Rainier stops taking Wonderland Trail reservations after record # of requests

[Jeff McWilliams]

I saw Jeff Gerke’s post about GNP and thought I’d add one about the Wonderland Trail.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/outdoors/article142953834.html

[Jeff McWilliams]

Does anyone maintain a list of nice backpacking destinations that are alternatives to the big, popular trails where getting a permit is proving extremely difficult, and being crowded is almost a certainty.  I’m talking about the JMT/Yosemite, Yellowstone, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Wonderland Trail, the Tetons, RMNP.

I’ve been to the Winds twice.

Places I’d like to go:  The Beartooth Absarokas, The Uintas, North Cascades.

Are there areas in Flathead National Forest that are comparable to what’s in GNP?

 

[Lester Moore]

There’s the 80 mile long Uinta Highline Trail – http://caltopo.com/m/2N4M

In the North Cascades there are section hikes of the Pacific Northwest Trail. And there’s the PCT sections J and K in Central and N Cascades too (no quotas or reservations other than a day or so through North Cascades NP at northern end of K).

 

[John Vance]

Unfortunately we are loving the outdoors to death in popular areas.  Most don’t stray too far from the car and all their outdoor toys but it certainly chokes up the trail head parking and campsites within a six mile radius or so.   Get a few miles and high pass between you and the trailhead and it’s not too bad.

The permitting process is becoming more and more a fact of life in the outdoors in popular locations close (within a 4-8 hour drive) to large metro areas.  The alternative is to trade trail days for travel time and get more “remote”.  It’s a total bummer in my book, as a big part of what I am looking for is solitude, and even far off trail I am running into more people trying to do the same.

When you only have nine or ten days max to work with, it’s a bit of a drag to have to give up so much time traveling to and from the mountains.  I may have to beef up my winter kit and take a different approach.  I spend most of my time backpacking in the fringe seasons – before Memorial Day and after Labor Day – perhaps mid winter will become another time for longer trips.

 

[Justin Baker]

Most of the crowds tend to be concentrated in certain areas that have significant hype. For example, last month I was in Utah and Zion was super crowed, the backcountry permits were almost full. Grand Escalante was not crowded at all. Last summer in the high sierras we went about 48 hours without seeing another person and then saw about 5 people in 15 minutes when we hit the John Muir trail.

Like I said, it’s all about hype. People want to do well known hikes that their friends have heard of.

In the high sierras when you get more than a day’s walk from the trailhead and you aren’t on a popular long distance hiking trail, you see much less people. Last fall I hiked to peeler lake in the hoover wilderness. Ran into lots of groups heading up that way. After passing the lake and dropping into kerrick meadows, the trail became less packed down and I didn’t see anyone for 24 hours.

[Tallgrass]

Last year, my son and I hiked the roughly 70 miles of the Skyline Trail in Santa Fe National Forest, starting near the Barillas Peak Fire lookout tower.  We didn’t see a single person for the first day and a half, until we crossed the official boundary into the Pecos Wilderness.  And even then we only say four people within a few miles of the boundary.  Then, we went over another 24 hours before seeing two more people.  Only a few people total on day 4.  Day 5, as we got closer and closer to Lake Peak and the end, we say a lot of people.  But for the majority of the trail, there was a lot of wonderful solitude.  We won’t have that this year, as we will be hiking the High Sierra Trail in Sequoia NP.

[Colin M]

Of the 5 backpacking trips I did last summer in the PNW the Wonderland trail was my least favorite.

It was a fun experience seeing if I could do it in that sort of time but it really wasn’t a trail I found very interesting other than the physical challenge. I’m not a fan of developed campgrounds and crowds; even in the “off season” I rarely went a mile without crossing paths with others and generally had 5+ others in the campgrounds I was in. Plus I felt like 3/4 of the trail was walking through a tree tunnel which is a bit tedious. It’s not terrible by any means and it’s probably something most in the PNW should do just to see it but I can think of a dozen places in the PNW I’d recommend before it.

Honestly, just get out anywhere in the Cascades and you are going to have a great time. If you need something even more remote but without too much travel go to eastern Oregon or Idaho; you’ll hike days without seeing anyone in amazing landscapes!

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