Yosemite National Park is well known as one of the most beautiful–and busiest–US National Park. To beat summer crowds and still explore famous trails amidst imposing granite monoliths, towering sequoias, and sometimes bears, here’s a breakdown on backpacking in Yosemite.
What’s needed for backpacking in Yosemite?
- A valid wilderness permit
- Certified bear canisters – These are ALWAYS required for all trips. You must store anything that goes “on your body or in your body” in the canister.
- Gear essentials – water filter, stove for cooking, lightweight tent, sleeping pad, sleeping bag, etc.
Permit Info for Backpacking in Yosemite
Backpacking permits in Yosemite are also referred to as wilderness permits. The wilderness permits are reserved through a lottery system for more popular trailheads or via a calendar for others. All permits are obtained through recreation.gov.
For non-lottery needed permits, reservation requests can be made from 24 weeks to 3 days in advance of the start of a trip. When reserving your permit, you will select the number of people as well as the entry trailhead for the start date. For a permit to be valid, you must enter the wilderness from that trailhead on that specific date.
While the lottery permits can be harder to get, they shouldn’t be considered off the table as you have many chances of winning them. These applications are opened 1 week at a time 24 weeks in advance of the trip.
The most popular trailheads that you might need to enter a lottery for include the following:
- Happy Isles (LYV)
- Happy Isles (Past LYV)
- Sunrise Lakes
- Cathedral Lakes
- Mono Meadows
These trailheads include the very difficult to obtain Half Dome Cable permits as part of the itinerary.
Yosemite Backpacking Permit Costs
Permit costs depend on your groups size but are relatively inexpensive. However, if you want one of the lottery trailheads, it might take a few application fees to score your trip dates. It’s important to know that the entry fee to the national park is an additional cost on top of the permit cost.
Advantages & Disadvantages to Backpacking in Yosemite
When deciding whether backpacking in Yosemite is for you, consider these advantages/disadvantages.
Advantages of Backpacking Yosemite
- A lot more solitude than what you will find in the valley
- A higher chance of scoring Half Dome permits, if that’s on your bucket list (for specific trailheads)
- Unique experiences – discovering views and wildlife at different times of day than you’d experience if sleeping lower in the valley
- Camping options for Yosemite Valley without a reservation*
- Point-to-point itinerary options allowing you to see more areas of the park on a shorter timeline**
*There are a couple backpackers campgrounds throughout Yosemite including in Yosemite Valley. The ability to camp in one of these campgrounds is available the night before your permit start and the night you complete your wilderness trip.
While the other campgrounds in the valley sell out almost instantly once released in the summer, no reservations are needed for the backpacker’s campground. You simply pay $8 per person per night, which makes planning around permits MUCH easier.
Disadvantages to Backpacking Yosemite
I mean, there’s barely any disadvantages to backpacking Yosemite, but here are a few:
- Almost all trails have substantial elevation change which can be made even more challenging with a heavy pack
- Your pack will be heavier than normal. Bear canisters are REQUIRED and most certified cans weigh 2-3 lbs empty.
- Water sources (at least on the trail we took) were further apart than you might expect – also making for a heavier pack carrying extra water.
** When planning your point to point backpacking trip, make sure you have a way to get back to your car. If your itinerary involves starting or ending on Tioga Road, there is a hikers bus that is $14 per person for a one-way trip from Yosemite Valley Lodge and / or Curry Village.
At the time of writing this post, there is no bus that provides service to Glacier Point Road. If your trip starts or ends there, make sure you have 2 cars to shuttle.
With so many different trailheads, trip lengths, and sections of Yosemite to explore, it can be a little overwhelming to plan a backpacking trip. Check out Guide to Backpacking in Yosemite National Park – Part 2 for an example itinerary that one my friends (another wine hiker!) and I followed over 3 days.
