Bandersnatch Trail

  • Easy (Bandersnatch Trail)
  • 3.5-mile loop
  • 850 feet elevation gain
  • Open all year
  • Use: hikers, horses


  • Easy (bike route)
  • 3.9-mile loop
  • 850 feet elevation gain
  • Use: bicycles


“Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun the frumious Bandersnatch,” Lewis Carroll wrote in “Jabberwocky,” a verse in his fantastical 1872 book Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There. Hikers and mountain bikers may indeed find the hills behind Ashland’s Lithia Park fantastical, both for their woodsy charm and because many trails are named for Carroll’s fantasy inventions.

Local bicyclists pioneered the Alice in Wonderland and BTI trails, which are part of the mountain biking loop recommended here. The Bandersnatch and Red Queen trails, opened more recently, are on a separate loop open only to hikers and equestrians. For a longer adventure, you can connect either loop with the Mike Uhtoff and White Rabbit trails described in Hike #55.

To drive here from Medford …

This chapter taken from the book "100 Hikes/Travel Guide: Southern Oregon & Northern California".