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Mount Rainier National Park Puts New Wilderness Permit Fee Structure In Place

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Compiled from NPS Releases

Published Date

January 19, 2025

Sun sets on Mount Rainier, viewed from Gobbler's Knob Fire Lookout / NPS

Mount Rainier National Park has updated its wilderness permit fee structure, switching from a flat $20 per trip to a $10 per person, per night fee. The $6 reservation fee for trips booked through Recreation.gov remains the same.

Youth aged 15 and under can still obtain permits for free. Walk-up permits will now be subject to the same per-person, per-night fee as advance reservations.

This fee change promotes fairness by addressing the imbalance of the previous system, where smaller groups—having less impact and using fewer resources—paid more per person than larger groups with greater impacts on park resources.

“These fees directly support wilderness permit holders,” said Park Superintendent Greg Dudgeon. “They fund essential services like ranger patrols on over 270 miles of trails, managing and transporting food caches for backcountry users, maintaining and cleaning backcountry toilets, removing accumulated waste, and ensuring compliance with permits and regulations to protect the park and its wilderness experience.”

This is the first major change to Mount Rainier’s wilderness permit fees in 26 years, aside from the introduction of the Recreation.gov fee in 2021. The park processes nearly 7,000 wilderness and climbing permits annually.

For more details on wilderness permits, visit the Mount Rainier National Park website at https://www.nps.gov/mora/planyourvisit/wilderness-permit.htm. For general park information, visit www.nps.gov/mora.

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