What it would take for Buc-ee’s to finally open in Washington

Washington still does not have a Buc-ee’s, and for Pacific Northwest road-trippers, that feels like a missed opportunity.

The Texas-based travel center chain has become famous for its massive stores, clean bathrooms, barbecue sandwiches, Beaver Nuggets, branded merchandise and rows of fuel pumps. Buc-ee’s has already expanded far beyond Texas, with new locations moving into the South, Midwest and West.

But Washington remains outside the beaver’s reach. The closest current Buc-ee’s to Washington is the Johnstown, Colorado location on Interstate 25 — open since March 2024 and still about a 16-hour drive from Seattle.

That gap is especially noticeable as Buc-ee’s keeps pushing into new markets. The company has confirmed first-time locations across at least eight new states between 2026 and 2027 — Arizona, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin. As we’ve seen with more states on Buc-ee’s expansion radar, western expansion is no longer just a fantasy.

The chain is finally moving west — but slowly

The clearest sign of Buc-ee’s western momentum is Goodyear, Arizona, where the chain’s first Arizona location is set to open on June 22, 2026, at Interstate 10 and Bullard Avenue. That store will measure 74,000 square feet — a typical Buc-ee’s footprint, with 120 fueling positions and several hundred parking spaces.

Beyond Arizona, two other western projects are in active development:

• Utah: The Springville City Council unanimously approved a memorandum of understanding with Buc-ee’s in September 2025 for a 74,000-square-foot store at I-15 Exit 261, with 120 fueling stations and roughly 200 full-time employees. Construction is expected to take just over two years.
• Idaho: Buc-ee’s met with Meridian city officials in June 2025 about a potential site near I-84 and Meridian Road. That project, however, hit a major roadblock. In January 2026, the Idaho Transportation Department deemed the proposal “not feasible” because of the traffic strain a Buc-ee’s would put on an already congested interchange. The company’s engineers proposed a “flyover structure” to address the issue, but state officials remained skeptical without a formal traffic-impact study.

There has also been rumored interest in a Las Vegas-area location, though nothing has been confirmed.

So Washington isn’t being singled out. It’s just farther down a careful list. And Buc-ee’s general counsel Jeff Nadalo has publicly said the company is “looking everywhere” and that “no state is off the radar.”

Requirement one: the right highway

Buc-ee’s is not a normal gas station. It is a road-trip destination. The company needs long-distance traffic, easy exits, large parcels and enough room for a huge store, fuel pumps, parking, road improvements and heavy customer volume.

Washington does have highways that could work.

Interstate 5 is the obvious one. It runs through the state’s biggest population corridor, connecting Vancouver, Olympia, Tacoma, Seattle, Everett and Bellingham. It also carries travelers moving between Oregon, British Columbia and the rest of the West Coast.

But I-5 is also crowded, expensive and heavily developed in many places where Buc-ee’s might want to be. Land near the busiest exits can be costly, politically complicated or already spoken for.

That means a Washington Buc-ee’s would probably need to be outside the densest parts of Seattle and Tacoma. A site near Olympia, Lacey, Centralia, Chehalis, Vancouver or north of Everett could make more sense than trying to fit a Buc-ee’s into the state’s most congested areas.

Interstate 90 is another possibility.

A Buc-ee’s east of the Seattle metro area could serve drivers heading toward Snoqualmie Pass, Ellensburg, Spokane and Idaho. That corridor has road-trip traffic, mountain travel, college-town traffic and long-distance drivers moving across the state — and the route is part of the longest interstate in the country, stretching all the way from Seattle to Boston.

Ellensburg or another Central Washington location could be especially interesting because it would sit between Western and Eastern Washington.

Requirement two: enough land in the right place

Buc-ee’s needs a lot of it. Newer travel centers typically include a 74,000-square-foot store, around 120 fueling positions, hundreds of parking spaces, delivery access and enough room to handle crowds. At peak times, a Buc-ee’s can see well over a thousand cars coming and going per hour.

That makes site selection more like an industrial development than a corner gas station. The right site has to be near a major highway, easy to reach, big enough to handle the volume, and acceptable to local officials and nearby residents.

That last part may be the biggest challenge.

Buc-ee’s projects can bring jobs, tax revenue and tourism buzz. But they can also bring concerns about traffic, noise, lighting, fuel infrastructure and the scale of development. In Washington, where the State Environmental Policy Act, local zoning and traffic-impact reviews can shape major projects, a Buc-ee’s proposal would likely face close scrutiny.

The Idaho rejection is a useful preview. There, the project did not fail because residents didn’t want a Buc-ee’s — it failed because state transportation officials were not convinced that traffic could be handled at the proposed exit. Washington has plenty of corridors where the same conversation could play out, especially anywhere near I-5 in the Puget Sound region.

Requirement three: a stronger western network first

Buc-ee’s may also want a stronger western network in place before stretching into the Pacific Northwest.

Right now, the chain’s western footprint is essentially Colorado — open since 2024 — plus Goodyear, Arizona opening this summer, the Springville, Utah site in development, and the failed Meridian, Idaho attempt. That is a thin Mountain West presence, and Washington would represent a significant logistical jump from the chain’s distribution hubs in Texas.

Stronger Arizona, Utah, Idaho and possibly Nevada locations could make Washington look less isolated. So could continued progress in Oregon, though no Oregon site has been confirmed either.

For now, Washington has the drivers, the highways and the curiosity.

What it does not have is an official Buc-ee’s announcement, a confirmed site or a clear development path.

Until that changes, Washington will remain one of the biggest Buc-ee’s blank spots in the West.

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