Me and a group of 5 would like to do either Tuolumne to Happy Isles, or vice versa from Friday-Sunday, Sept 23 - 25. I'm going to show up that Thursday and park out for a first-come first-serve permit for the weekend at Tuolumne, and my friend is going to do the same at Curry Village.
How early do I need to be there? I'm thinking 5 am, but can go either way depending on whether that's overkill or not aggressive enough. I expect traffic will still be relatively high that time of year, and being a group of 5 I expect I'll need to be first or second in line to get the spot I want.
Any first hand experience?
Would be open to alternate routes oftentimes, but my friends REALLY want to do Half-Dome and I'm not sure there are many other options in a 3-day time frame.