OKANOGAN WHO?
There could be some snowmobilers, especially from Washington, who have made it this far into this article and are asking themselves: Snowmobiling in the Okanogan? That sounds kind of familiar.
How about if we mention the Methow Valley? Oh yea, that place. The Methow Valley is familiar to many western snowmobilers who know it for its rugged terrain, excellent snow conditions and long riding season. The Methow Valley is just one part of Okanogan County and the place we spent our three days playing on the snow.
The Methow is home to a majority of the groomed trails found in the county, so it sees the most traffic, when there is snowmobile traffic.
Looking at the bigger picture when it comes to winter in the Okanogan County, there are more than 400 miles of groomed trails scattered all over the area, all accessed by 10 different sno parks. Just looking at that sno park information shows how varied the riding is around the county. Trail systems range from 134 miles of groomed paths to as few as 33-mile systems and elevations range from 2,050 feet (Boulder Creek Sno Park north of Winthrop) to 4,500 feet (Crawfish Sno Park, located east of Riverside in the eastern part of the county). Most of the sno parks are in the 2,000-foot plus elevation range. All that doesn't even include two additional sno parks in the southwest part of Okanogan County where there's another 100 miles of groomed trails, part of which spill over into Chelan County. So there's no shortage of groomed trails or access to them.
There's also no shortage of off-trail riding, which we quickly found out our first day of riding out of Winthrop and more specifically, Eightmile Sno Park, just north of the Chewack River Guest Ranch.