Requests for wilderness camping, hiking and climbing start March 15

Mount Rainier National Park will begin accepting online reservation requests March 15 for wilderness camping and climbing permits, including overnight trips on Wonderland Trail.

The park’s Wilderness Permit webpage will be open through March 31. Requests received after March 31 will be reviewed in the order received, if any openings remain, park officials said.

In 2017, the park received a record number of requests for the Wonderland Trail circuit. The park stopped taking requests for advanced reservations to hike the circuit on April 1. Permits to hike the trail in 2018 should be requested in the first two weeks of the application period, officials recommended.

A non-refundable application fee of $20 will be charged for each reservation request. The revenue will support the operations of the park’s three Wilderness Information Centers and ongoing development of a new reservation system that will let users see real-time site availability.

Any requests to camp above the 10,000 feet level of the mountain also require payment of the annual Mount Rainier climbing fee.  Additoinal information about the climbing program is available on the park’s website.