Is 2024 your year to get to the top? The lottery for slots runs all March. Go to recreation.gov to enter your choice of days. Drawing is in April.
Want to see what it’s like going up the cables? I made this YouTube a few years ago…. https://youtu.be/Ar9pNenQbK8 the only one I’ve seen that films from the bottom of the cables all the way to the top. Most on-line videos turn the camera off on the “actual going up” portion. I used a head-mounted GoPro.
If you think you can’t do it….don’t – it’s really hard and scary. I think anyone who is in good health can do it — with Education, preparation and motivation. Plan on about 11 hrs RT. And DRINK water! Oh, I’ve been up 42 times…and love it.
Here we go again….too many people!!!! Back to permits, familiar … with many during COVID. In 2023, the park went open season with all welcome to wait in long lines just to get in. Then try to find a parking place.
Get a permit for Spring to see Yosemite Falls!
Over 4M folks come to Yosemite each year…it’s not like the “good old days” when you could decide to go to the park on Thursday and drive up on Friday. No longer. You have to get a reservation.
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From April 13 through June 30, a reservation is required from 5 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays (Memorial Day – May 27 and Juneteenth – June 19). From July 1 through August 16, a reservation is required from 5 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day. From August 17 through October 27, a reservation is required from 5 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays (Labor Day – September 2 and October 14)
You can buy reservations for all arrival dates. Reservations will be released online starting January 5 at 8 a.m.
Reservations will be available until sellout. Afternoon entry reservations and additional full-day reservations will be released one week in advance.
Although the system begins in April….You need one a reservation to drive into Yosemite 24 hours per day for visitors arriving February 10–11, February 17–19, and February 24–25, 2024.
Too many people and they keep coming.
PS Glacier Point Road is closed until May more or less.
It’s called the Visitor Access Management Plan. Staff is trying to hone in on how to keep the masses from overwhemng the park. The next public participation period is now open from July 6, 2023 to September 6, 2023.
Can’t get a Half Dome permit? God bless Michael Feger, a recent San Francisco State University grad. He wrote an app to wait in line for you. Yosemite permits are given out all summer via a lottery in March – winners are chosen in April – this is for every day in the summer while the cables are up. Usually, about Columbus Day. But they also have a program to give out 50 per day – every day. Another mini lottery….apply Day 1, you’re told if you won on Day 2 and you can then hike Half Dome on Day 3.
Permits are also recycled from people who cancel. You cannot buy or sell them on the open market.
The idea is simple – go to …wildpermits.com/ Fill in some stuff – the park you want to go to….trail, etc. Like Yosemite’s Half Dome. You’ll get a text that an opening just occured. Then you go – quick like a bunny – and apply through Recreation.gov.
Neato Torpedo. Buy (and study) the only Hiking Guide to Half Dome….I wrote it … 42 times up. Gosh.
Kudos to Jeremy Evans. On a loverly May day at the park, he had his video camera at the ready, and got this great shot of a snow avalanche rolling down from the east ridge of the Canyon. It’s not too far from Half Dome.
Copyright Jeremy EvansEvansdp.com
Hike Half Dome —– Carpe Diem
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The Yosemite Conservancy is gifting the National Park Service with $5 million for the design and planning of upgrades for Mist Trail, from the Valley to Vernal Fall and Nevada Fall. The official beginning of the trail may move from the Merced River to the Happy Isles Nature Center.
There are also plans for upgrades at the Vernal Fall footbridge area. The small bridge, a water fountain and the last flushing toilet on the route are currently there.
No word on when shovels will appear. Not for a while…..maybe 2025/26. The 700 steps between the Footbridge and the lip of Vernal Fall is a very hard climb….after a brief respite, another 600+ stps await you to get to the Nevada Fall drop off.
Note: The are both “FALL” – not falls. If water goes down in one flow and does not cascade, it’s a fall. Ergo, it’s Yosemite FALLS.
Carpe Diem
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At the very beginning of 1997, the winter weather at the park was like it was this year. Same same….Tons of snow…then the warm spring. The Merced River and other creeks got the massive flow of melting snow….it clogged the river. The falls were great, but did not stop. You guessedi it…a massive flod ensured.
The valley was underwater. Everywhere. No one died, but the park had to be closed for two months. Asphalt got torn up; roadbeds outside the park cracked deeply.
And here is 2023 – the same script. As things heat up in the Sierra, the melting snow will gorge the gorges! Most of Yosemite Valley will close starting April 28, at 10 pm, due to a forecast of flooding. This closure will last until Wednesday, May 3—possibly longer. Additional flooding and closures may occur later in May or June.
Take heed and check on things before you head up.
As always – Carpe Diem!
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Apply in March – drawing is in April. You pick up to 6 people for 7 possible dates…they will choose. There is no reason to enter at an early date. All applications received by the end of March will be in the pool. If the snow season continues at its current pace, there may be a delay in erecting the cables beyond the end of May. So that’s one good reason to hedge your bets when planning your hike. You MAY not be able to get up if snow blocks the trail and the crews are not able to erect the pipes and boards that hold up the cables. A roll of the dice. It may be better think about a later summer trip.
Unrelated thought worth quoting: “A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.”– Muhammed Ali
The right side of El Cap is kinda near the parking area. Credit this to Alex J. Wood who happened to be there. Also shown on FOX 26. Video at bottom of this post..
I’m not a rock climber, but have stood at the base of El Cap….a pebble could have gone through me. Dumb. Part of Northside Drive near El Capitan is closed.
