We are submitting our wilderness permit application this weekend (for a late season trip). On the application, you can ask for Half Dome permits as part of your Wilderness permit. However, there is nowhere on the application to specify which day you would like to climb Half Dome.
How do they determine what day we are climbing Half Dome? Will our Half Dome permit be valid for the duration of our Wilderness Permit? Or will we enter a lottery and win a random day during our hike?
It would be inconvenient to win a Half Dome permit on a day we were planning on being 15 miles away.
Edit: 2 more Questions to add:
Does Yarts run their fall (weekend only) schedule up until the Tioga Road starts to close?
Water is a big concern of ours. Does the Merced in Little Yosemite Valley dry up in drought years? We're planning on camping at lakes and at Little Yosemite Valley, I know most stream beds will be dry.