{"id":703,"date":"2016-02-13T16:42:04","date_gmt":"2016-02-13T16:42:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/?p=703"},"modified":"2016-02-14T16:33:53","modified_gmt":"2016-02-14T16:33:53","slug":"703","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/2016\/02\/13\/703\/","title":{"rendered":"Winning the Lottery: One National Park at a Time (Half Dome and Mount Whitney)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Half Dome Cables, Yosemite<\/em><\/p>\n

With 2016 upon us, you may have started making a list of\u00a0the national parks that you want to visit in this upcoming year. \u00a0You may not know this yet, but the coolest trails and cabins need to be reserved months in advance. \u00a0In addition, you have to win a lottery to visit our nations most prized treasures. \u00a0Hopefully I can shed some light on this process.<\/p>\n

The most useful information about each individual permit\u2014such as lottery win % by date\u2014are located on the National Park Service website.\u00a0 Links to those pages are included below.\u00a0 While there are dozens of permit lotteries, two mountain permits stand above the rest.<\/p>\n

Half Dome Cables, Yosemite<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

The Half Dome Cables are one of the coolest and most extreme hikes that a non-expert can make in the United States (pictured above). \u00a0The top 600 feet in elevation are traversed by pulling yourself up two steel cables while other hikers are trying to make their way down those same two steel cables.\u00a0 You can see the valley floor about a mile below.\u00a0 The entire round-trip hike is about 18 miles in length with about a mile in elevation change.<\/p>\n

\"Me<\/a><\/p>\n

TTM on the summit of Half Dome facing south, toward Mount Whitney.<\/em><\/p>\n

I hiked Half Dome in 2015 and the views were amazing (full post to come soon).\u00a0 Even with strategically choosing the lottery days to maximize our\u00a0winning potential, we still lost the preseason lottery.\u00a0 Thankfully we won the daily lottery two days prior to our trip so we were still able to hike\u00a0the mountain.<\/p>\n

You sign up for the preseason lottery at www.recreation.gov<\/a> between February 1, 2016 and March 31, 2016.\u00a0\u00a0 There are 225 permits available for the preseason lottery and 50 available for the daily lottery.\u00a0 These numbers fluctuate a little because folks who apply for wilderness permits do not need to separately win the Half Dome lottery.\u00a0 The fee schedule is included below:<\/p>\n

\"Half<\/a><\/p>\n

Recreation.gov Half Dome link<\/a><\/p>\n

NPS Half Dome link<\/a><\/p>\n

Preseason Half Dome Lottery Statistics<\/a><\/p>\n

Early May and during the week in September appear to be the best dates to target.\u00a0 It\u2019s important to keep in mind that your Yosemite experience will be vastly different depending on the time of year that you go.\u00a0 The waterfalls are amazing in May but they have mostly dried up by September.<\/p>\n

Mount Whitney, California<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Mount Whitney is the tallest mountain in the contiguous 48 states (Denali in Alaska is taller) and it is located between Death Valley and Yosemite Valley, in California.\u00a0 Mount Whitney is an attractive mountain to hike because it does not have a snow\/ ice glacial tip that other tall mountains have.\u00a0 Given that I\u2019ve already hiked Half Dome, I hope to win the lottery for a permit to hike Mount Whitney in 2016.<\/p>\n

\"Mount<\/a><\/p>\n

Mount Whitney is the tallest mountain in the picture.<\/em><\/p>\n

You sign up for the preseason lottery at www.recreation.gov<\/a> between February 1, 2016 and March 15, 2016.\u00a0\u00a0 There are two types of permits: day use (100 permits available per day) and overnight (60 permits available per day).\u00a0 If you receive a day use permit, you hike the entire mountain in one day.\u00a0 These hikes usually start around 4 am and conclude late that night.\u00a0 Overnight hikes allow you to camp and split the hike into two days (not evenly).\u00a0 There is a $6 application fee and if you win the preseason lottery, reservations are $15 per person.<\/p>\n

Recreation.gov Mount Whitney link<\/a><\/p>\n

NPS Mount Whitney link<\/a><\/p>\n

Preseason Mount Whitney Lottery Statistics<\/a><\/p>\n

In 2015, 43% of applicants won the preseason lottery and received permits on their preferred day.\u00a0 Early June and late September (unless if you want to hike during the week) appear to be the best dates to target.\u00a0 This strategy is risky though because there\u2019s a chance that the highest elevations of Mount Whitney may still be snow-capped which would make summitting much harder.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the meager fee of $15, hiking Half Dome or Mount Whitney is one of the coolest things you can do. \u00a0The only downside is that you have to plan in advance–so get started soon! \u00a0I hope to win the Mount Whitney lottery this year so my fingers are crossed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Half Dome Cables, Yosemite With 2016 upon us, you may have started making a list of\u00a0the national parks that you want to visit in this upcoming year. \u00a0You may not know this yet, but the coolest trails and cabins need to be reserved months in advance. \u00a0In addition, you have to win a lottery to visit our nations most prized treasures. \u00a0Hopefully I can shed some light on this process. The most useful information about each individual permit\u2014such as lottery win % by date\u2014are located on the National Park Service website.\u00a0 Links to those pages are included below.\u00a0 While there…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96,"featured_media":691,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[27,31],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nWinning the Lottery: One National Park at a Time (Half Dome and Mount Whitney) – The Traveling Millennial<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/2016\/02\/13\/703\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Winning the Lottery: One National Park at a Time (Half Dome and Mount Whitney) – The Traveling Millennial\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Half Dome Cables, Yosemite With 2016 upon us, you may have started making a list of\u00a0the national parks that you want to visit in this upcoming year. \u00a0You may not know this yet, but the coolest trails and cabins need to be reserved months in advance. \u00a0In addition, you have to win a lottery to visit our nations most prized treasures. \u00a0Hopefully I can shed some light on this process. 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