Rooks Park (WA) Bennington Lake
5Heads up5 fires, nearest 15 mi
This place has sites and nobody may sleep in them.Ask for camping here →
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 3 notices
In the agency’s own words
Rooks Park is day use only park, located 10 minutes east of Walla Walla, Washington. This 18-acre developed park offers visitors a wide variety of recreational opportunities. Keep reading
Recreation
Rooks Park's grassy spaces provide the ideal place for family picnics and games of volleyball, football or Frisbee. Visitors also enjoy cooling their feet in the creek.
Facilities
This day-use area is open year-round to foot traffic, and April to mid-October to vehicles. A group picnic shelter is available for reservations and can accommodate up to 75 people. Amenities include flush toilets, drinking water, a playground, sand volleyball court and horseshoe pit.
Natural Features
The park consists of large open spaces and smaller secluded areas for groups and families alike. Large trees and irrigated lawns offer shade and relief from Walla Walla's hot summer days.
Nearby Attractions
Bennington Lake is less than 10 minutes from Rooks Park. It is the only public lake in the Walla Walla Valley, covering approximately 52 surface acres. Throughout the spring, the lake is stocked with rainbow trout to enhance angling opportunities.
What the agency tells you
Gates open at 7 a.m. to the general public. Pavilion rental, made through REC.GOV starts at 7 am day of event and ends at 9 PM or sunset, whichever comes first. Set-up and clean-up for pavilion rental should occur during this window, and grills, and pavilion site used by guests should returned to original condition by responsible rental party prior to departing.
Important Notice for Guests and those renting the Pavilion at Rooks Park Rooks Park is a day use, family-friendly public space, and all pavilion rental guests are expected to follow established park rules and community norms during their visit. This includes, but is not limited to, the following: - ⛺NO CAMPING: Rooks Park is only day use. Reserving pavilion on REC.GOV does not allow guests to stay past - 🎶 Music: All music must be family-appropriate and kept at a reasonable volume to respect other park visitors. - 🐕 Pets: Dogs must remain on a leash at all times. - 🚫 Alcohol: Alcohol consumption is strictly prohibited in the park. Failure to comply with these guidelines may result in being asked to leave the premises, forfeiture of your rental fee (if you rented the pavilion), and potential fines. If you are planning activities that may fall outside standard park use—such as loud or live music, amplified sound, or other special arrangements—we strongly encourage you to contact the Walla Walla District Office at 509-527-7160 prior to booking through Rec.gov to discuss permitting requirements and ensure your event aligns with park policies.
Don't Move Firewood: Protect your forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…up to 75 people. Amenities include flush toilets, drinking water, a playground, sand volleyball…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…people. Amenities include flush toilets, drinking water, a playground, sand volleyball court and horseshoe…”
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Biking
- Hiking
- Mountain biking
- Mushroom Picking
- Picnicking
- Playground Park Specialized Sport Site
- Swimming
- Night sky · 393rd darkest of 400 in WA
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 10 days ago, 5 km away
- Peak color
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 16:24 UTC
The agency files 1 record here and marks it day use, not overnight. On its own record there’s nothing here to spend the night in.
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 12
What you actually pay
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 5
recreation.gov availability, read 16:24 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 records · the site map
All 1 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 1 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
| Rooks Park | Picnic Site | day use | 25 ft | 15 amp | 460 ft | 135 ft | $50 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It files it as day use. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Target Meadows CampgroundUmatilla National Forest · 21 mi
Jubilee Lake Campground (OR)Umatilla National Forest · 22 mi
Woodward CampgroundUmatilla National Forest · 22 miGodman Campground/TrailheadUmatilla National Forest · 23 mi
Godman Guard StationUmatilla National Forest · 23 miFrom Walla Walla, take Highway 12 East. Exit at Airport Way and turn right onto Airport Way. Drive .25 miles then turn left onto East Isaacs Ave. Continue onto Mill Creek Rd in .75 miles. Drive .5 miles then turn right onto Rooks Park Rd. Continue .25 miles to park.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Walla Walla, WA
Typical weather
Typical October night 44°F, day 63°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 30°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Rooks Park (WA) Bennington Lake is in Washington’s 5th congressional district. Its representative, Michael Baumgartner (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
The agency’s own record files sites here and marks every one of them day use. The draft asks whether any could open to overnight camping, and if not, why.
- The member who votes the moneyMichael BaumgartnerU.S. Representative · Washington’s 5th district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationMaria CantwellU.S. Senator · Washington
- Your senator, on the same appropriationPatty MurrayU.S. Senator · Washington
Read the draft, or change the wording
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Rooks Park (WA) Bennington Lake has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Michael Baumgartner, I’m a constituent in Washington’s 5th district. Rooks Park (WA) Bennington Lake, Washington carries 1 record on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Rooks Park (WA) Bennington Lake (Washington) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Rooks Park (WA) Bennington Lake has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Maria Cantwell, I’m a constituent in Washington. Rooks Park (WA) Bennington Lake, Washington carries 1 record on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Rooks Park (WA) Bennington Lake (Washington) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Rooks Park (WA) Bennington Lake has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Patty Murray, I’m a constituent in Washington. Rooks Park (WA) Bennington Lake, Washington carries 1 record on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Rooks Park (WA) Bennington Lake (Washington) via campanac.com