Mason County, WA Curfew Laws: Park Curfew (2026)

Chapter 2.53 of the Mason County Code, adopted by the Board of County Commissioners under Resolution No. 33-11 on May 10, 2011, sets the terms for use of county park sites. Item 15 of the policy at § 2.53.030 states plainly that park operation hours are daylight hours only, and that the only way around that is prior approval from Parks and Trails Department staff for special arrangements, the same office that issues the special event permits covered under item 5 of the same section.

Because the hours rule is written as one of the numbered "terms and conditions" governing use of Mason County park property, item 11 requires every park user, not just special event participants, to observe it along with the rest of the enumerated rules. Item 14 backs the hours limit with a real consequence: anyone acting disruptively, including a person who refuses to leave after closing, will be asked to leave the park and can be subject to arrest. In practice this means a visitor found in a Mason County park site after daylight ends, without an approved special arrangement on file with Parks and Trails, has no defense that the gate was unlocked or the lot was unposted; the ordinance itself sets the boundary.

The policy applies countywide to unincorporated Mason County park sites operated by Parks and Trails, including facilities such as Sandhill Park, Oakland Bay Park and the Mason County Recreation Area, and it sits alongside, rather than inside, the separate special event permitting process, so a group with an approved after-hours special event still needs the department's advance sign-off under item 15 to be there once daylight ends.