You didn't get a JMT permit. Now what?
Losing the lottery is not losing the trail. Five routes back to a John Muir Trail hike this year, in the order that costs you least, with the deadline for each.
Sources last verified
Take the second release before you do anything else. Yosemite never put 40% of its permits in the lottery and issues them seven days ahead; Inyo releases its remaining 40% two weeks ahead, both at 7am Pacific. A lottery loss costs you one tranche at one trailhead. If your dates cannot move, enter by a side door instead.
You entered the lottery, you waited, and the answer was no. This page is the part almost nobody writes down: what is actually still available, what each option costs you, and which deadline you have to hit for it.
The short version is that losing a lottery is not losing a permit. A lottery is one tranche of one trailhead at one agency. There are four more ways onto this trail, and most of them are still open the day you get the bad news.
First: understand what you actually lost
Both agencies split their quota. Yosemite awards 60% of reservable permits by rolling lottery and releases the other 40% seven days ahead. Inyo releases 60% six months ahead and the rest two weeks ahead, at 7am Pacific.
So a lottery loss means you missed one of those tranches, at one trailhead. The second tranche has not happened yet, and every other trailhead runs on its own clock.
Happy Isles trailhead · Yosemite National Park
southbound · 15 people per day · the complete trail, walked end to end from the valley floor
- Yosemite rolling lottery opensOpens 24 weeks before your start date · 09:00 America/Los_Angeles
- Yosemite seven-day releaseOpens seven days before your start date · 07:00 America/Los_Angeles
Tuolumne Meadows · Yosemite National Park
southbound · 30 people per day · twice the daily quota, at the cost of the Yosemite Valley stretch
- Yosemite rolling lottery opensOpens 24 weeks before your start date · 09:00 America/Los_Angeles
- Yosemite seven-day releaseOpens seven days before your start date · 07:00 America/Los_Angeles
Whitney Portal · Inyo National Forest
northbound · 60 people per day · a different lottery entirely — at the cost of 14,505 ft on day one
- Mt Whitney lottery applications openPublished date
- Mt Whitney lottery results postedPublished date
- Mt Whitney awards must be claimedPublished date
- Unclaimed Mt Whitney dates releasedPublished date · 07:00 America/Los_Angeles
Onion Valley · Inyo National Forest
southbound · the shortest walk in to the JMT, and the one every bail-out plan already names
- Inyo six-month releaseOpens six months before your start date · 07:00 America/Los_Angeles
- Inyo two-week releaseOpens two weeks before your start date · 07:00 America/Los_Angeles
South Lake · Inyo National Forest
southbound · the middle of the trail, reached from the town with the most beds
- Inyo six-month releaseOpens six months before your start date · 07:00 America/Los_Angeles
- Inyo two-week releaseOpens two weeks before your start date · 07:00 America/Los_Angeles
North Lake · Inyo National Forest
southbound · the northernmost eastside door, and the longest stretch of trail below it
- Inyo six-month releaseOpens six months before your start date · 07:00 America/Los_Angeles
- Inyo two-week releaseOpens two weeks before your start date · 07:00 America/Los_Angeles
Taboose Creek · Inyo National Forest
southbound · the one that is usually still available, because of what it costs to walk in
- Inyo six-month releaseOpens six months before your start date · 07:00 America/Los_Angeles
- Inyo two-week releaseOpens two weeks before your start date · 07:00 America/Los_Angeles
The five options, cheapest first
Each of these costs you something. They are ordered by how little they ask you to give up, not by how likely they are to work.
1. Wait for the second release
What it is. The 40% that was never in the lottery, released on a fixed countdown from your start date rather than drawn.
What it costs. Nothing, except that you have to be at a keyboard at 7am Pacific on an exact day. Set an alarm; these go in minutes, not hours.
Why it is first. It is the same permit, the same trailhead and the same trip you already wanted. Nothing about your plan changes.
2. Hunt cancellations
What it is. People cancel. Yosemite returns unclaimed and unawarded inventory to the system on a weekly cycle, and Inyo returns cancellations immediately.
What it costs. Attention, spread over weeks, with no guarantee at the end of it. Yosemite says plainly that few or no last-minute permits may remain for popular starts.
The honest warning. A cancellation is an option to monitor, not a foundation to book flights on. Treat it as a bonus running in the background while you pursue one of the options below.
3. Enter by a side door
What it is. Four eastern passes drop onto the John Muir Trail from the Owens Valley, and each is a separate Inyo entry with its own quota. They are usually available when the headline trailheads are not.
| Pass | You park at | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| Kearsarge Pass | Onion Valley | 7.5 miles in |
| Bishop Pass | South Lake | 12 miles in |
| Piute Pass | North Lake | a long walk down Piute Canyon |
| Taboose Pass | end of Taboose Creek Road | 10 miles in, and about 6,000 feet of climbing |
What it costs. You do not get the complete 211 miles. You get a section, chosen for you by which door opened. You also walk a hard day in and a hard day out that is not part of the trail itself.
What to do. Pick the door by where it lands you, not by which is easiest. Kearsarge puts you in the middle of the Kings Canyon high country; Piute is the northernmost and leaves the longest continuous stretch of trail below it; Taboose is the one most often still available, and the reason is in that last column.
If your section is going to finish over Mount Whitney, you have a second scarce thing to secure. Inyo requires any trip ending at Whitney Portal to name “Mt. Whitney (Trail Crest Exit)” as its exit point, and that exit holds its own daily quota separate from the pass you entered on. Ask for it when you apply. Adding it later works only if exit-quota space is left.
If you exit back over the pass you came in on, none of this applies. That is the simpler trip, and it is a perfectly good one.
4. Turn the trip around
What it is. Start at Whitney Portal and walk north. It is a different agency, a different quota and a different lottery, with its own calendar.
What it costs. You climb to 14,505 feet on your first or second day, with almost no time to acclimatise. That is a real risk, not a stylistic preference, and it is the reason this option is fourth rather than first.
The deadline. Applications open February 1 to March 1, results are posted March 15, and awards must be claimed April 21. Anything unclaimed is released April 22.
5. Move your dates
What it is. The same trip, later in the season or in the following one.
What it costs. A year, or a harder walk. Late-season starts trade crowds and mosquitoes for cold nights, short days and the chance of early snow.
Why it is last, and why it is not failure. Every option above bends your trip to fit a permit. This one is the only one that does not. Plenty of people walk the trail in the year after the one they wanted, and it is the same trail.
Your dates, in the order you will meet them
Tell it when you want to start and which way you are walking. Everything below is what is still ahead of you, across both agencies, with the link to book each one.
Pick a start date above and this becomes your dated list, in order, with the link to book each one. Until then the reservation windows above state every rule in full.
Some of these windows are published one season at a time. When you ask about a season the agency has not posted, this page shows you the shape of the deadline and refuses to tell you whether you have missed it — because it does not know, and neither does anyone else yet. Check the agency listing itself before you act on a forecast.
What to actually do this week
- Work out which release tranche you missed, and put the next one in your calendar with an alarm for 7am Pacific.
- Decide now whether you want the complete trail or a section you can definitely walk. They lead to different options above.
- If a section is acceptable, look at all four side doors on the same day rather than one at a time.
- If you want Whitney, ask for the Trail Crest exit in the same application. Do not plan to add it later.
- Set a date by which you will stop hunting cancellations and commit to whichever option you actually hold.
That last step is the one people skip, and it is the one that costs the most. Hunting a cancellation until the week before is how people arrive at a trailhead with no permit, no fallback and no time to build one.
Regulations, quotas and fees change every season. Confirm anything time-sensitive with the managing agency before you rely on it.