Alta Lake State Park RV & Campground Guide

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife notes that Alta Lake holds up well to summer fishing and has healthy kokanee salmon and rainbow trout populations. You'll have a shot at trout in the 11 to 13 inch range, with holdovers from previous seasons potentially reaching 16 inches or more. Salmon fishing has picked up since 2014, with specimens in the 11 to 13 inch size commonly harvested by anglers.

If you want to try your skill with a scavenger hunt, try finding the park's hidden secret while you are here. Washington State Parks supports this activity, and sites like Geocaching.com list cache locations you can hunt for.

You can grab your binoculars or camera and enjoy the variety of avian and mammalian species when you aren't out fishing. Birders can observe crows, ravens, doves, pigeons, ducks, eagles, geese, grouse, gulls, hawks, hummingbirds, jays, owls, quail, woodpeckers, and wrens. On the ground, you might encounter bears, bobcats, chipmunks, coyotes, deer, elk, marmots, muskrats, rabbits, raccoons, or squirrels.

You can enjoy decent dark skies here that rate as Class 3 Rural on the Bortle Dark-Sky Scale. Naked-eye observations of objects with 6.99 magnification (M) are possible and will extend to 16 M at 320mm magnification. These conditions allow you to see complex structures within our galaxy's center and clearly make out the Andromeda galaxy with averted vision.

If you are a naturalist who enjoys time among the state's vegetation, Alta Lake State Park lets you observe many plants firsthand. Some species found in the park include berries, birch, cherry, daisies, Douglas fir, lupines, maple, Ponderosa pine, poplar, roses, and thistle. Just exercise caution around the park's allergenic plants like poison ivy.

Getting out on the waters of Alta Lake is a must-do for many park visitors, and the two watercraft launches and 60-foot dock facilitate this. Regulations here limit personal watercraft and water-skiing operations to daytime hours only, and you will need a launch permit. The water in the southern portion of the lake is shallow enough to bottom out on, so use caution.

A roped-off swimming area on the northwest shoreline allows swimmers to enjoy the blue waters of Alta Lake without worrying about watercraft. The shoreline is ideal for warming up in the sun between dips and fills with visitors looking to sunbathe during the summer. It is worth noting that there are no lifeguards on duty here.