Wonderland Trail

Distance

93 miA complete circumnavigation

Climbing

~22,000 ft

Lottery

Feb 10 to Mar 32026 dates

Advance itineraries

~600 per season

Walk-up permits

~300 per season

Single push

20 to 30 hours

The Wonderland is arguably the most beautiful long trail in the United States, and its structure is what makes it hard: it never traverses. It descends to a river, climbs to a ridge, descends again, for 93 miles. Old-growth forest, wildflower meadows at Indian Bar and Summerland, glacier-fed rivers on suspension bridges, and Rainier itself dominating the sky.

Runners tackle it two ways. Fastpacking it in three to five days requires a camping permit, which is where the lottery comes in. Doing it in a single push, typically 20 to 30 hours, requires no camping permit at all, which is why a lot of ultrarunners choose that route.

How to get in

• Permit
  The early access lottery

  For 2026 the lottery ran February 10 to March 3 on recreation.gov, with notifications from March 14 and staggered booking windows opening March 21 through April 18. Roughly 600 advance itineraries exist per season and the park has received over 10,000 lottery entries. A $6 non-refundable application fee applies.

• Permit
  Walk-up permits

  About 300 walk-up itineraries per season are held back. They require flexibility, showing up in person, and accepting whatever camps are available, but they are a genuine option for people who miss the lottery.

• Self-supported
  The single push

  No camping permit is needed if you don't camp. A one-day circumnavigation is legal, free, and enormously hard. Note that food caches at ranger stations require advance arrangement with the park, and a single push generally doesn't use them.

Doing it in a single push

• Direction and start point are yours. Longmire and Mowich Lake are common starts. Clockwise versus counterclockwise is mostly personal preference.
• Plan water carefully. There is a lot of water on the Wonderland, but much of it is glacial silt. Carry a filter that can handle it and know the clear sources.
• Support is restricted. You can meet crew at road crossings such as Longmire, White River, and Mowich, which effectively splits the loop into manageable sections.
• Snow timing. High sections hold snow into July in big years. Late July through September is the window, and September brings its own risk of early storms.
• The climbing is relentless. 22,000 feet across 93 miles with almost no flat means power hiking is a skill you need, not a fallback.

Questions runners actually ask

Go to the source

• Mount Rainier wilderness permits

Entry rules, dates, standards, fees, and odds change every single year, and the interesting races change them the most. Use this guide to build the plan; use the official site to confirm the details before you book anything.

If this is your kind of thing