Without races to train for this year due to COVID-19, many trail runners have made their own adventures as a motivation to keep training. Running around a mountain can be both challenging and rewarding. Luckily in the Pacific Northwest, we have Cascade volcanoes to run around.
Cristian Jimenez and Jason Fedchak near No Name Lake on Broken Top
Circumnavigating a volcano offers views of the mountains from every angle that don’t come by looking from the valley or high desert. Each volcano has its own challenges, however. These challenges can be trail terrain, navigation, distance, elevation, and more.
Portland trail runner and Trails and Tarmac coach Tyler Green now has the triple crown of the fastest known times (FKTs) of Cascade volcano circumnavigations. He set the record on the Timberline Trail (Mt. Hood) in 2018 with a time of 6:10:58, and in the last two months Green broke the FKTs on the Loowit Trail (Mt. St. Helens) in 4:59:54 and the Wonderland Trail (Mt. Rainier) in 16:40:55.
Here’s how Green rates his volcano FKT routes:
Loowit (Mt. St. Helens)
In terms of elevation profile and length, this one doesn’t seem terribly demanding, but it’s so rugged, rocky, and twisty that it really chews you up. The other challenge is the exposure to the sun for most of the route, so I like to make sure there’s a good amount of cloud cover when I run this one. When you run through the blast zone, how cool is it that you run on rocks that were once in the middle of the mountain?!
Wonderland (Rainier)
The trail is called the WONDERLAND. How cool is that? I did this route for the first time with Rachel (Drake) last year over a three day fastpacking trip and it was a challenge. Everything is just bigger up there and so many times you’ll look at the mountain in awe of how big it is.
Liz Fero gazing at the alpenglow on Mt. Hood from the Timberline Trail
Timberline (Hood)
This is my absolute favorite trail. I’m a sucker for alpine meadows, so the biggest advice I’d give is to take the Paradise Park detour and really soak it in up there. Sure, you won’t officially run every step of the Timberline Trail, but you’ll still run around the mountain and have a grand old time. Water crossings are a big challenge for this route, so keep a keen eye out for rock cairns and move slowly through these sections. To run it fast, start at Top Spur so you get most of the climbing done earlier in your run; or start at Timberline Lodge, which is much more of the classic way of doing it.”
In 2018, we wrote about Phil Brundage’s Volcanic 1080. Brundage biked from his Portland home to Mt. St. Helens. Then he climbed and ran around Mt. St. Helens. Rode his bike to Mt. Adams and circumnavigated it. Then Brundage topped it off by riding from Adams to Mt. Hood to loop around it and then bike home.
Wildflowers on the Yakama Nation side of Mt. Adams (Phil Brundage)
We ranked the volcano navigations based on trip reports and experience. Click on the mountain link for more details.
Volcano | Distance (miles) | Elevation Gain (feet) | Difficulty | Challenges |
| Mt. Baker | 71 | 23,000 | 10 | Bushwacking, distance, elevation, navigation |
| Mt. Rainier | 93 | 24,000 | 9 | Distance, elevation |
| Mt. Adams | 37 | 6600 | 8 | Distance, glaciers, bushwacking, navigation |
| Mt. Hood | 42 | 11,000 | 7 | Distance, elevation |
| Three Sisters | 48 | 5500 | 6 | Distance, exposure |
| Mt. St. Helens | 32 | 7000 | 6 | Technical, elevation, exposure |
| Broken Top | 23 | 4000 | 3 | Elevation |
| Three Fingered Jack | 22 | 3500 | 2 | Some technical |
| Newberry Volcano | 21 | 3100 | 2 | Altitude |
Volcano Circumnavigation Trail Races
Since most mountains are designated a wilderness area, races aren’t allowed to go around the mountain. However, the Volcanic 50 does circle Mt. St. Helens. This is a great way to experience the circumnavigation because the aid stations make it easier to stay hydrated and well-fed.
A fun way to experience Loowit is by running the Volcanic 50k from Go Beyond Racing
Trail Running Groups
Seattle Mountain Running Group and Oregon Trail Runners are two Facebook pages that act as great resources to get trip reports of trail runners circling volcanoes and possibly find a running partner to run it with.
Getting ready to circumnavigate the Three Sisters
There is also a loop around Diamond Peak in Oregon that we recently ran. It’s ~24 miles & ~4000 feet of gain. http://www.girlsgonewildwood.com/2020/08/diamond-peak-circumnavigation.html
Thanks Ann. That looks like a fun route. We’ll have to look at that one.
While backpacking near Mt. Jefferson one year, I met an older fellow who was circumnavigating Jefferson as a very long day hike, and I think he must have finished in the dark. My backpacking partner reminded me that while it’s doable, you have to trespass on reservation land.
I know there are some unmarked trails on the east side. I’m curious to who has done Jefferson.
These are great! I’ve backpacked quite a few of them and hope to return to run! Another volcano that I backpacked around is Glacier Peak in Washington. It was somewhere around 80-90s miles which can be all on trail. Start from the White River Trailhead and take Indian Creek Trail to PCT and follow it 45+ miles to Buck Pass Trail or if a longer loop Lyman Lakes Trail which would involve a short road walk and possibly a difficult crossing at the Little Giant Trailhead and Chiwana River. I went up Buck Creek Pass and High Pass. Thanks for putting this list together.
Thanks Eric. We’ve had a few runners tell us about Glacier Peak. Will hopefully add it to the article soon.