How to Win Permits to Hike Half Dome in Yosemite: A Complete Guide for 2024

Do you want to hike Half Dome in Yosemite National Park, but you’re feeling totally lost on the permits? Then you’re in the right place! We’re going to go over where you need permits, how to get Half Dome permits, how to increase your odds of winning the lottery, and what to do if you aren’t successful in winning the lottery. Let’s learn how to hike Half Dome- one of the most epic hikes in Yosemite National Park!

Hiking Half Dome in Yosemite National Park is a hike that is sure to be on many outdoor enthusiast’s bucket list- and for good reason. The unique shape of the dome is visible throughout Yosemite Valley as it rises 5,000 feet above it and the trail goes through some of the most scenic parts of Yosemite National Park.

Perhaps the most famous part of this hike is the cables section. These metal cables go directly up the slick granite side of Half Dome for 400 feet, with some sections having an angle of 45 degrees! Using these cables, you’re able to pull yourself up with the side of the dome without any mountaineering equipment.

It’s truly a marvel that we’re able to hike this all the way to the top of Half Dome! But while the hike itself is very challenging at 10-14 miles round trip, the hardest part for many may be getting the permit to hike it. I

n order to go up the cables section and summit Half Dome, you must have a permit on you. The permit is required to hike to the top while the cables are in place from May to October (estimated), and once those cables are up a permit is needed 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, with no exceptions.

This permit system is won on a lottery basis, and the purpose of it is to keep hikers safe while hiking Half Dome. Only 300 hikers a day are allowed on the Half Dome cables, and that’s to keep everyone safe. This is a narrow area that you’ll be going up and down on, and even with the permit and lottery system it gets a little tense!

I don’t even want to imagine what it would be like to hike Half Dome without the permitting system! Since the National Park Service only allows 300 hikers a day on the Half Dome cables, and thousands of people apply every year, getting a permit can be hard work!

The process of applying can also be confusing as there are a couple routes (pun intended) that you can take. In this blog post we’re going to go over all of this in detail so that you can have the most success winning a permit to hike the Half Dome Cables. So without further adieu, let’s get into some of the basics!

Half Dome Lottery Essential Info

When to Apply for the Half Dome Permit Lottery

Preseason lottery for Half Dome takes place from March 1-31, and you get news if you won or lost by mid April. If you don’t win the preseason lottery for Half Dome, you can try the daily lottery which takes place once the cables go up; usually Memorial Day weekend through the second Monday in October. The daily lottery allows you to apply for Half Dome permits 2 days before your intended hike, so it can be a good option if you miss out on the preseason lottery and you already have travel plans to Yosemite National Park.

Who Needs a Permit to Hike Half Dome?

Anyone who is hiking the cable section of Half Dome will need a permit. A ranger will be checking for permits starting at the bottom of sub-dome, so you can’t even SEE the Half Dome cables without winning a permit. :(

When in the Year do I Need a Permit to Hike Half Dome?

Per that National Park System:

The cables are normally up the Friday before the last Monday in May (Memorial Day) and the last day to use the cables is the day after the second Monday in October. These dates are subject to change based on conditions (check current status).

The NPS does update the status of the Half Dome cables on their website; see link in above quotation.

Can I Hike Half Dome Without a Permit?

NO. If you hike to the top of Half Dome without a permit you will be given a citation of up to $5,000. That’s a very steep (ha!) fine to pay for a hike. And like I said, that permit system is in place for a very good reason. Limiting the number of hikers a day keeps everyone safe, but it also protects the sensitive Half Dome area from heavy erosion from foot traffic. By bypassing the permitting system, you’re not only putting yourself and others in danger but you’re running the risk of worsening the erosion on the rock itself on Half Dome. We know it can be very frustrating to leave something like this to chance, but be patient and you WILL hike Half Dome!

How Far Can I Hike Before Needing a Half Dome Permit?

You can hike all the way to the subdome without a permit, and which in itself is a very long and strenuous hike! It is also beautiful as you go up past Vernal and Nevada falls, Little Yosemite Valley, and a high Sierra forest spotted with giant Sequoia trees and a few evergreens. Even before making it to subdome, there are several lookouts that allow for a view all the way down to Yosemite Valley. Half dome truly is one of the most beautiful hikes I’ve ever taken!

Types of Half Dome Permits

Pre-Season Lottery

Your best bet for winning Half Dome permits in 2024 is to enter the preseason lottery. This opens up on March 1 and goes through March 31 2024. The preseason lottery allows you to enter a trip leader (more on that below), the number in your group (no more than 6 per entry) and the date or range of dates that you wish to hike Half Dome.

Once you submit this application in the preseason, the NPS reviews all applications and picks winners at random. You will be alerted to your success or failure via email by April 11th, and you have until midnight on May 19th 2024 to accept the permits and pay the fee for each accepted permit.

If you don’t win the preseason lottery, you are given a second chance at winning the daily lottery.

Daily Lottery

Throughout the Half Dome cable season the NPS has additional permits to win daily based on the lottery. These permits are issued based on cancellation and underuse estimates and are available to enter 2 days before your preferred Half Dome hiking day. Entering this lottery will cost $10 per entry, and the same rules about trip leaders apply. However, there is no alternate allowed when entering the daily lottery.

This is a risky way to get permits, but if you miss out on the daily lottery this is a great back up.

Wilderness Permits

If you want to make your Half Dome hike part of a larger backpacking trip, you can add on a Half Dome lottery application to your wilderness permit application.

Basically, you need a Yosemite wilderness permit to do any type of backpacking or overnight adventure in the park. To get this permit, you enter the lottery the same way that you do to win Half Dome permits. While you follow the instructions to enter your wilderness permit you would add on an option to apply to Half Dome as well.

How Hard are Half Dome Permits to Win?

We’re not going to lie or sugarcoat it- Half Dome permits are hard to win. The National Park Service has these statistics to share:

Preseason Half Dome Lottery Success Rate for 2023:

Total Applications: 35,289 (37,702 in 2022)
Application Success Rate: 22% (21% in 2022)
Source: NPS Half Dome Permit Lottery Statistics

As you can see, the success rate of winning Half Dome permits isn’t fantastic for preseason. But, there are ways that you can improve your odds of winning a permit, and there are back up ways to get the hike in if all else fails. More on that below, but we wanted to put these stats in front of you just for your awareness.

Finally, let’s start talking about the details on how to enter to win Half Dome permits!

Important Dates for Hiking Half Dome in 2024:


Date	Information
March 1, 2024 - March 31, 2024	Preseason lottery
April 11, 2024	Notification of results of preseason lottery
May 19, 2024	Preseason lottery acceptance date (awarded preseason lottery permits must be confirmed and purchased by 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time on this date)
May 22, 2024 - October 13, 2024	Daily lotteries (apply two days in advance of desired hiking date – dates may be adjusted annually based on conditions)
May 24, 2024 - October 15, 2024	Half Dome Cables up (dates may be adjusted annually based on conditions)
October 16, 2024	Half Dome Cables down for the season (date may be adjusted annually based on conditions

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How to Enter the Preseason single-Day Half Dome Permits

As we’ve talked about earlier, Half Dome permits are won in a lottery system that you can enter at recreation.gov. We’re going to go over the high level steps that you’ll need to go through, and then we’re going to go into more detail as needed. If you plan to backpack up to Half Dome, that will require a different process that we won’t go over in this blog post as it’s a bit more complicated. We’ll follow up with a blog post all about Wilderness permits in Yosemite National Park.

Steps to enter to win single day Half Dome permits:

Create an account on recreation.gov if you’ve never done so before. Follow all prompted steps until your profile is created.
Select that you want to enter to win Half Dome permits on the Permits section of the website.
In the search bar, enter “Half Dome”.
Once in the Half Dome section (it will say OPEN starting March 1), you can go through the process outlined by the website.
You’ll select who the trip leader will be (more details in section below), how many hikers are in your group, and you will be given the choice to submit an alternate.
Once you have the group size and the trip leader identified, you will be prompted to select 6 single dates on the calendar, or you can select up to 6 week long ranges on the calendar that you would like to hike. You will enter your first choice which NPS will prioritize, and as the days fill up they will move down your list in order.
Review all the information that you entered, and continue to the payment portal.
Pay the $10 nonrefundable application fee and wait for your confirmation email.

Yay! Now you’re done entering to win Half Dome permits, and you will get a second email April 11th letting you know if you’ve won or lost. If you’ve WON, read more below for your next steps. If you LOST, don’t lose faith because there are two more ways that you can hike Half Dome!

Before we go over your next steps if you lose the lottery for Half Dome, we should go over some details missing in the above directions.

What is a trip leader and why does that matter when entering to win permits for Half dome?

On the application for the Half Dome lottery, you must name a trip leader. The trip leader MUST be present on the trip, and their name cannot appear as a leader or as an alternate on any other lottery submissions for Half Dome. This is a non-transferable ticket, so if the group leader cannot make the trip the group as a whole cannot make the trip… unless you entered an alternate when entering to win permits.

The ranger checking for permits at sub dome will need to see a government issued ID for each person, and they will be asking about the trip leader. If the trip leader cannot make it but you entered an alternate when applying, then the alternate can step up and be the leader when your permit date comes up.

What is an alternate trip leader and does my group need to select one in order to hike Half Dome?

An alternate trip leader will be the other person named on your submission. Once an alternate is named that person cannot appear on any other permit submission as either a leader or an alternate, and if they do ALL submissions will be canceled. So not entering an alternate can be a risk if your trip leader can’t make it, but having a named alternate also means that your group will have less submissions into the Half Dome lottery. Let’s look at the other rules in more detail.

Half Dome preseason lottery permit submissions rules and other fine print to know

Only one group submission is allowed per group leader; if your name and information appear on another submission as a leader or alternate, all submissions will be pulled.
The group leader named on the winning permit must be present when the ranger checks IDs at the subdome.
The winning permit is non-transferrable; so if the leader and/or alternate cannot make it, the rest of the group cannot complete the Half Dome hike up the cables.
The date that you win cannot be changed; if something happens and you cannot make that date then you cannot transfer that Half Dome permit to another date.
You can only enter up to 6 people for a permit at a time, including the trip leader.
You may only select 6 dates that you’d like to hike Half Dome on.

How much does it cost to enter the Half Dome permit lottery?

Each submission cost $10. So if you have a group of 6, and each of those people enter themselves as group leaders, each person will have to pay $10. This fee is non-refundable win or lose, so don’t expect a refund if you don’t win the Half Dome permit this year. If you are successful and win a permit, then each person in your group who is accepting the permit will be charged $10.

This is refundable if you cancel your permit before midnight Pacific time the day BEFORE your permit date OR if the cables are not up on the date that your Half Dome permit is valid. Not getting the cables up in time does happen occasionally.

In fact, it happened the year we did this hike in 2023. Due to a very snowy winter the cables were not up by Memorial day, and everyone who had permits for that week lost their Half Dome permits. It’s rare, but possible so keep that in mind!

How do I increase the odds of winning Half Dome permits?

As we’ve gone over in previous sections, your chance of winning Half Dome permits in the preseason time frame is not great, but it’s also the best way to guarantee a spot on the Half Dome summit. To put this challenge in perspective, in 2023 you only had a 22% chance of winning a Half Dome permit. But there are things that you can do to increase those odds. Here are our suggestions to increase the odds of winning Half Dome permits:

Apply for a range of dates, not a single date. When applying for a Half Dome permit on recreation.gov, there will be an option to select 6 ranges of dates. I suggest that you try a range of dates so that you have more chances of snagging a day.

Have multiple trip leaders. Within your group (up to 6 total), have each person enter the Half Dome lottery as a group leader. Make sure not to select an alternate so that each person in your group can enter. For example, when my group of 3 were entering in 2023 we had 3 different submissions with each of us being a group leader and no alternates. That way we increased our odds of winning Half Dome permits by 3!
Go on the shoulder season. If you look at the graph below, people were most successful winning a Half Dome permit in May and July, so put a few dates or date ranges in for those days. Note that although you may have better odds of winning a Half Dome permit on those days, you do run the risk of not having the cables up in May and in July you will be very hot- much of this trail is exposed to direct sun! So you may have to take some risks on the weather if you’re determined to win those coveted Half Dome permits.
Prioritize weekdays. Per the National Park Service, the weekday success rate for 2023 was 1.2%, and the weekend success rate was 0.9%. Although these are still very low odds, you will fare better when selecting a weekday for your Half Dome trip.
Be flexible. The odds are certainly not in your favor when it comes to winning Half Dome permits. However, if you stay flexible with your travel dates and how you’re going to win the permits, you can absolutely make this your heart to hike Half Dome!

What if I don’t win a Half Dome permit?

If you get news in April that no one in your party was successful in securing a Half Dome permit, don’t give up! There are still some ways that you can make this happen. It is possible to win a Half Dome permit through the daily lottery system.

What is the daily lottery?

The daily lottery is your first option if you don’t win in the preseason Half dome lottery. Two days before you hike, you’ll submit an application with your group number and name one group leader (no alternate allowed). You can submit that application between midnight and 4 PM Pacific time, and you will know the results of your lottery ticket submission later that night.

For example, if you wanted to hike Half Dome on Wednesday, you would enter the lottery between midnight and 4pm on Monday with results coming in late Monday night.

Note that in order to enter the daily lottery you will have to pay another $10 per submission that is nonrefundable. If you’re determined to hike Half Dome, the daily lottery route can get expensive!

I do have one more Hail Mary however, if you don’t win either the preseason lottery or the daily lottery for Half Dome.

The final play to hike Half Dome

If you have done everything within your power and yet the lottery gods are still against you, there is one more thing that you can try to get up top of Half Dome. You can hike up to the base of the subdome without a permit, stopping just a few yards short of where the ranger is checking people’s permits. Once there, ask folks coming up the trail if they have an extra spot in their group.

It is a big risk to hike more than 8 miles up a very steep and challenging trail to not be guaranteed a spot on the summit of Half Dome, but it can work. When we hiked Half Dome there was a girl asking each group that came up if they had an extra spot, and the group right behind us did!

Against all odds this girl was able to go up the cables and hike Half Dome despite not having won the lottery. So if you’re willing to take a gamble and try going alone (I think you’d be less successful with a group), this is another way to bag Half Dome without having to rely on the forces that be.

Awesome alternatives to hiking Half Dome

If you’re determined to go to Yosemite National Park this year and don’t win a permit for Half Dome, there are so many other amazing hikes that are available to you! I’m going to suggest some other hikes to try that I’ve either hiked personally, or they’re on my bucket list and therefore I’ve researched them heavily.

Remember that as amazing as hiking Half Dome is, Yosemite National Park is home to literally THOUSANDS of high octane hiking trails that are sure to get you stoked, give you some breathtaking views, and give you a good story to tell over some beers back home.

Clouds Rest:

arguably a better view of Yosemite Valley than the Half Dome hike, this challenging trail is also over ten miles and takes most people 10-12 hours to complete. This is also very exposed to the hot sun, so you’re better off avoiding this hike in the peak summer months of July and August.

Cathedral Lakes:

a long, winding hike through the more remote part of Yosemite National Park, this trail takes you out of the valley and into the Yosemite wilderness. Leading you to remote lakes where you’ll have the option to extend your hike or call it in early, this hike is surely on my bucket list. Our climbing guide highly recommended this hike, but we were way too gassed to give it a run ourselves.

Vernal and Nevada Falls:

this is the first section of the Half Dome hike, and I would highly recommend hiking it on its own. This trail is TOUGH- climbing up hundreds of slick rock steps that have been hewn into the ground by the Yosemite trail crew, you are taken for a joy ride along two stunning waterfalls and one raging river. The trail is slick from the mist coming off the falls, and I just couldn’t stop taking pictures along this trail. If you don’t get a Half Dome permit, I highly suggest following along for this portion. It is truly worth the work!

Remember: Half Dome will be there next year!

If you’ve made it this far in the post, then just remember that Half Dome isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. If you are unsuccessful this year, try again next year! And then the year after.. And the year after.

Don’t ever give up trying to hike Half Dome, because it truly is the hike of a lifetime. Getting permits for Half Dome is only scratching the surface on this hike though- there is so much more to cover!

I hiked Half Dome in 2023, and there was so much I wish I had known going in.

To prevent you from making the same mistakes I did, I will follow this article up with another more detailed post about the Half Dome hike details; including mileage, altitude, what to expect, what to pack, and answering questions like “how hard is it REALLY?” and “will I DIE on those cables?”

If you’re chomping at the bit to learn more about Half Dome, do yourself a favor and subscribe to my newsletter! You’ll be the first to know about new content and I’m going to be creating a Half Dome cheat sheet that I wish I had 1 year ago when I was hiking the dome!

So follow along for more, and leave a comment or question below about what YOU’RE dying to know about Half Dome so I know what to cover in the next post.