Re: Questions about hiking trip from Mammoth into Yosemite

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

This may help:
http://yosemitenews.info/forum/read.php?3,63853,63876#msg-63876

As for HD. I know I was asked if I was going up HD when getting a permit outside the park before.
That's as much as I know. (is that better than nothing) (maybe not)

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Regarding question 1...with Inyo's permit system the trick is finding the right name for the trailhead (Chick-on's link helps... - check out the map as well, I discounted the Shadow Lake trailhead in that thread and it best met the interests of the person who started it). With those three trailheads, you can rank them by preference and just see what's available because recreation.gov gives you real-time information.

Can't help with question 2.

If it's the same as in prior years, the shuttle starts at 7 AM and after that time is mandatory unless you have campground reservations west of Minaret Summit. Before that time you can drive to your trailhead. Of course, unless you're doing a car shuttle, you're taking the Postpile shuttle (and YARTS from Tuolumne) in one direction anyway.

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ttilley
Before that time you can drive to your trailhead.

For the same cost as the shuttle last I heard.

Re the trailheads...first, that part of Ansel Adams Wilderness is pretty cool, you picked a great route in general. With the kids, I would try to get out from the Agnew Meadows Trailhead and jump over to JMT at Shadow Lake. There are some shortish and steep ups, but you get to the pretty stuff pretty quickly. The hike up from Devil's Postpile on the JMT is kind of a long, dusty gradual uphill slog through the woods, and you don't get water until the Trinity Lakes area, and even those are shallow mosquito traps at best.
I would definitely check out Devil's Postpile itself, as well as the Ranger Station...they have some cool stuff there.

Thanks for the feedback, everybody!

@ chick-on: yes, the link was very useful. I did search in the forum, but failed to see that discussion. I took a look and there are still permits available for some of those trailheads (River Trail, for example).

@ttilley: I'll just take the Devil's Postpile shuttle to Agnews and then YARTS back to the Mammoth resort.

@Bearproof: thanks for the itinerary suggestions!