Before 6 p.m. each summer day, the Jackson Visitor Center's gift shop rents towels and can direct you to shower stalls where five minutes of water costs four quarters. Book your rooms early. From Narada Falls, it's a little hard to find the path leading to Paradise after you climb to the top of the Narada Falls walkway. Backcountry ranger JoAnne Germano believes the original Wonderland Trail followed the picturesque Spray Park-Cataract Valley route since it was closer to the mountain. Both routes, between Mowich Lake and the Carbon River trail camp, measure almost the same, nearly 8.5 miles each.
Spray Park is more scenic, yet involves more elevation gain.
The trail still has a gap, a 1.5-mile section east of White River Campground. Hikers are required to walk a paved, shoulderless section of Sunrise Road. Work on a gap-closing trail is in progress this summer could be complete before the first snow falls. The Wonderland Trail is a well-maintained footpath, but its elevation profile looks like a wave pattern on an oscilloscope. Up, down, up, down, up, down, up, up, up - a cumulative elevation gain of more than 20,000 feet.