It was in November, 2001 when SnoWest first presented exclusive information on which national parks and monuments allowed snowmobiling. Most snowmobilers know about riding in Yellowstone National and Grand Teton National Parks, as well as Crater Lake National Park, but many are surprised to find out you can actually snowmobile in more than a dozen national parks and monuments across the western United States.
We've had the opportunity to experience snowmobiling in a half-dozen of those parks and monuments and each experience was as unique as the parks themselves.
The purpose of this report isn't to make any claims about how good the snowmobiling is in the national parks open to sledding. Rather, we're presenting this information for the purpose of giving sledders options when they go riding. There are a small number of national parks and monuments which are snowmobile destinations unto themselves-like Yellowstone National Park or Newberry National Volcanic Monument-but most are simply a nice side trip if you're in the area. For example, if you're riding the Diamond Lake (OR) area, you should definitely visit Crater Lake National Park or if you're riding the southern Cascade Range in southwest Washington, then it's worth it to ride up to the Windy Ridge Viewpoint where you can get an awesome look at the Mt. St. Helen's volcano crater.