One Best Hike: Mount Rainier's Wonderland Trail. Doug Lorain
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Appendix A: Recommended Reading
Appendix B: Selected Area Restaurants, Motels, Outdoors Stores, and Other Businesses
Appendix C: Park Service Website and Telephone Numbers
List of Maps
Mount Rainier National Park Locator Map
Western Map: South Section (Longmire to Klapatche Park)
Longmire Area (detail)
Western Map: North Section (Klapatche Park to Mowich Lake)
Northern Map: West Section (Mowich Lake to Mystic Lake)
Northern Map: East Section (Mystic Lake to White River)
Sunrise Area (detail)
Eastern Map (White River to Box Canyon)
Southern Map: East Section (Box Canyon to Reflection Lakes)
Southern Map: West Section (Reflection Lakes to Longmire)
Mount Rainier from Eagle Cliff viewpoint
Introduction
“Mt. Rainier, or Tahoma (the Indian name), is the noblest of the volcanic cones extending from Lassen Butte and Mt. Shasta along the Cascade Range to Mt. Baker. … Rainier … surpasses them all in massive icy grandeur—the most majestic solitary mountain I had ever yet beheld.”
—John Muir, Travels in Alaska, 1915
Opposite: Indian Bar from trail up Cowlitz Divide
Mount Rainier and the Wonderland Trail
As any Seattle area resident looking up and admiring “their” mountain can attest, John Muir, as usual, had it right. Mount Rainier is truly a majestic sight that dominates its surroundings like no other peak in the lower 48 United States. Given the mountain’s size and prominence, it is not surprising that this geographic wonder is defined by superlatives. It is the tallest mountain in the state of Washington, and, for that matter, in the entire Cascade Range, making it the undisputed king of the Pacific Northwest. It supports (by far) the largest glacier system of any mountain in the United States, outside of Alaska, and proudly displays its permanent mantle of white to awed viewers who are as far as 100 miles away in every direction (at least on days when clouds don’t block the view). It is protected in what was only our nation’s fifth, and what is still one of its best, national parks, established all the way back in 1899. It is the largest volcanic mountain in the lower 48 United States and one of the largest in the world. It supports thriving populations of some of the continent’s most impressive wildlife and grandest trees, as well as some of the most abundant displays of wildflowers of any area in the country. And, admittedly more of an opinion than a quantifiable fact, it is simply one of the most beautiful and awe-inspiring peaks you will find anywhere.
But, for all that, this book is not about the mountain itself. Instead, this book highlights what is, in the opinion of thousands of amazed pedestrians over the years, the best way to see, feel, and appreciate this grand mountain: hiking all the way around it.
Like the mountain it encircles, the Wonderland Trail is defined by superlatives. With a length of 92.2 miles (or thereabouts, depending on which measurement you believe) and, perhaps more significant, with nearly 4 vertical miles of uphill along the way, this is one of the longest and toughest trails in the entire national park system. The trail passes through every life zone in the park, so hikers enjoy everything from cathedral stands of low-elevation old-growth rain forest to starkly beautiful above-timberline landscapes of rocks and glaciers. In between are numerous waterfalls, some