Where Can You Use Your Street Legal ATV (WATV) in Washington State?
Did you know that you can ride your ATV on many city and county roads in Washington State as long as it is licensed as a Wheeled All-Terrain Vehicle (WATV) and meets certain safety criteria? Washington State allows cities and counties to open up some or all of their roads with a speed limit of 35 mph or less to WATVs and 37 counties and 90 cities have taken advantage of the law to allow WATVs on some or all of their roads. It is important to note that cities and counties can authorize WATVs on just selected roads and that, with a few exceptions, WATVs are not allowed on state highways or on USFS roads that are not designated as open to off-road vehicles.
This map shows the counties and cities that currently have ordinances allowing WATVs. Most counties and cities allow WATVs on all roads with a speed limit less than 35mph but a few, like Pierce, only allow WATVs on named roads; Pacific County does not allow WATVs on the coastal areas; and two, Grant and Walla Walla, only allow WATVs on a few roads or for special events. Jump to the interactive map to see specific roads and city areas that are open to WATVs. We couldn’t keep up on areas open to WATVs without help from UTV Adventures which provides the current status of WATV rules on their website and also has guidebooks and information to help UTVers in Washington.
What is a WATV?
A WATV is a an ATV that meets on of the two sets of criteria in state law:
Any motorized nonhighway vehicle with handlebars that is fifty inches or less in width, has a seat height of at least twenty inches, weighs less than one thousand five hundred pounds, and has four tires having a diameter of thirty inches or less, or
A utility-type vehicle designed for and capable of travel over designated roads that travels on four or more low-pressure tires of twenty psi or less, has a maximum width less than seventy-four inches, has a maximum weight less than two thousand pounds, has a wheelbase of one hundred ten inches or less, and satisfies at least one of the following: (i) Has a minimum width of fifty inches; (ii) has a minimum weight of at least nine hundred pounds; or (iii) has a wheelbase of over sixty-one inches.
WATVs must also meet the safety requirements designated in RCW 46.09.457 as well as any additional requirements listed in the county or city ordinances including headlights that are used at all times, a tail light, a stop light, mirror, reflector windshield, horn, spark arrester, and breaks that meet the state standards.
Photo credit J. Hackett
In some counties, such as Okanogan and Spokane, where most of the county roads are 35mph or less, the WATV roads can provide a great resource for exploring the area, connecting communities, and tying in with state and forest service motorized roads. In other areas, such as Kittitas County, many county roads are 50mph and there are no forest service roads open to off-road vehicles, meaning that there are few opportunities to ride from a WATV road onto a state or federal recreation road.
WATV and ORV Rules in Okanogan County
Okanogan County’s WATV rules are more confusing than in other counties because roads that had been opened for ATVs under a county ordinance that predated the state law were grandfathered in, but some of those roads are not included in the county’s WATV ordinance. As a result, you have four types of county roads in Okanogan: those that are open to ATVs and WATVs, those that are open to WATVs but not ATVs (under the new laws), those that are open to ATVs but not WATVs becuase they were grandfathered in but do not meet the requirements of the WATV ordinance (ATVs that have a green tag because they have been licensed as WATVs), and those that are only open to street legal vehicles (not ATVs/WATVs).
Other Places to Ride Your UTV/WATV/SXS
Washington State has thousands of miles of recreation roads and trails open to WATVs and other ATVs, but make sure you understand the rules before you ride:
Any class of ATV, UTV, or SXS can use trails that are open to 4x4s with the exception of trails designated for 4x4s only, including the Reiter Foothills 4x4 trails.
Most USFS and Washington Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) ATV trails are only suitable for smaller ATVs (50” or less) and cannot be used by the wider UTVs and SXS.
Washington DNR rules on use of their roads can be confusing. In general, non-gated WDNR roads are open to all off-road vehicles—however, WDNR does not publish information on which roads are gated. In Chelan, Kittitas, and Washington State, WDNR and WDFW have defined a system of Green Dot roads that are open to all motorized use. In those counties, other roads on WDNR and WDFW lands are non-motorized only.
Any USFS recreation road that is open to ORVs can be used by WATVs and by other ATVs that do not have the WATV plate.
WATVs cannot use USFS roads that are limited to street legal vehicles only because the USFS does not consider ORVs with a WATV tag to be street legal. Most of the national forests in Washington have at least some roads that are designated for motorized use in their Motor Vehicle Usage Maps (MVUMs). However, Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest (which is on the east side of the Cascade Crest from the Canadian border to Yakima) has not completed the planning process and, as a result, none of the roads in the forest are open to off-road vehicles including WATVs.
Use the Off-Roading Northwest web map and mobile app to find and navigate all of the off-roading opportunities in Washington State, including the WATV roads and recreation roads/trails open to ATVs.
Use the filters to highlight places with UTV/WATV opportunities.
