Yosemite Forum

How do walk thru permits work?

You mean walk in/first come first serve permits? about 40 percent of all permits are walk in. They are available the DAY BEFORE the first day of your backpacking trip, when the wilderness office opens. For most of the popular trails this means the people waiting in line on the porch of the wilderness center will grab up the permits during quota season. Outside of the quota period (winter) you self register and just walk on out into the wilderness.

For specifics on quotas for each trailhead and further details:
http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/wildpermits.htm

Do you mean a pass-through permit?

If you wanted a Little Yosemite Valley permit to do Half Dome or Clouds Rest but LYV is full, you can get a pass-through permit. It enables you to enter via Happy Isle or Glacier Point and hike to LYV. You cannot stay at LYV with a pass-through permit. You have to go at least a mile past LYV, and camp on either the Sunrise trail or the Merced Lake trail. Most people planning to do Half Dome or Clouds Rest use pass-through permits to camp near Sunrise Creek at the John Muir Trail / Clouds Rest trail intersection.

See Happy Isles to Sunrise/Merced Lake (pass-through) under the Yosemite Valley section at http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/trailheads.htm.

That's two guesses - hope one of us is right and he gets his answer....