Just realized how much the JMT permit system has changed since my first hike

Overheard a ranger in Yosemite say they get over 100 lottery entries for a single day now. Makes you wonder if the old walk-up system was better for spreading people out, or just a free-for-all?

3 comments

3 Comments

emmap162mo ago

My buddy tried for a JMT permit for three years straight before he got one. He said the lottery felt like playing the world's worst scratch off ticket, just with more disappointment. The old walk-up line at Tuolumne was pure chaos but at least you knew your fate by 11am. Now the whole thing is a six month long anxiety dream. I miss the simplicity of showing up and taking your chances, even if it meant going home.

the_abby2mo ago

Three years is just brutal, I can't imagine that kind of waiting. The lottery system really does feel like a special kind of torture because the hope just drags on forever. I get why they changed it, but you're right, there was something honest about the walk-up chaos. You stood in line with everyone else, all sharing the same immediate stress. Now the stress is spread out over months and it somehow feels worse.

patricia_hayes11d ago

Six month long anxiety dream" is exactly right. I went through that same thing trying to get a permit for a stretch of the JMT a few years back. I put in for like five different date ranges and ended up with nothing. It's wild how you spend all that time planning and hoping, only to get that rejection email and feel totally deflated. The old walk up system was a gamble too, but at least you could make a weekend trip out of it and if you got skunked, you just went and did something else nearby. Now it feels like the whole thing is rigged against regular folks who can't game the system.