Re: Re: Yosemite trip

That's not exactly how the permit system for Yosemite works. You can get
permit reservations, which a complicated process that I can go into later
but generally needs to be done way far in advance. If you have a permit
reservation, you can pick up your permit the day before you leave. Any
permits not picked up by a certain time of the date of backcountry entry
are returned for walk-up use. A subset of permits (usually a little less
than) are reserved for walk-up permits. Permits are issued to walk-ups at
11 am the day before departure in a first-come-first-served fashion. For
popular trailheads, that means people are standing in front of the
backcountry office at like 3 am like they do on Black Friday. You can't
sleep in line. If you are willing to stand in line for 8 hours, you usually
can get the permit you want. For less popular trailheads, permits can be
relatively easy to get. You can see the total number of permits issued and
the percentage of walk-ups here:
http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/trailheads.htm

A

On Thu, Aug 2, 2012 at 11:05 PM, Eric Green <[email protected]> wrote:

> **
>
>
>
>
> --- 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.
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
>  
>