Fishing license used to be honored at all state parks with fishing access so long as a separate fee was not posted. Going forward they said they are looking at three options.

1. Increasing fishing license fees an additional $30.00 to include the Discovery Pass.
2. Decrease fishing license fees a few dollars to offset the number of locations no longer honoring the WDFW parking pass. Since WDFW still has certain places that are non state park fishing access locations (IE Rodeo Hole) they still will charge a separate amount for the parking at these locations included in fishing permits.
3. Remove the Parking Permit portion of Fishing licenses altogether and require users to purchase a Discovery Pass separately.

Regardless of those options the good news is that you don't have to worry until March 2012 about this stuff because all Current WDFW parking permits are being honored until next year when they make the change.

SEE LINK HERE : http://wdfw.wa.gov/licensing/discoverpass/

Am I missing something here?  We're talking about $30 a year to park at all trailhead parking lots and state parks.  Sounds reasonable to me.  Especially if the other option is closing access.

James, you and Brian are the opposite sides of the same coin...

Thanks for all the info guys! Especially good to know for my arrival back home

This just in. I was at Flaming Geyser yesterday and they would not allow me to use my WDFW parking pass there anymore. So wether this is true or not I don't know, but the ranger told me that the Dept of F&W used to maintain fishing access points within the park and when this new bill went into effect the Dept of Fish and Wildlife removed the responsibility to manage the access points within all state parks. So the only places that WDFW parking pass works at is WDFW ONLY access points like Rodeo Hole.

I had a printed out copy of the signed bill and the WDFW statements saying that parks were covered for the remainder of this year and the ranger said you can come on in but I will give you a ticket and you can explain it to the courts and see if they agree.

Wow that ranger at FG was a jerk- instead of saying something like, "Good point, I need to look into that," he/she acts like some kind of hard ass. My guess is that this all happened so fast that no one really knows what the rules are and why I thought the deal was that it was going to be warning citations only until they got their act together. All these agencies have their a-holes and their saints, but regardless they all have distinct ways they like to do things. What a c-f indeed.

We are all pretty much screwed...pretty soon you will have so many passes hanging from your mirror you wont be able to see out the window!

OK, I figured out how to use the pass for multiple vehicles.

I tried all kinds of ink on the paper they use and found that the WET ERASE ink is the best...the dry erase leaves a residue that is detecable, the wet erase, when you get it wet, removes all traces of any thing on the paper.

 

So, get a wet erase felt pen then you can change the license # to any vehicle. You just have to remember to take the pen with you.

 

I hope I dont go to Jail for this discovery...