Andy Tullis / The BulletinA parking regulation sign at Wanoga Sno-park. Sno-park permits are required for parking in sno-parks through April 30.

Even though sno-parks near Bend are snowless, the state is still requiring sno-park parking permits until the end of the April.

“Technically, people who are going to park in the sno-park need to have those passes,” said Lt. Josh Brooks, spokesman for the Oregon State Police in Salem.

A warm winter with light snowfall in Central Oregon has left the popular sno-parks along Century Drive looking more like May than March. Regardless, it’s the calendar and not the snowpack that regulates when sno-park permits should be on dashboards of cars and trucks parked at the sno-parks.

The state requires sno-park parking permits from Nov. 1 until April 30 — snow or no snow.

The Oregon Department of Transportation sells the permits, and OSP handles enforcement, passing out warnings and citations for people parked at the sno-parks without them displayed properly.

Money brought in from permit sales covers the costs of clearing snow at sno-parks, said Sally Ridenour, spokeswoman for the Department of Transportation in Salem. Over the past three years, the department has sold an average of 154,000 sno-park parking permits, bringing in an average of $1.58 million a year.

During years like this, with little snow, she said ODOT saves up the money for a snowy sno-park season. “That carryover helps to cover those years when we have an incredible amount of snow,” Ridenour said, “when it comes early and stays later.”

This winter was definitely not a year with that amount of snow at the sno-parks.

“In my book, winter ended back in February,” said Chris Sabo, trails specialist for the Deschutes National Forest.

He said the only sno-park near Bend with snow on the ground is Dutchman Flat Sno-park, near the base of Mount Bachelor.

As for those sno-parks closer to town along Century Drive, he said their trail conditions seem more like May than March. Some of the sno-parks also serve as trailheads for hiking or mountain biking and could see more users soon.

“(It is) looking like it is going to be a very, very long summer trail season,” Sabo said.

— Reporter: 541-617-7812, ddarling@bendbulletin.com