Federal Public Lands
National forests, a national volcanic monument, a national park and BLM land: most of the places in our guides are federal, and each agency has its own passes, permits and conditions pages.
Who manages the place decides how you visit it.
Most of the places TC writes about are federal land. The Deschutes and Willamette National Forests hold the sno-parks, the Cascade summits, Chush and Benham Falls and Cougar Hot Springs. The Newberry National Volcanic Monument, inside the Deschutes, holds Paulina Lake Hot Springs, Lava River Cave and the Lava Cast Forest. The Siuslaw and Umpqua National Forests hold Drift Creek Falls and Moonfalls, and the Wallowa-Whitman holds the Eagle Cap Wilderness. Olympic Hot Springs is in Olympic National Park, managed by the NPS, and Red Rock Canyon is a BLM National Conservation Area.
The agency sets the terms. Many Forest Service trailheads in our guides take a Northwest Forest Pass or an America the Beautiful pass for parking, the NPS takes the America the Beautiful pass at Olympic, and Recreation.gov handles the permits with quotas, such as the Central Cascades Wilderness Permit and Lava River Cave's timed entry (USFS, NPS). Fees change; each guide names its source and the date we checked.
Conditions live on the agency pages too: road and trail status, closures and fire restrictions on the forest's website, and InciWeb for wildfire incidents. Below are the guides set on federal land and the agency sites we link most.
Guides on federal public lands
National forests, the monument, the park and BLM land, newest first.
Current access and conditions
The agencies that manage these places publish the fees, closures and conditions; each guide names the one it used.