The official name for this Washington State Parks property is Washington State Parks Packwood Property. This land was transferred to Parks in 1990 with the intent of becoming Packwood State Park or Skate Creek State Park. For reasons lost to history, perhaps lack of funding or the property not fitting Washington State Parks’s model of what a park should be, this property never became an official state park but remains an orphan in the inventory of lands owned by Washington State Parks.
The property straddles the last 3/4 mile of Skate Creek from Craig Road on the North to where it empties into the Cowlitz river on the south. The property is bordered on the east by Skate Creek Road (NF 52) and on the north and west by Craig Road and on the south by approximately .4 miles of Cowlitz river frontage. It is bordered on the southeast and northeast corners by several private residences and parcels.
Residents and visitors to Packwood who learn about this treasured natural resource and enjoy it realize that it would be a travesty for this land to be lost to the public and hope that the original intent for setting this land aside for perpetual future use by the public is fullfilled. Visit the Parks website to learn more.