by Phil » Sun Dec 19, 2021 11:30 am
It all depends. What day of the week are you planning for? On or around a major holiday? Leaving from the Valley or Tuolumne?
Try your luck and timing with the lottery. If that doesn't work out, plan to get into line at one of the permit offices early (they open at 8am), say no later than 6am, with 5am being even better in most cases. The lines can get very long. You can also try for a cancellation. They take the no-shows out and open up their unclaimed permits at 11am the day of for walk-up, so if you get one, you have to hit the trail the same day, which could easily still give you time to make it to LYV if leaving from the Valley, or at least Cathedral Lakes if leaving from Tuolumne.
Always, mid-week is the better time to go; all the way from getting the permit to less crowded trails.
No matter what, go into that permit office with at least a Plan B and/or Plan C for trailhead choices. And one last strategic trick: if the actual JMT permits aren't available, you can always try to use other entry trailheads to essentially get in and pick up the JMT somewhere along the line.
![[Yosemite]](../images/yosemiteicon.png)
