About Detour Trails
Detour Trails is a collection of planning tools for long-distance trails. The first is a planner for the Wonderland Trail, a 93-mile loop around Mount Rainier. More is coming, including resupply planning for long-distance thru-hikes and daily stage planning for Camino de Santiago routes.
Why this exists
I’m a long-distance hiker who has hiked over 7000 miles on long-distance trails. I found myself building spreadsheets to plan daily itineraries or resupply stages for the trails I hiked. I kept wishing for better tools for this, something that would let me see the whole itinerary with distance, elevation, and difficulty of each day or stage. So I built Detour Trails because planning such trips should be easier than it is.
►Wonderland Trail
How the planner works
The Wonderland Trail planner lets you build a day-by-day itinerary by choosing which camps you’ll stay at. As you select camps, it shows you each day’s distance, elevation gain and loss, and an effort rating, plus the full elevation profile and a map of the route. You can share your plan with others and come back and adjust it anytime.
A few things worth knowing:
- Trailhead and direction. You can start from different trailheads and travel clockwise or counterclockwise. The numbers, map, and elevation profile update to match.
- Route. The standard loop and the Spray Park variant are slightly different; pick whichever you’re hiking.
- Effort. Each day gets an effort rating that combines distance with elevation gain and loss, so a short steep day and a long flat day are compared fairly.
A note on permits and conditions
Detour Trails is a planning aid, not an official source. Wonderland Trail permits are required and competitive, and trail conditions change. Always confirm permit availability and current conditions with the National Park Service before you go.
Who’s behind this
“Detour” is my trail name, given to me on the Pacific Crest Trail in 2021 after I kept taking several accidental detours early on. I write about my hikes and other adventures at Detour Outside. You can check it out if you want to know more.
Get in touch
I'd love to hear from people using these tools. Send me feedback, or check the box to be notified when new trails and features launch.