Hello. i had several questions. I have never done half dome before and we are planning on doing a night hike as it will work best for our schedule. We do not have one of those weekend half dome permits so we decided to go on thursday. We are still deciding our options depending on the answers to these questions.
1. A half dome permit is required if you start your trip on a friday, saturday, sunday and major holiday. My question is, if we did a night hike starting thursday and end up getting to the cable part on 3AM friday, will it still be considered friday or would we still be covered under the "leaving thursday" excuse?
2. the Little Yosemite campground is booked on the day we plan on going, so If we are going and get a little tired, can we pull over on any flat area and take a rest in a sleeping bag for a bit until we get fresh again?
3. do you guys think it would be safe/OK if we did the entire trip after sunset? or do you think we should at least try to pass vernal or nevada falls before the sun comes down? We plan on having plenty of super bright flashlights.