About

HIKING THE WONDERLAND TRAIL: The Complete Guide to Mount Rainier’s Premier Trail

  • Comprehensive and affectionate guide to one of the nation’s iconic wilderness trails
  • Everything you need to help plan this 93-mile trek, whether in one trip or several
  • Lavish, full-color design, yet informative and practical, with 125 photographs and 18 maps

Washington State’s famed Wonderland Trail is a spectacular 93-mile route that circumnavigates Mount Rainier, challenging hikers with its strenuous 22,000 feet of cumulative elevation gain and loss. Magnificent forests, wildflower-filled alpine meadows, breathtaking glacier views, up-close-and-personal wildlife encounters, pristine lakes and streams—there are many rewards to be found, whether you tackle the trail in ten days or explore it by section over several seasons. But along with those 93 miles of incredible trail come tricky challenges such as wilderness permits, a complicated reservation system, food and fuel caches, river and snow crossings, and more.

Hiking the Wonderland Trail: The Complete Guide to Mount Rainier’s Premier Trail is an authoritative guide penned by Washington native Tami Asars, a professional instructor on how best to hike the trail and a third-generation hiker of the Cascade mountains—who has cruised the Wonderland nine times. In this guide Asars draws on her experience, covering these essentials:

  • How to work with the permit reservation system, and when to apply
  • Recommended gear—with a checklist—and ways to reduce pack weight, prevent blisters, and stay warm and dry
  • How to pack the perfect backpack
  • Food and fuel caching
  • Detailed camp-to-camp route descriptions
  • Camp-to-camp elevation profiles
  • Suggested itineraries from multiple starting locations in both clockwise and counterclockwise
  • How to extend your adventures with the Northern Loop Trail and the Eastside Loop