Updated: April 1, 2017
Note: The park is no longer accepting reservation requests for the entire 93 mile Wonderland Trail. Between March 15 and April 1 we received a record number of requests. We will not be able to fulfill many of the requests we received in that time-frame, much less those that would arrive afterward. An alternative to getting a reservation is to attempt to get a first-come, first-served permit based on availability.
IMPORTANT! Please read if you are contemplating a Wonderland Trail hike prior to July 31, 2017
There are at least three camps on the Wonderland Trail with known campsite closures due to hazardous trees which must be mitigated before we can reopen the sites. At this time it is anticipated this work will be completed by July 31. The affected camps are Nickel Creek, Maple Creek, and Paradise River.
Due to these closures, the odds of being granted a Wonderland Trail permit for that section of the Wonderland Trail will be significantly reduced prior to July 31. We encourage you to wait until August or September to apply for your trip. However, we have identified some workarounds which will make it possible for us to grant a limited number of Wonderland Trail permits in July. See below for details if you would like to try for a Wonderland Trail permit earlier than August.
The situation:
- 3 of 3 individual sites and the one and only group campsite closed at Nickel Creek Camp through July 30.
- 1 of 4 individual sites and the one and only group campsite closed at Maple Creek through July 30.
- 3 of 3 individual sites and the one and only group campsite closed at Paradise River Camp through July 30.
- This leaves only three Maple Creek individual campsites open for a 24 mile segment of the Wonderland Trail.
Alternatives:
- Wait until August when the closed camps should be back open
- Use the Olallie Creek Camp (only 1 individual campsite available, also due to hazard tree mitigation) as an alternative to Nickel Creek, which will add an additional 2.8 miles down and back on the Cowlitz Divide Trail.
- Use an individual campsite at Snow Lake Camp (which has only one reservable campsite) as an alternative to the closed individual site at Maple Creek. This would add approximately 3.6 miles of additional combined road and trail hiking to use Snow Lake.
- Use the Cougar Rock car campground as an alternative to Paradise River Camp. This won’t add any additional trail mileage as the Wonderland Trail goes right by Cougar Rock. We have added four campsites into the permit system (three individual, one group) at Cougar Rock through July 30 for this purpose. Three of those sites are reservable.