Pacific Northwest Trail

The Pacific Northwest Trail runs about 1,200 miles from the Chief Mountain customs parking area in Glacier National Park, Montana, to Cape Alava in Olympic National Park, Washington. It crosses Montana, Idaho and Washington, three national parks and seven national forests, and climbs over the Rockies, Cascades and Olympics. The high point is Cathedral Pass, at 7,569 feet. The Forest Service administers it. Most thru-hikers take 60 to 70 days. Westbound is by far the most popular direction, and the guidebooks are written for it. The best weather runs from mid-June to mid-September. Trails are typically snow free by July except at the highest elevations, and most thru-hikers wait for the passes to melt out. Eastbound hikers will probably find snow-covered trails in the Olympics until late summer. There is no single thru-hiker permit. Each land manager has its own rules. About 600 miles cross national forest land, where backcountry permits are generally not required. In the three national parks you need a permit for every overnight stay. Glacier and North Cascades allow camping only at designated sites. Glacier takes advance reservations on Recreation.gov for about 70% of its sites and issues the rest as walk-up permits, and an advance itinerary can average no more than 16 miles a day. The reservation is not the permit: pick it up in person the day before or the day you start. No Glacier permits are issued after 4:30 pm, and none are issued in East Glacier; Two Medicine Ranger Station is an eleven-mile walk from there. In North Cascades, westbound hikers resupplying in Oroville email noca_wilderness@nps.gov for the permit to enter the park from the Pasayten Wilderness. The Pasayten itself uses a self-issued permit at the trailhead. Olympic requires a permit for every PNT thru-hiker, booked on Recreation.gov. Summer permits are released on April 15. Its "PNT Thru Hike" starting area sets your camping by zone. Those zones do not cover the Sol Duc quota area or anything north of Sand Point. Wedding Rocks and Cape Alava must be booked separately. Sol Duc sites rarely remain for a last-minute booking; without one, be ready to hike 19 miles and 4,900 feet of gain through it to reach the Bogachiel Zone before you camp. Within the zones, designated sites are encouraged, but you may camp at least one mile beyond any park road or trailhead, outside the quota areas. The Grand Valley alternate is not advised without its own permit, because legal campsites are far apart. Carry a copy of your permit. Dogs are not allowed on trails in Glacier, North Cascades or Olympic. They are allowed on leash in Ross Lake National Recreation Area, and pets are not allowed in the Loomis NRCA, which is day-use only. Plan to navigate. Most of the trail is unsigned and unmarked, and even experienced thru-hikers find it harder to follow than older national scenic trails. About a third of it follows roads, from gravel forest roads to highways. The Pacific Northwest Trail Association recommends carrying its strip maps, a compass and a GPS-equipped phone or unit together. Its free map set is revised every year and includes overview maps, a resupply planner and permit guides. Stay on its route: user-made shortcuts can cross private land with no access agreement. The trail is rugged. The association says the Selkirk Mountains in Idaho have its most rugged terrain. Sections 1 through 3 include short Class 2 and 3 scrambles, and the Selkirk scrambles cannot be avoided on either route. Expect a mile an hour or less while scrambling; the Lion's Head Crest alternate, about 10 miles, can take a whole day. Some gaps between trails mean bushwhacking, and the association draws the known ones as dotted lines on its maps. From June to mid-July, expect snow above 3,000 feet and creeks running high with snowmelt. Swift Creek south of Mount Baker is a hazardous ford and can be impassable until early August. Storms bring down thousands of trees every year, and remote trails like the Pasayten are often not cleared until late summer. Expect bears or bear sign along most of the trail. About 400 miles, from Montana through eastern Washington, are grizzly habitat, where night hiking and trail running are high-risk. The association highly recommends bear spray there. The Olympic coast runs on the tide. The association's maps mark 15 headlands that need a low tide, and some headlands can never be rounded safely; there the route climbs steep, muddy headland trails with ropes and cable ladders. People have died trying to beat the tide. Carry a tide chart. The safest time to round a headland is one to two hours before low tide, and storms can push the water higher than the chart says. Beach, headlands and tides usually hold even strong hikers to five to ten miles a day. You cannot camp on the coast between the Quillayute River and Ellen Creek, and campfires are not allowed from Yellow Banks north to Wedding Rocks. The association publishes no water report. Water is plentiful on most of the trail but scarcer in some places, and its maps and the PNT Digest note the sources. It strongly recommends treating water. Olympic requires a bear canister for any overnight stay in its wilderness, and its Wilderness Information Centers lend them. A canister is also the only storage method legal along the whole trail. Hanging food is approved along most of it, with rules that vary by land manager. Fire rules in the Okanogan National Forest ban alcohol and twig-burning stoves. In Section 7, private property and county parks on the route are day-use only. Resupply means mailing a package to a trail town or buying food as you go. The trail runs directly through ten communities. Ross Lake Resort accepts packages for PNT hikers. The Pasayten Wilderness has about 150 miles between resupply points. In the Puget Sound section, seaside towns are less than a day's walk apart. Amtrak's East Glacier station is the closest to the eastern terminus. Arrange a private ride from there; the association notes that hitchhiking is illegal in national parks. Oroville, near the midpoint, can be reached by public transit. Cape Alava is a three-mile hike from the Ozette Ranger Station, and public transit does not reach Ozette. A private shuttle links Ozette to the nearest transit stops and must be booked ahead, and app-based rideshare may not be available west of Port Angeles. The association calls the Keystone Ferry, between Whidbey Island and Port Townsend, the most popular way across to the Olympic Peninsula. Routes change with fires and floods. Check the Pacific Northwest Trail Association trail alerts page before you go, and sign up for its email alerts.