60% go by lottery 24 weeks in advance. The remaining 40% go on sale at recreation.gov exactly at 7AM Pacific time, a week before. Frankly, it is much easier to plan a week out, than to plan 6 months out, especially with all the uncertainties of the past few years. Remaining or unused permits are available as walk-ups as described earlier. The most popular trailheads go to the fastest fiby jayahc - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
If you are coming in from the north side, off Tioga Pass Road, from the Cathedral Lakes or Sunrise Lakes trailhead, you could set up camp at Sunrise Lakes and do a day hike, ~8 miles round trip, to the top of Clouds Rest and back. If you come from the Valley, it seems there is a creek (either Sunrise Creek or Merced Creek, I am not sure) where you could set up camp before day hiking via The Pinnby jayahc - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Thanks balzacomm. We will hope the mosquitos have gone by the time we get there. We will also camp away from the water -- easier to bring water to camp. As an aside, I enjoy reading your posts on backpacking in the Sierras. Jayby jayahc - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Hello: We will be camping at Sunrise Lakes around July 10th. The plan was to leave our tents with backpacks inside but bear canisters stowed properly outside while we dayhiked Clouds Rest. Although all food and smellables like toothpaste, sunscreen etc will be in the bear canister, we will have sweaty clothes/socks in the backpacks. How aggressive are the marmots in the Sunrise Lakes area.by jayahc - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Thank you all for the suggestions. We will probably do the Mist Trail and Vernal Falls on the way back and will follow the suggestion to go up CR from the Quarter Domes side. Since our permit is for a week we will probably spend an extra day at Sunrise Lakes and do a side trip to Cathedral Lakes as well. That permit is so difficult to get. Since we are in the area we may as well go there too.by jayahc - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Hello: We have a permit for Happy Isles to Illilouette. This was not our first choice since we wanted to hike Clouds Rest. We have decided to camp the first night near a creek just after dispersed camping is allowed, i.e., after the fork. 1. Night 1 Camping: We are using AllTrails and it is hard to tell what is the shortest distance we could backpack from Happy Isles to be able to get toby jayahc - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra