AlmostThere wrote:If you did get a wilderness permit you would not need the day hiking permit. They will stamp wilderness (overnight) permits for Half Dome on request.
You could try to do a walk in first come - first serve backpacking permit the day before you want to go. If you were ready to go that day, and could not get a walk in for the following day, you could (an hour after they start handing out walk ins for the next day) try to get an abandoned reserved permit, which happens with great frequency. People make reservations and end up not coming to pick them up all the time...
There are details for this process on the wilderness permitting page on the Yosemite website. Show up early in the morning and stand in line on the porch, when the office opens see what you can get.
Thanks so much, "Almost there". I can see with clarity what it takes to get a Wilderness Permit from the Yosemite Website, and indeed it seems that if I want/need one that I will have to do the "line stand". I didn't know about the Abandoned Reservation thing, so that is extremely helpful should I fail at getting one while standing in line for first-come-first-served.
You said that I can, however, get my Half Dome Permit stamped as a Wilderness Permit... am I reading that correctly? Can I get that automatically since I have a Half Dome Permit, or will that be required to be part of the quota system too? I can't find anything on the website that explains that. Also, when you say, "...on request", does that mean I can call and request or do I have to show up in person. Sorry, this is all quite confusing!
Thanks so much again. Rich