ginkgo petrified forest state park

Driving from Seattle to Spokane. We weren't in a hurry and saw the sign. Decided to check it out. There were a few interesting things to briefly look at and the surrounding high desert is beautiful, but I would take the time to stop again. I can't say it was worth the short detour off I-90. Blah was our reaction. If you want to stretch your legs it might be an okay place to stop, but not really any more interesting than the rest stop on I-90 and at least there's a restroom at the rest stop.

Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park is small, but has a great story. Plenty of well-preserved petrified logs are found around the building. These are not ginkgo logs; the park is named for the most scientifically interesting logs found here, not the most common logs. You'll have to go inside to see some petrified ginkgo (these logs mark the most recent native ginkgo in the U. S.). Plenty of petrified wood is on display, and nicely viewed as polished sections, and the video is good to watch as well. In addition to the petrified wood, nice petroglyphs can be seen from an easy (and short) trail below the visitor center. To cap off our visit, several desert big horn sheep visited the parking lot while we were there.

Yutah my wolamute and I visited the park today to see the rock art. These petroglyphs were removed before the dams in order to “preserve” them. As you can see in the photos they were chiseled off and many were broken. Then they were cemented back together and cemented onto basalt outside of the parks museum. The context, and meaning of them were lost in the removal and relocation. The “Twins” are a reoccurring symbol through out the western and south western areas of the country and there are many legends of twin heros. There are also lots of sheep symbols and we saw lots of live ones as we pulled into the park. for photos of this trip and other places Yutah has been, check out her Face book page https://www.facebook.com/yutahsadventures

Owner wouldn't let my wife throw away an empty drinking cup. They didn't have any trash cans around.That really turned us off to purchasing anything in there.

We only stopped at the roadside scenic point but the views were well worth it. There was other places to stop but didn't.

Building has been updated since it was built, not much to see inside. Outside is a great view of the river, Ok place to take a stop on road trip, but not much really to see and do.

This place is located right at intersection of I-90 with Columbia River, about 2 hours from Seattle. The park itself isn't very big, and consists of an interpretive center on edge of a cliff, and beach access to the river down below. On the day we were there, there was dam work being done, and so the access to the river was closed.You will need a Washington Discovery Pass to park here, although enforcement seemed more or less voluntary. There are petrified wood pieces scattered around the interpretive center, although they looked obviously place there, as they were more or less evenly spaced.Inside, there are some exhibits. There is a small video-viewing area, but you have to ask for them to show the dvd's. It seemed too much troubles, so we didn't bother.The view from the Interpretive Center is very nice, as you can see the Columbia River and I-90 on the other bank.

The Wanapum dam has a crack , so the lake was down 30 ft. The state campgrounds are closed as of 3/2/14.Nice area but kinda of a bummer to try to camp. When we left a lady did say she worked at a private campround . Free showers 14 $ a night.

We arrived in Vantage on a Friday so the Ginkgo State Park was closed. We talked to the owner of the Ginkgo Gem Shop and that was a blast! It was even better than I remember from visits in the 60's and 70's. We learned a lot about rocks and look forward to returning again.

We stopped mainly to see the river since it has been drawn down due to a crack in the Wanapum Dam downstream. From the visitor center patio there is a panoramic view of the river. You are able to see the old highway (US 10) as it disappears into the water below. There are several outdoor exhibits explaining the geologic history of this area, as well as several pieces of petrified logs, which was good since the visitor center was closed. The sign on the door indicated that it should be open, however we didn't see anyone around. There is a fee for parking since this is a Washington State Park. If you have the yearly pass, it is probably worth the stop If you have to pay the $10.00 just to visit here, it probably isn't.

My wife and I stopped here after a concert at the Gorge this summer. I was very impressed by the petrified trees and the center. I learned a lot about how trees become petrified. The scenery is fantastic! I'd recommend stopping by if you are in the area.

Apparently we completely missed the actual petrified forest but we did stop by the visitor center. The area around the visitor center had petrified wood you could touch, a wall of petroglyphs, and beautiful views of the Columbia River and I90 bridge over it. You can pay a suggested $1 entrance for the interpretive center but we didn't so I can't share what was there. The fee for the park itself is $10/day or $30/annually with the Discover Pass which we have. This may seem steep if you only visit the area around the visitor center (which is why I recommend the Discover Pass which will almost make you visit many state parks to get your money's worth). There's an area where you can picnic.The actual forest must be down the road past the visitor center. We drove down the road and apparently had blinders on because we didn't see anything indicating it in either direction. We drove down by the water's edge and back up in the other direction to a street that took us back to a main road. I guess we didn't look hard enough.

What a location! My only regret was the visitor center was not open. Even so, just the petrified wood around the center and the view of the Columbia river was worth the stop. I took the 1.5 mile trail located a bit down the road from the visitor center and found that interesting but not as interesting as the area around the visitor center.

The Ginkgo Petrified Forest is a neat place to stop on your roadtrip and stretch your legs. We were able to walk through a small area near the interpretive center and see amazing pieces of history and the story behind them. Please be careful in the summer time of rattle snakes! Beautiful views of the Columbia River - worth stopping to see. Please see the photos I took to share the experience.

We were driving back home from Montana and wanted to stop here. We missed the exit, and drove another 40 miles to the next exit just to be able to turn around! So we turned around, and got there at 9:20am. The sign on the museum/visitor's center said they didn't open until 10am and we had to get a Discovery Pass (State Parks Parking pass). The sign stated if the museum was closed, we could go to the general store in Vantage to buy one. So we turned around AGAIN. At the general store, the lady said the computer was broken, and she couldn't sell us a Discovery Pass. So we took a little drive to wait until 10am, and we even stopped at the little rock and gem shop to waste more time. We drove back to the museum and got there at 10:15 and they were STILL CLOSED (it was Saturday October 6th). I didn't want to find out how much of a fine we'd get if we didn't buy the pass, so we left. I even saw another person trying to figure out what to do, we both agreed the park didn't want us to visit, so both of us left. I'd probably recommend you get a Discovery Pass anywhere else but in Vantage. The park apparently isn't a place you can visit on a spur of the moment...too bad since there really isn't much to see in that area anyway, unless you are on your way to see a concert at the Gorge.