Lake Wenatchee has a beach wheelchair available for visitors with limited mobility

Washington State Parks are moving towards making their beaches more accessible. At Lake Wenatchee State Park, there’s a new fixed frame beach wheelchair available for visitors to use for free. 

The beach wheelchair’s design includes three wide wheels that allow people to move steadily through shifting and uneven terrain. A regular wheelchair’s tires can’t pass through sand, limiting beach access.   

 A Community Partnership grant from Confluence Health and the Wenatchee Valley Medical Group funded the beach wheelchair project.

“We are really excited about this cool community partnership. We hope that this will push parks to expand accessibility among all of their parks,” said Zach Shirk, a Lake Wenatchee State Park ranger.

The grant also distributes funds to other organizations in Chelan, Douglas, Grant and Okanogan counties that are focused on arts and culture, health and education in their communities.

“Little things like this make a huge difference and people should not be limited to enjoying our parks because they have limited mobility,” Shirk said. 

Visitors using the wheelchair are asked to bring a companion, since the beach wheelchair is non motorized. Previously, visitors were limited to an accessible beach mat. That mat could be placed on the sand for individuals using regular or motorized wheelchairs to get close to the water.

The wheelchair is free for visitors on a first come first serve basis. Visitors can make  reservations in advance by calling the Lake Wenatchee State Park office at 509-763-3101.