Wonderland Trail - Shuttles from Seatle Airport

[peakbagger]

I am looking at rolling the dice on the Wonderland Trail this year. If successful getting a permit, I would need to budget for getting from the airport to the park. I searched and someone mentioned an option a booking a tour through a motel at the airport which sure would beat the rental car option. Anyone know any details on the tour option (this was several years ago).

I plan to send my food to the park in advance getting it there is pretty well described but anyone know what needs to be done with it once down picking up the food?. My guess is get a prepaid return label from UPS and have it sent back to me unless the NPS have some other way of handling them.

[davesailer]

This won't help directly, but maybe you'll get an idea from it. See "Backpacking by Bus" at http://www.backpackingbybus.com/

At the bottom of the home page: "You cannot take public transit to Mount Rainier National Park. The closest you can get to it is via Packwood, 20+ steep miles from the far SE corner of the Park. And that’s really too far away for most rational folks to consider."

[rubyvermonter]

I rented a car last year as I found no other option. I am not sure what your question is about the Mail Drop you plan to send to the park. Bucket is required and the park keeps them—used to haul in the backcountry, gives to backpackers, etc.

[HooKooDooKu]

All of my research on trying the Wonderland Trail has pointed to renting a car and leaving it parked while making the loop.

[peakbagger]

I rented a car last year as I found no other option. I am not sure what your question is about the Mail Drop you plan to send to the park. Bucket is required and the park keeps them—used to haul in the backcountry, gives to backpackers, etc.

Thanks for the answer on the bucket. I Just did not want to have to tie it to my pack and haul it the rest of the way;) When I did caches in the past we spent a lot of time dropping them off and then picking them up. Definitely do not want to do that for this trip.

Definitely the rental car option seems to be the most popular and with 2 or 3 folks chipping in it gets reasonable. Since posting I did more research and there are several tourist tours of the park listed in Seattle that pick up at the airport and head to the park for about $200 each. The problem is how to get back in 8 to 10 days. There are apparently Uber/Lyft drivers that have figured out that they can get a long fare from the nearest public transportation outside the park. My initial planning is far better to rent a car, arrive there the day before, pick up the reservations, stay at nearby hotel and then get an early start to do a long day to get out of synch with the other hikers reservations.

Lots of planning to do.

[somers515]

. . . Lots of planning to do.

Good luck on getting a permit. Let us know how it all turns out for you peakbagger!

[garlic08]

A few years ago my friend did the tour bus option and it worked out perfectly for him. The bus had the same driver on both legs of the trip and the driver took some extra care to make sure my friend was taken care of. He even enjoyed the bus tour.

[peakbagger]

Thanks for the confirmation !