[pct-l] Yosemite hike

[Gary Wright]

On Jun 19, 2012, at 10:41 AM, Stephen Clark wrote:

> Your thru permit is not good anywhere off the PCT. If you plan to hike elsewhere in Yosemite you will need a wilderness permit for the trails you wish to travel. The Tuolumne Meadows permit station is just west of the Tuolumne Meadows Lodge. Half Dome is now on a lottery system so the likely hood of a last minute permit is slim to none...

I think it is worthwhile reading the link I posted <http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/hdpermits.htm>

Even if you are unable to get a permit for Half Dome, the hike down into the valley is worthwhile.  I would
recommend taking a route that crosses over Cloud's Rest which gives you outstanding views of the valley
and Half Dome.

There is a daily lottery for the Half Dome permits and the NPS says that 21% of daily applications are successful. It seems like it would be possible to manage this all by phone for a PCT hiker. If you wanted to hike Half Dome on a Wednesday, for example:

- call before 1PM on Monday to enter an application.  Might be able to do this from the trail.
- get a wilderness permit at Tuolumne Meadows on Monday afternoon to hike on Tuesday
- find out lottery results on Monday night
- hike from Tuolumne to near Half-Dome on Tuesday
- hike Half Dome Wednesday morning before the day-hiker crowd arrives
- finish hike down into valley, wilderness permit gives you a camping spot in valley on Wednesday night
- hitchhike back to Tuolumne on Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning

Even if you are unable to get a permit for Half Dome, the hike down into the valley is worthwhile.  I would
recommend taking a route that crosses over Cloud's Rest which gives you outstanding views of the valley
and Half Dome.


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