Get ready folks.
Mount Rainier National Park will begin accepting online reservation requests for wilderness camping and climbing permits, including overnight trips on the Wonderland Trail. If you were thinking of camping at Mount Rainier or taking on the Wonderland Trail, you better be ready and fast.

March 15, 2017 is your date. 9am PST is your time.

Last year, the park’s online reservation system was hit by a lightning strike and all registrations were lost, forcing campers to hope for a spot on a first-come-first-serve basis. The system was lost and threw everyone’s summer plans in Mount Rainier up in the air, rewarding those who could visit the park every day or were incredibly lucky in grabbing permits as they arrived in the park.

Well, last year’s issues are a thing of the past and this year, it looks like the park completed their new system in time for the new hiking season. The news of the new system of online reservations is also just in time to include Mount Rainier National Park, Washington’s second-most visited National Park, in your summer vacation plans.

A bit more from the official press release:

The reservation request form will open on the park’s Wilderness Permit webpage at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time on Wednesday, March 15, 2017. Requests received from March 15 through March 31 will be processed in random order beginning on April 1, 2017. All requests received on or after will be processed in the order received, after March requests are processed. Applicants will receive a confirmation of their electronic submission within one business day. Once park staff review requests, applicants will be updated via email regarding the status.

Visitors can only submit online requests. The park will not accept requests received by standard mail, fax, phone, or other delivery methods. Applicants will also be directed to pay for reservations, once approved, online through a secure government portal.

The park will review only one full-circuit Wonderland Trail trip request per email address. Each request allows applicants to submit several trip alternatives. If the park receives more than one full-circuit Wonderland Trail request from the same email address, staff will only review the first request received.

Applicants should use the Wilderness Trip Planner and updates found on the park website to plan their trip before submitting reservation requests. As in prior years, some campsites will be temporarily closed due to potentially hazardous trees. The park typically mitigates these hazards in the summer, after snowmelt allows access.

This year’s process is the first step in a phased solution to upgrading the park’s reservation system. The park continues to work on an online reservation system wherein users can see real-time site availability while requesting their reservation.

Check out the Wilderness Permit website of Mount Rainier National Park for more information.

Looking for awesome stuff to do at Mount Rainier National Park? Check out or Summit Book 2017 which includes a great overview of some of the best places to visit in the park.