Wilderness Permit Information

[bald tires]

I have been checking out Rec.gov for the status of available permits for the trailheads I want to hike out of next summer. For the most part nobody is reserving permits except for Woods Creek and Bubba Creek which are totally reserved for most dates starting in July. I have never had to use Rec.gov in my trips years ago because I could always get a walk up permit. I wonder if things will change as we get into August. My first planned trip is to hike the Mammoth trail in the Ansel Adams Wilderness over to Reds Meadows. Then north up into Yosemite. 20 permits per day for this trail and none have been reserved. I know that there might be snow at the higher elevations but you would think that at least somebody would be hiking this trail by mid July.

Is this typical that there are always permits available except for the most popular trails?

[Schleppy]

Oh, Rec.gov. Let me count the ways.

That TH is off an unpaved forest road. Less accessible usually means less popular. May take a while to fill up. Not sure if it will get to full, but people will definitely begin making reservations as the weather warms. Call the Bass Lake Ranger station. You'll get through to someone eventually. They'll help you out with specific questions.

Even though most places are issuing through Rec.gov now, every forest, NP, and wilderness area has their own thing going on.You need to read the rules for the specific area you're trying to get into to figure out how to make it work for you.

Some areas just have huge quotas that will never get filled. Others will fill up moments after the permits go live. Many of the less popular trails will never hit capacity while others will get people hogging reservations "just in case."

The most popular areas (eg Yosemite, Desolation wilderness) have some systems in place to provide a little bit of room for walk-ins. Gotta read the fine print.

[paul]

As Schleppy points out, rules vary from one jurisdiction to another. It can be a good idea, after reading all the info available online for the particular jurisdiction, to call the applicable ranger district and get confirmation/clarification. In some cases the only walkups (if any) are availble the day of or the day before at a specific time, so it pays to have the accurate info.

[bald tires]

I think that I have read all of the fine print. From what I have read all permits in Yosemite and Sierra Nat Forest go through Rec.gov. Even the supposedly "walk up" permits. The walk up permits aren't walk up anymore. They are released 14 days before and are first come first served by calling Rec.gov or maybe going online. I talked with a nice lady in the Bass Lake office about this and she didn't know why walk up permits got shifted to Rec.gov. Even if a walk up permit was available in SNF you have to pick up the permits at one of 3 offices that are located miles away from any of the trailheads. Sounded like she got constant complaints from people about this change. Don't get me started on what I think about this.

I used to take the train to Merced and then YARTS to Yosemite arriving late afternoon. After dinner I would spend the night sitting in front of the door to the office that issued the permits. I was usually the first person in line. As the night wore on more and more people would arrive. It was often a fun night talking with other backpackers about their planned adventures. I remember one time when two couples arrived not long after me. They were freaking out about not getting the 4th JMT permit because they thought that was what I wanted. I let them fret for a bit then told them that I wasn't getting a JMT permit. After getting my permit I would spend that night in the backpackers campground before hitting the trail the next day.

SEKI still issues the walk up permits to people who actually walk up to the offices in the parks. I have no worries about getting a walk up permit in SEKI. The only issue in SEKI is there are no backpacker campgrounds in SEKI like there are in Yosemite. I talked to a nice ranger about this. He didn't know why there weren't backpacker campgrounds in SEKI. I was told the only options are to rent a hotel room in the pack, rent a camp site through Rec.gov or stay outside the park after getting my permit. So much for taking the Sequoia Shuttle to SEKI. I will have to drive.

I will keep checking Rec.gov for available permits.

[Schleppy]

Rec.gov is run by a giant government contractor named Booz Allen Hamilton. They do mainly spy and gov defense stuff, but landed the contract to build and maintain the rec.gov system.

It's all commission based. They make more money off the trail permits than the management agencies/US treasury do. But the land management agencies are strained for resources and suck at tech. It's hard for the agencies to balance public access and conservation with the money and people they have. I do, however, wish a better solution could be found, and gotta believe we as a country can do better than BAH.

Here are a couple pieces written on issue. One more more hawkish and one less.

People have griped about it here on HST:
Here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
and here.

[FrankPS]

I think that I have read all of the fine print. From what I have read all permits in Yosemite and Sierra Nat Forest go through Rec.gov. Even the supposedly "walk up" permits. The walk up permits aren't walk up anymore.

I think all permits for Yosemite go through the lottery approximately 6 months in advance. Don't know how the walk-up are handled but the lottery is unique to Yosemite (and Whitney).

[bald tires]

From my understanding in Yosemite the reserved permits go through the lottery system. The supposedly walk up permits are released 12 days prior on a first come first served basis by calling into Rec.gov. or it might be online.

[bald tires]

Just looked at Rec.gov again to see if people are reserving permits in SNF and SEKI. Except for Bubbs creek, Woods creek and the HST virtually nobody is reserving permits. Occasionally you will see some permits reserved but by and large everything is wide open.

[Bishop_Bob]

Just looked at Rec.gov again to see if people are reserving permits in SNF and SEKI. Except for Bubbs creek, Woods creek and the HST virtually nobody is reserving permits. Occasionally you will see some permits reserved but by and large everything is wide open.

Shh! Keep it on the down-low.

[SNOOOOW]

From my understanding in Yosemite the reserved permits go through the lottery system. The supposedly walk up permits are released 12 days prior on a first come first served basis by calling into Rec.gov. or it might be online.

"Walk in permits" for Yosemite are released 7 days prior to whatever start date you wanted, not 12. They also remove those "walk in permits" off rec.gov 3 days prior to the start date. You can still drive in and pick up a walk in permit old school style on the morning of your trip, but you wouldn't know if there are actually any available permits for a specific trailhead until you got to the ranger station inside the park. How can you get inside the park to get to the ranger station without an entry reservation in advance for those days that require an entry reservation?....I will tell you this from my experience last summer...If you do not have a park entry reservation, the person at the gate will not let you into the park to access a ranger station for a same day walk in permit. At least they are still allowing the walk up permit option even if it is tricky to navigate.