High Sierra Topix

Hi all!

Our two night car camping trip (Stony Creek) has changed shape into 1 night car camping + 1 night out on a wilderness trail - hopefully!

To successfully pull off a July 16th 2016 wilderness overnight, I'm thinking my only resort this late in the game is to wake up early on the 16th and hope for a first come first serve wilderness permit (two of us).

Does anybody have suggestions as to how and where to go about this? First time in the park.

If your backpcking into Jennie Lakes Wilderness you just do a self-registration at the trailhead, no permit required. But if you plan to hike into the national parks then you need to grab a permit. Just show up at the Grant Grove or Lodgepole Visitor Center a little before 7 to get a walk-up permit. In my limited experience showing up at 630 is plenty early, ive always been first in line and had no trouble getting one, including popular trails on busy days. Ymmv.

Theyll ask where youre staying and what your food storage method is. If there are no bear boxes at your designated camp theyll require a bear can, which you can rent then and there. Again this is just for staying in the parks though. I dont think Jennie Lakes has these requirements.


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Awesome, thank you for the reply sheperd.

I have a bear canister for the two of us. Lodgepole looks to be the closest visitor center to stony creek campground.

I am currently diving into the "wilderness trip planner" PDF and it looks as though each wilderness trail has a "Daily Entry Quota R/W" for reserved and walkup. Am I right in presuming the walk-up technique is to show up before 7am at the visitor center and secure a permit for the day of? Seems like a silly question but just want to wade through the nuances correctly.

Welcome to HST! Please read this thread: viewtopic.php?t=14265&p=106437#p106379

FWIW, Last Monday, the 4th, when we got back to Lodgepole around 10:30am, there were walkups available for all of the Lodgepole trails that day.

Also something to think about, going through Jennie to places into Kings Canyon (Sugarloaf, Ranger Lake, etc) may require Grant Grove, though I think they can call it in from Lodgepole without a problem I'd assume (if I remember correctly). From Stony Creek, getting to Jennie Lake (and not needing a permit) should be a breeze and beautiful.

rsellers wrote:Awesome, thank you for the reply sheperd.

I have a bear canister for the two of us. Lodgepole looks to be the closest visitor center to stony creek campground.

I am currently diving into the "wilderness trip planner" PDF and it looks as though each wilderness trail has a "Daily Entry Quota R/W" for reserved and walkup. Am I right in presuming the walk-up technique is to show up before 7am at the visitor center and secure a permit for the day of? Seems like a silly question but just want to wade through the nuances correctly.

Yes, u get walk-up permits on the day of.

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The last time I did a walk up permit in SEKI was in 2014, and it became available the day before @ 11:00 AM. If you will be in the area any way you may want to look into this.