Re: Re: Yosemite trip

Wow Eric sounds like you have had a bit of experience with this and not all good. How does one jut make a reservation so they don't have to endure this ordeal?

Thanks
Chris Gilmore
(408) 461-1380


On Aug 2, 2012, at 9:05 PM, "Eric Green" <[email protected]> wrote:

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> --- In [email protected], Chris Gilmore <chris_gilmore2001@...> wrote:
> >
> > Folks,
> >    I'm preparing to take a solo trip to Yosemite or I may take my 6 yr old. Can any of you recommend a weekend trip with decent water availability and moderate to strenuous hiking. If I go alone I can cover 8-15 miles a day pretty easily, if i take my little guy he tops out at about 5-7 one way.
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> The core problem with Yosemite is permits. Basically, the way permits work is this. You show up at the permit office for whatever area you're interested in hiking -- like at the Tuolumne Meadows permit station (see http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/permitstations.htm ) -- and you show up early, like at 7:30am or so. You then stand in line for the next three hours as people with reservations come in and get their reserved permits, then any permits left over, you get one of those. The permit basically allows you to hike in at one trailhead and one trailhead only, though where you go after that is pretty much up to you as long as you hike the require distance away from pavement before setting up camp (there's a couple of exceptions to that where you have to camp at a specific spot the first night, they'll explain that to you at permit time). You'll pretty much always get *some* permit, at least I have, but thing is, you won't know what's left over until that time, so it's pretty much impossible to plan any specific last-minute trips to Yosemite -- you better be prepared with maps and GPS coordinates for pretty much any trail in the area. Which isn't a real problem because it's *all* good, but if you're taking the little guy he'll get pooped by the terrain pretty swiftly, because most of the less popular trails that you'll be hiking along have some vertical or scrambly bits. 
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> Because of the way the Yosemite permit system works, if you're dead set on a short Yosemite trip, heading in on a Friday morning will work better. That lets you set up camp the required distance in from the pavement, rest, relax, then do the real hiking on Saturday and Sunday. If you're really set on an in-and-out weekend trip, I'd suggest heading northwards to the USFS-managed wilderness areas. Desolation, Iceberg-Carson, etc., lots of very good hiking up there, and permits are much easier to come by -- basically stop at the Forest Service ranger station, tell them where you want to go, and unless it's a holiday weekend they say "Okay" and issue it right then and there. 
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