I'm planning a hike from Mammoth Lakes into Yosemite through JMT with my family (wife + daughters 9 and 10). We've already done a couple multi-day trips inside Yosemite, but since we're not yet THAT experienced I feel more comfortable on the more traveled routes, and this would be our longest trip so far.
Overall plan is to stop at Tuolumne for restocking at the 5th day, go through Sunrise into Little Yosemite, and depending on our gas, maybe even return through Merced Lake back to Tuolumne to avoid the Valey itself.
Anyway, two questions about it:
1) I understand that permits for this trip would be granted through Inyo NF/Wilderness permits at recreation.gov, is it correct? What trailheads would be appropriate for my trip? I was hoping to be able to park at the resort at Mammoth and get the shuttle into one of the Postpile trailheads, but I understand I'm a bit late on the planning, so my guess is that the most common THs will have their quota filled up. Any ideas?
2) We've been to the Half Dome a couple times, and would most definitively try to get there again. I know backcountry trips starting in Yosemite get the permit to go up, but do you know if my trip would give me the same privilege?
I hope the message is in the right forum, sorry if it's not. Thanks a lot for your thoughts on this,
Cesar Lopes