Washington’s abandoned sites split cleanly into two groups: places the state or a public agency has turned into managed trails and parks, and places on private or utility land where there is no legal way in at all. Knowing which is which saves you a wasted drive.
What is actually there
The Satsop nuclear plant near Elma was never finished and never fuelled. WNP-3 stalled at about 76 percent complete in 1983 and WNP-5 was terminated in 1982. The 1,700-acre site is now Satsop Business Park, run by the Port of Grays Harbor, with real tenants and regular film shoots. The reactor structures and cooling towers are not open to casual visitors.
Northern State Hospital at Sedro-Woolley is not an overgrown ruin. The grounds are the Northern State Recreation Area, with maintained trails, restrooms and picnic shelters, and part of the historic campus is in use as the Cascades Job Corps academy. The derelict farm buildings and the patient cemetery, about 1,487 graves, are still there.
Fort Worden at Port Townsend is an operating state historical park. Its concrete batteries are Ash, Benson, Brannan, Kinzie, Powell, Putnam, Quarles, Randol, Stoddard, Tolles, Vicars and Walker. There is no Battery Russell here, despite what the lists say: that one is at Fort Stevens in Oregon.
The Iron Goat Trail above Skykomish runs along the old Great Northern grade past the Wellington avalanche site, where 96 people died on 1 March 1910. The concrete snow sheds built after the disaster survive and are preserved along the route.
Vance Creek Bridge near Shelton is shut. The owner put in barriers and surveillance in 2014 and stripped the approach decking and ties in 2016 specifically to stop people walking out onto it. Photos showing a walkable deck are a decade out of date.
Lester has nothing left. Tacoma Water demolished the last standing buildings, the final two in spring 2017, and visitors since have found only foundations and debris.
What you can visit legally
Fort Worden is open, with a Discover Pass required and the batteries walk-in accessible, though some magazines are gated. The Iron Goat Trail is Forest Service land with public access and a Northwest Forest Pass at the trailheads. Northern State’s recreation area, farm-building exteriors and cemetery are open on foot; building interiors and the Job Corps campus are not. Satsop is reachable only by tenancy, film permit or arranged visit. Vance Creek is private timberland and visiting is trespass. Lester sits inside Tacoma’s closed Green River watershed, which is signed and patrolled, and there is no legal way to go.
Bring a light if you go into the Fort Worden batteries: the magazines are unlit and there are open shafts and vertical drops.
See the full list of abandoned places in Washington, with a verified status and check date for every site.