[pct-l] Yosemite Half Dome Permit and Hiking into Yosemite Valley from the PCT

[Gary Wright]

This ended up being a lot longer than I thought but if you are interested in hiking off the PCT in Yosemite during you thru-hike you'll probably want to read the whole thing...

I just noticed on the PCTA site a notice that a permit is now required to hike Half Dome in Yosemite.
Go to http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/hdpermits.htm for information about the permits.

Summary: They are limiting access to half dome to 400 people/day, which was the typical weekday crowd while the weekends saw typically 800 people/day. It appears that backpackers can get a Half Dome permit when they pick up their regular wilderness permit for overnight stays in Yosemite.

The PCT permit is not a substitute for a wilderness permit in Yosemite if you are leaving the PCT.  For example you can't use your PCT permit to hike on the JMT down into Yosemite Valley.  You'll need to get a Wilderness Permit when you arrive in Tuolumne if you want to head off the PCT overnight.  This can get a bit tricky for thru hikers since you generally can't reserve a permit ahead of time (a wilderness permit or a Half Dome permit)--since you won't know when you will arrive in Yosemite.

Here is the procedure I used in 2007 with some notes about Half Dome:

- Arrive in the Tuolumne area before the Wilderness Center closes (4:30 in June, 5:00 in July).  Think about where you camp the night before.  I had to hustle to get 23+ miles done including Donahue Pass to get to the Wilderness Center before they closed and this is a beautiful section of trail.  I would have rather sauntered along.

- Carefully follow the trails to the Wilderness Center.  If you head to the Campground/Store first, you'll have to backtrack a bit.
  -- request your Wilderness and Half Dome permits.
  -- permits are issued per/trailhead and may be unavailable for the day you arrive in Tuolumne
  -- be flexible on what trailhead you'll use to enter the Yosemite backcountry
  -- walk-in permits are only for departing on the day you walk-in or the next day

- Stay overnight in the Tuolumne Campground backpackers site for a next-day departure or head out immediately if you got a same-day departure. Once you get to Yosemite Valley, your wilderness permit allows you a one-night stay in a backpackers campground in the Valley.

- You can hitch or take a bus back to Tuolumne or reverse the process if you want to hike and stay overnight on your way back to the PCT.  You might be able to get a single permit that allows you to go to the Valley and back, but I didn't try that in 2007 so I'm not sure about this.  My quick reading of the permit process seems to indicate that your permit is valid if you reenter at the same location you exited within 24 hours.

I recommending heading down to Tuolumne via the trail over Cloud's Rest.  You can camp before or after Cloud's Rest and you'll only be an hour or two away from the base of Half Dome, which I recommend hiking early in the morning before the crowds arrive.

One final note. If you want to head into Yosemite Valley *without* stopping in Tuolumne first (lots of trails you could consider), you'll have to get a permit from the agency that controls that trailhead.   I'm guessing in practice, for thrus, that would mean Inyo National Forest.  I just called their office and asked them about this and they said that the ranger's station at Devil's Postpile can issue those Wilderness permits on a walk-in basis.  Of course there are quotas in place and so you might have to be flexible.  For example she said there are only 4 walk-ins available per day for the JMT trailhead out of Devils Postpile.  My head hurts trying to understand if the PCT permit would help you here or not since the PCT doesn't actually follow the JMT through this area!  My guess is that you would be able to work something out with the rangers to get a valid permit but you might have to stay on the PCT until you hit the Yosemite boundary.

In researching this I realized that lots of hikers take alternate routes through this area that technically would not be covered by the PCT permit.  For example the Fish Creek alternate route or even the JMT.  I've never heard of anyone having trouble with rangers in this regard though.


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