The nonlinear evolution of periodic disturbances on vortex trails is considered. In addition to following small initial perturbations, large amplitude initial disturbances of the vortex trails are also studied. It is shown that the equations support a rich variety of essentially nonlinear solutions including unbounded and quasisteady ones. These solutions are found to correspond to various modes of vortex clustering in the physical plane. At the close of the paper, comparisons of these results with recent numerical and experimental findings on the wakes behind stationary cylinders, and also transversely oscillating bluff objects, are made.