High Sierra Camps 2024

[cattlehands]

Hello, does anyone know why when I try to enter the lottery at the Yosemite site it tells me "Sorry but this form is not currently accepting submissions"
Please Note: The 2024 Lottery will close at 11:59pm on November 7, 2023. I only have a couple of days? Have they cancelled the whole szason? Have too many people signed up? I cannot seem to get any answers. Anyone???
Many thanks,
Matt

[The Other Tom]

Hello, does anyone know why when I try to enter the lottery at the Yosemite site it tells me "Sorry but this form is not currently accepting submissions"
Please Note: The 2024 Lottery will close at 11:59pm on November 7, 2023. I only have a couple of days? Have they cancelled the whole szason? Have too many people signed up? I cannot seem to get any answers. Anyone???
Many thanks,
Matt

Just a guess, but I think they offered the slots to previous lottery winners that were shut out when the camps closed. I'm guessing there are a lot of those, and they don't have any more open slots.

[Harlen]

Cattlehands wrote:

Please Note: The 2024 Lottery will close at 11:59pm on November 7, 2023. I only have a couple of days? Have they cancelled the whole szason? Have too many people signed up? I cannot seem to get any answers. Anyone???
Many thanks,
Matt

It sounds a bit bleak for your YNP entry... or at least uncertain. Does this perhaps help?: You can always get a WP for the 20 Lakes Basin, AKA Saddlebag Lake area. From there, you could cross McCabe Saddle, and enter a really nice part of YNP. McCabe Lakes themselves are beautiful, as is the big meadow just below McCabe Saddle, seen here:

100_2920.JPG

Shepherd's Crest and that nice meadow below M.Saddle.


Here's a picture of the the lower McCabe Lake:

100_2877.JPG

From there, you can explore the quiet beauty, and stunning mountain scenery of upper Virginia Canyon, and then perhaps hike back around under the beautiful west face of Mt. Conness, and out to the road below Dog Lake, and hitch back to Saddlebag for your car. Or, you could try leaving your car at the T. Meadows trailhead, and hitch a ride/buy a ride, to your entry point at Saddlebag Lake??? With a bit more alpine effort, you might cross the ridge just south of Mt. Conness, and descend back to your car directly, via a route from the shoulder of White Mountain.

I don't mean to re-route your trip Matt, just an idea for you, and hoping to share one of our favorite Yosemite bakcountry areas. Good Luck, Ian.

p.s. Depending on where you wanted to explore in YNP, there are other sneaky entry points from outside the Park-- Rush Creek; (North) Mono Pass; Isberg Pass Trail; Clover Meadow; or perhaps even Tioga Pass, for that matter. Once I asked at the Yosemite kiosk if I could park on the road just beyond the Park and explore the backside of Mt. Dana, and the ridge on the west side of Hwy 120 with my dog-- and the ranger said "Sure, you're outside ofthe Park." I don't know if you can walk right back into Yosemite from there, via Dana Meadows, or not? Might be a gray area in the permitting system? Check it out.