Washington · Long-distance trail

Wonderland Trail

93 mi long · in Washington · centroid 58 mi from Seattle

The Wonderland Trail is a 93-mile loop circling Mount Rainier in Washington's Mount Rainier National Park. With approximately 22,000 feet of cumulative elevation gain, it is one of the most demanding long-distance trails in the National Park system. Permits are required for backcountry camping and are highly competitive.

States: Washington
Length: 93 mi
Trail type: Long-distance trail
Network: Regional (rwn)
Centroid nearest city: Seattle, WA · 58 mi · ~1.7 hr drive
Centroid coords: 46.8618°, -121.7588°
Official site: www.nps.gov/mora/planyourvisit/the-wonderland-trail.htm
OSM relations: 1 sub-relations on OpenStreetMap

From Wikipedia: The Wonderland Trail is an approximately 93-mile (150 km) hiking trail that circumnavigates Mount Rainier in Mount Rainier National Park, Washington, United States. The trail goes over many ridges of Mount Rainier for a cumulative 22,000 feet (6,700 m) of elevation gain. The trail was built in 1915. In 1981, it was designated a National Recreation Trail. An estimated 200 to 250 people a year complete the entire trail with several thousand others doing shorter sections of it. The average time taken to complete the entire trip is 10 to 14 days. Excerpt from the Wikipedia article on Wonderland Trail, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Termini

Start & end

Loop: 93-mile loop around Mount Rainier.

Plan your hike

Practical notes

Maps + permits: long-distance trails like this often require permits for through-hiking, backcountry camping, or specific sections (especially in National Parks). Check with the maintaining organisation listed above and the relevant land manager before booking travel.

Water + supplies: water sources vary seasonally on most U.S. trails. Carry a filter and consult current trail-condition reports — through-hiker journals (PCT-L, AT Reddit, etc.) and the maintaining organisation publish regular updates.

When to go: hiking seasons vary widely with elevation, latitude, and snowpack. Through-hikers traditionally start the AT in March-April (Springer northbound) and the PCT in late April (Campo northbound). High-elevation western trails (CDT, JMT, Wonderland) generally aren't passable until July.

If you've hiked Wonderland Trail and have current notes (water sources, trail closures, permit changes), tell us at /contact — we update pages as we learn.

Stay nearby

Affiliate · disclosed

Driving in? The nearest documented metro is Seattle, WA — 58 miles away (~1.7 hr drive). See accommodation in Seattle on Booking.com → RoamFound earns a small commission if you book through this link, at no extra cost to you. How we handle affiliate links.

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Sources

Public data + curation

Trail data on this page is compiled from OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), the maintaining organisation's public-facing materials, and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA where excerpts are quoted). Distance, terminus, and descriptive text for nationally-designated trails are hand-curated from federal land-manager websites and trail-association sources. We do not modify the underlying data; this page presents what is already publicly recorded. To suggest corrections, see our methodology page.