Picnics, camping,
retreats: Park is a
hidden jewel
By Jeanie Senior
S
unlight filters through tall
trees as birds serenade the
animals scurrying along the
forest floor.
Bob Broad, the head ranger at
Brooks Memorial State Park, states
the obvious: The park is a great
escape.
“It’s very quiet here,” Bob says of
Brooks Park, located 13 miles north
of Goldendale on U.S. 97.
The park spans both sides of the
highway and includes more than
700 acres of pine and alder forest in
the Simcoe Mountains.
“We don’t get a lot of rowdy peo-
ple,” he says. “It’s a place to come
and get away from the crowd.”
In 2003, the park had 113,000
visitors, down from 146,000 in
2002—a decline that may have
something to do with the state’s new
$5-per-car day-use fee, Bob says.
The park’s picnic area, which
includes two kitchen shelters, a ball
field and a swing set, is popular for
family gatherings.
But even in the summer, the
park’s 45-space campground—23
spaces with full hookups, 22 tent
spaces—virtually never fills up.
Many of the visitors who flock to
the park are bird watchers. Brooks
Park has an immense variety of
birds, including wild turkeys.
Bob says visitors also might see
deer, and occasionally a bear, cougar, badger or coyote.
In the winter, of course, picnickers stay away. With the park at
2,600 feet elevation, the snow can
pile up.
Although the campground is
open year-round, “it’s not very utilized at all in the winter,” Bob says.
By late February, the number of
campers in 2004 totaled “maybe
three.”
Boy Scout troops occasionally
show up for winter campouts in the
snow, but that’s pretty much it, he
says. The off season is a chance for
Bob and ranger Adam Fahlenkamp
to catch up on maintenance.
Bob, who transferred to Brooks
nine years ago from Moran State
Park in the San Juan Islands, says
the move was a promotion opportunity. He grew up in the Bremerton
area, attending school in Silverdale
and college in Bremerton.
He has been a park ranger since
1984.
“I liked to visit the parks as a
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younger person, and when I got a
job as a park aide I decided to stick
with it,” he says.
Adam grew up in Goldendale,
got a degree in recreation management from Central Washington
University in Ellensburg, then
spent a couple of seasons as a fishing guide in Alaska’s Bristol Bay
region. He worked at a lodge where
guests paid $5,800 for a week’s stay,
including day flights into superb
fishing streams.
“The fishing was unreal,” he
recalls.
He took the state parks job two
years ago.
Bob and Adam, who live in state
parks-provided houses at Brooks,
say they enjoy their duties as rangers, which can range from park
maintenance to law enforcement,
administration and interpretation.
Bob calls Brooks a little jewel
among Washington state’s 120
developed state parks, one that’s not
very well known outside the immediate area.
The park was acquired in six parcels between 1944 and 1957.It is
named for Nelson B. Brooks—an
early local resident who “is credited with establishing an excellent
community road system,” according to Washington State Parks. The
late Emmett Clouse, manager of
Klickitat County PUD for many
years, is said to have lobbied for the
park’s creation.
Besides the campground and
picnic area on the west side of the
highway, Brooks’ facilities on the
east side of the highway includes a
group camp and the cluster of cabins and main lodge that compose
one of Washington State Parks’ 12
Environmental Learning Centers.
“That’s actually our main thing
here, that keeps us going,” says Bob.
When the learning centers were
built, Bob says, “they were aimed
toward school groups as the main
user group,” providing a place
where school children could learn
about nature. Now, in part because
of school funding issues, the focus
has shifted.
“The main people that use it now
are family reunions,” Bob says. “We
have a lot of church groups, some
school groups.”
As a result, he says, the state
is considering renaming the
Environmental Learning Centers,
“Retreat Centers.”
“They have just kind of evolved
through the last several years,” Bob
says. “We only have one school
that’s been coming every April,
from Sherman County, and due to
the Oregon economy, they have
cut back from three weeks to one
week. Next year, we may not even
see them.”
Goldendale Elementary School
comes out for an environmental day
“in fact, two or three times a year in
the last couple of years,” Bob says.
The group facility, which is open
April through October, was built
about 40 years ago. It can accommodate up to 104 people.
Cabins and A-frames scattered
in the ponderosa pine woods provide sleeping accommodations for
72 people. There are two toilet and
shower buildings, and a main lodge
with a fully equipped kitchen and
a great room that can be used for
dining or meetings.
While the cabins sit in the woods,
the lodge is at the edge of a meadow,
with the Little Klickitat River flowing nearby. A deck overlooks picnic
benches, a volleyball net and a bas-
On the opposite page, A-frame cabins are available for groups at Brooks Memorial
State Park. Above, the cabins have enough beds for 72 people.
program. The students hear talks
from a wildlife agent and others
who work for several Washington
state agencies.
One of the more interesting
groups to rent the learning/retreat
center is the New England Reenactors Organization (NERO).
Members of the group dress
in costumes inspired by the
Renaissance era and stage mock
battles.
“Not as dark and sinister as dungeons and dragons,” Bob says.
The group has come every year,
ketball court. A softball field is nearby, and nine miles of hiking trails
wind their way through the trees. ■
Day-use rates at the learning center
are $3 plus tax per person, with a minimum charge for 40 people. Overnight
rates are $330 plus tax for up to 40
people, with a charge of $8.25 plus
tax for each additional person. Kitchen
utensils, beds or cots, tables and chairs,
and cleaning supplies are furnished;
bedding, kitchen linens, firewood, first
aid and recreational equipment must be
furnished by campers.
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