Tioga Road Wilderness Permits When Closed

sgenise · Post by **sgenise** » Thu Jan 26, 2017 11:45 am

Hi all! Been a longtime lurker, but finally decided to join!

So I currently have two wilderness permits for June 16 and 18: Sunrise Lakes on June 16, and Lyell Canyon (Donohue Exit) on June 18, both of which were made before these huge snowstorms rolled through.

In the event Tioga Road is not open by those dates, are those wilderness permits just kinda gone? Or if I can get to those trailheads under human power, are they valid?

Thanks!

AlmostThere · Post by **AlmostThere** » Thu Jan 26, 2017 12:38 pm

They'll offer to transfer them to trailheads you can reach, that have spots available on them. Or offer a refund. When I couldn't use the one I had for Roads End over in Kings Canyon due to a fire and road closure, those were the options.

They do plow the road, that starts toward the end of April. They'll let you keep the permit if the road is open even if there is still a lot of snow around.

Post by **maverick** » Thu Jan 26, 2017 1:23 pm

Hi Sgenise,

Welcome to HST! Here is some historical data on opening dates by year, we were at 158% so far back on Jan 11th.
https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/tiogaopen.htm

oldranger · Post by **oldranger** » Thu Jan 26, 2017 5:29 pm

Note that the end of june dates or later were all over 150% of normal on April 1.

yosehiker · Post by **yosehiker** » Tue Feb 14, 2017 2:08 pm

AlmostThere wrote:Or offer a refund. When I couldn't use the one I had for Roads End over in Kings Canyon due to a fire and road closure, those were the options.

AlmostThere is wrong.The reservation fees are non-refundable, it says so on their application and has been my experience too.

From the Yosemite application: "All processing and reservation fees are non-refundable"

You should be able to transfer it though: "If space is available within the same season, you can request a change to your existing reservation's date or trailhead for an additional processing fee of $5. If you have questions regarding your reservation or would like to make changes to an existing reservation, call 209/372-0740. The reservation office is unable to correspond by email or fax. Processing fees are non-refundable and non-transferable."

The Kings Canyon application says the same thing, so not sure why AlmostThere got a refund. Maybe things have changed or it was because of a fire.

From the Kings Canyon application: "Fees are non-refundable once they have been processed."

AlmostThere · Post by **AlmostThere** » Tue Feb 14, 2017 2:09 pm

My experience with the parks is not wrong. When a fire closes a road and an area of the park, I was offered a refund. They don't have to do that any more than they have to allow you to change the date one time for no extra cost -- they've done that for me, too.

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