Rampart Ridge Trail to Wonderland Trail Loop

Ashford, Washington

4.0/5

based on 1 reviews

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Distance

4.97 miles

Elevation Gain

1381 ft

Route Type

Loop

Description

Added by Sarah Horn

Get rewarded with panoramic views of Mt Rainier after hiking up steep slopes for the first few miles. Then enjoy a gentle descent down past creeks and through the fern covered forest.

This is a wonderful loop to do that avoids some of the crowds on the flatter trails and gives you an amazing view of the mountain. Park in the Longmire parking lot where the National Park Inn and Longmire Museum are. Walk across Paradise Rd E to join up with the Trail of the Shadows. Head north on the trail, which takes you the long way around the loop to meet up with the Rampart Ridge Trail. At this point you'll start climbing up out of the valley. At about mile 2.5 and 3 there are viewpoints of Mt. Rainier and the Kautz Creek valley. From here the trail gently descends and at about mile 4, the Rampart Ridge Trail dead ends into the Wonderland Trail. Head right and stay on this until you arrive back to the Longmire trail head.

Make time to check out the National Park Inn for a post hike drink and the historic buildings on site.

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Rampart Ridge Trail to Wonderland Trail Loop Reviews

Jason Graham

Explorer

Rampart Ridge Trail to Wonderland Trail Loop

02/02/26

Headed up to the park with intentions to go snowshoeing, but the park made a late call to leave the road to Paradise closed for the day. With the full day open for us still, we decided to head up anyway and just see what kind of alternate solution we could come up with. Long story short, the rain was heavy and everything was socked in, so we decided options such as High Hut just wouldn't be worth the effort, so we elected to keep it simple and enjoy some exercise and time in the woods on the Rampart Ridge trail. Got to Longmire just after 10am, plenty of parking. The warm temps recently (it was around 44f on this day) and rain have melted all of the snow off the trail. Other than one or two spots of no more than 20 feet of hiking on well packed snow. Zero need for spikes. Highly recommend gators though. A lot of deep, large, puddles on the trail. To many people already going off trail to get around them. Just wear your waterproof boots and gators and stomp through them please! Enjoyed the trail for what it was. Beautiful forest hike. Couple of nice lookout points that I would love to re-visit on clear day. Not the day we planned, but still better than not being out and about in the park.

4.0

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Rampart Ridge Trail to Wonderland Trail Loop

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Rampart Ridge Trail to Wonderland Trail Loop Reviews

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Longmire Lookout via Rampart Ridge

Carter & Narada Falls

Kautz Creek to Indian Henry's Hunting Ground

Comet Falls

Christine Falls

Narada Falls

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