Two permits, two systems, two deadlines. How to reserve the Crescent Meadow trailhead, why the Whitney Zone exit lets you summit Whitney without the lottery, and what to do when the quota is full.
The High Sierra Trail runs 72 miles from Crescent Meadow in Sequoia National Park over Kaweah Gap and Trail Crest to the summit of Mount Whitney, and it is one of the few great American thru-hikes you can finish in a week. The walking is not the hard part. The permit is, and specifically the fact that it is really two permits with two different systems and two different deadlines.
The short version
- You need a Sequoia wilderness permit for the Crescent Meadow trailhead, reserved through recreation.gov.
- You need a Whitney Zone stamp if you exit over Whitney and down to Whitney Portal, which almost everyone does.
- Reservations open on a rolling window, and Crescent Meadow is one of the more competitive Sequoia trailheads in July and August.
- Walk-up permits exist, and are a genuinely viable plan B that most people never consider.
Permit one: the Sequoia wilderness permit
Your entry permit is issued by Sequoia and Kings Canyon for the trailhead and date you start at, in this case Crescent Meadow. Reservations are made on recreation.gov, and quotas apply through the main season, roughly late May to late September. Outside the quota season a permit is still required but is self-issue at the trailhead.
Two things catch people out. The permit is tied to your entry trailhead and date, not your route, so once you have it you can walk the whole trail on it. And the quota counts people, not permits, so a group of six consumes six of a small daily allocation. Large groups are much harder to place than solo hikers, and splitting into two groups on consecutive days is a legitimate tactic.
Permit two: the Whitney Zone
This is the part that surprises people, because it is not how Whitney usually works.
Hiking Mount Whitney from the east, up from Whitney Portal, requires winning the famously brutal Mount Whitney lottery. Approaching from the west on the High Sierra Trail does not. Instead, you add a Whitney Zone exit to your Sequoia wilderness permit, which lets you summit and descend to Whitney Portal without ever entering that lottery.
This is the single most useful fact about the High Sierra Trail: it is one of the few ways to legally stand on the summit of Mount Whitney without winning the Whitney lottery. Request the Whitney exit when you book the wilderness permit. Adding it afterwards is possible but far more awkward.
When to apply
Sequoia and Kings Canyon wilderness permits are released on a rolling window ahead of your start date, and the exact lead time has changed more than once in recent years. Check the park's wilderness permit page for the current window before you plan around a date, and then be at your keyboard when it opens.
Crescent Meadow releases go quickly for mid-July through mid-August. They go far less quickly for:
- Mid-September. Arguably the best time to walk it. Mosquitoes gone, water still reliable, passes usually clear, and the light is better.
- Any weekday start. A Tuesday departure is dramatically easier to reserve than a Friday.
- Late June, if it has been a light snow year. Watch the Sierra snowpack rather than the calendar.
If you do not get one
A share of each day's quota is held back for walk-ups, issued in person the day before you start at the Lodgepole or Foothills visitor centre in Sequoia. This works more often than people expect, particularly midweek and after mid-August, and it is a real plan rather than a consolation.
The obvious catch is that it requires being physically in the park with flexible dates, so it suits a road trip better than a flight with fixed returns. If you are driving, building two spare days into the front of the trip converts a failed reservation into a walk-up instead of a cancelled holiday.
The other backup is to walk the trail and skip Whitney, exiting back the way you came or over a different pass. You lose the summit and keep the best 60 miles.
Logistics people underestimate
- It is a point-to-point. You finish at Whitney Portal, about five hours by road from where you started. Arrange a shuttle or a car swap before you go; there is no public transport.
- A bear canister is required for the whole route, not optional and not negotiable. Rent one in the park if you do not own one.
- Altitude is the real difficulty. The trail starts near 6,700 feet and finishes at 14,505. The walking is moderate; the elevation is not. Build in an acclimatisation night.
- Crescent Meadow parking is limited and the road closes to private vehicles at busy times. Check the shuttle schedule for your start date.
How long to allow
Most people take six to eight days. Five is possible and fast. Four is a race that wastes the trail. Seven with a rest day at Kern Hot Spring is the version most people wish they had booked, and Kern Hot Spring is worth planning a short day around.
Nearby, if the permit does not come through
The eastern Sierra has more good walking than any permit system can gate. If Crescent Meadow is full, these run on separate quotas:
- A John Muir Trail section hike, which shares terrain and scenery.
- Kings Canyon backpacking, immediately north and consistently easier to permit.
- The eastern Sierra loop, if you would rather drive and day-hike than carry a pack.
- Mount Whitney itself, if the summit is the point and you want to try the eastern lottery.
Get told when it opens
The reason most people miss High Sierra Trail permits is not that they lost a lottery. It is that they did not know the release date and found out in October. We track this permit and 27 others and send one email the morning your window opens, never the day after. It is free, and you pick only the trails you care about.
