Yosemite Wilderness Permit — Mono Meadow

Mono Meadow: what makes it different

Mono Meadow is the Glacier Point Road trailhead that drops into the Illilouette drainage and is one of seven trailheads NPS lists as Half Dome eligible. NPS sells 12 lottery and 8 week-ahead places a day, and Recreation.gov says your first night must be in Illilouette Basin or south of it, never Little Yosemite Valley.^1,6,3

Getting to the start

A 2013 backpacking report put the trailhead about 10 miles up Glacier Point Road on the right, with a dirt lot, bear bins and no restrooms. NPS still lists no toilet. A 2025 hiker who finished here walked back to a car left at the Ostrander trailhead along a narrow road with no shoulder and fast traffic.^7,1,10

Glacier Point Road is closed in winter and usually opens in mid May, Recreation.gov says, and a reservation made while it is closed is not valid and not refunded. The Wawona Visitor Center issues the permit, and the 2026 window for this road runs May 16 to October 14.^6,1

The first leg

The 2013 group started around midday, found it a short mile downhill to Mono Meadows and about 6 miles to a camp just before the second creek crossing, more downhill than uphill. The 2012 day hiker walked 3.5 miles to Illilouette Creek and back.^7,8

NPS gives the distances from this trailhead: the top of Nevada Fall at 6.9 miles, Happy Isles at 10.3, the Merced Pass and Red Peak Pass junction at 12.1, Buena Vista Lake at 12.6, Ottoway Lake at 16.0, Buck Camp at 17.4 and Wawona at 29.3.²

Terrain and difficulty

The meadow is long and narrow with trees pressing in, and a 2025 hiker found it full of downed wood when she came out. Past it the trail runs through burned forest. The 2012 blogger says fire swept the area in 1987, while the 2013 group believed a 2004 lightning strike burned it, so the burn year is disputed among reports.^10,8,7

The 2013 group called the burned stretch hot and sandy, followed by a long descent with views, and warned that the climb back up is the unpleasant half. A 2023 group that started from Mono Meadows in a heavy snow year found the first day mostly downhill, camped near Illilouette Creek after about 3.5 miles, and later had to reroute around swollen creeks.^7,9

Quota at this entry point

• 2026 daily quota at Mono Meadow, overnight wilderness, lottery share: 12 people a day. NPS trailhead page, updated May 11, 2026, row Mono Meadow under Wawona and Glacier Point Road. Window May 16 to October 14, 2026.¹
• 2026 daily quota at Mono Meadow, overnight wilderness, week-ahead share: 8 people a day. The share released seven days ahead on a first come, first served basis. NPS prints it as a separate column.¹

Rules specific to this entry point

Recreation.gov sets this trailhead's first night. You must travel at least to the junction of the Mono Meadow and Buena Vista trails, camp in Illilouette Basin or south of it, and you may not camp in Little Yosemite Valley the first night. Camping is not allowed along the Panorama Trail or at the top of Illilouette Fall.⁶

Half Dome can be added for every member of the permit, at an extra $10 per person when the permit is issued, and Recreation.gov says the same. NPS lists Mono Meadow among the seven trailheads that allow it, and says the add-on is for overnight backpackers only.^6,3

The John Muir Trail over Donohue Pass is not available from Mono Meadow. Recreation.gov tells hikers to pick one of the Donohue Pass eligible trailheads if they want the JMT.⁶

Where it leads

From Illilouette Creek the trail goes on to the Panorama Trail or toward the Clark Range, which is how NPS describes it. The 2013 group went on to Ottoway Lake, 16.0 miles from the trailhead, and a 2023 group walked from the creek to Illilouette Fall, then up to Nevada Fall and Little Yosemite Valley before the Half Dome climb.^6,2,7,9

What trip reports say

On August 24, 2013 six friends from Michigan Tech backpacked in from Mono Meadows to a camp by the Clark Fork of Illilouette Creek. A ranger had told the writer that Illilouette Creek does not dry up, which makes the route workable late in the season when smaller streams are gone.⁷

On November 3, 2012 a Hiking Yosemite and Beyond writer walked the trail to Illilouette Creek with two friends and found snow patches in the dormant meadow, a viewpoint on granite boulders with Half Dome's back side and Mount Starr King, and a fallen tree whose rings someone had counted back to 1890.⁸

In July 2023, after a very heavy snow winter, a group of women backpacking to Half Dome began at Mono Meadows. Glacier Point Road had reopened the day before, and the writer says rerouting around swollen creeks made the third day perhaps the hardest of all.⁹

When to go from here

Snow and creeks decide the date. The 2023 group walked in the first week of July just as the roads opened and met swollen, impassable creeks, while the 2013 group in late August found Mono Meadows grassy. The ranger's remark that Illilouette Creek keeps flowing helps late-season trips.^9,7

NPS pages differ on when the reservation season starts: the Wilderness Permits page (December 31, 2025) says late April, the Reservations page (June 22, 2026) says May through October. This road's date on the trailhead page is May 16, 2026.^4,5,1

Compare with nearby entry points

• Ostrander (Lost Bear Meadow): Ostrander (Lost Bear Meadow) is a single-lake trip with a quota of 15 and 10 and a vault toilet. The NPS row carries no Half Dome note.¹
• Glacier Point to Illilouette: Glacier Point to Illilouette has a larger quota of 18 and 12 and a vault toilet with drinking water in summer, and NPS counts 16.7 miles from there to Ottoway Lake, against 16.0 from Mono Meadow.^1,2
• Happy Isles to Illilouette: Happy Isles to Illilouette has only 3 lottery and 2 week-ahead places and a flush toilet, in the Valley window that opens April 24. NPS counts 9.6 miles from there to Mono Meadow.^1,2

Sources

1. Trailhead Information, Yosemite National Park, National Park Service. Read 2026-10-15.
2. Trail Descriptions and Distances (One Way), Yosemite National Park, National Park Service (PDF, file modified October 2022). Read 2026-10-15.
3. Wilderness Permit Frequently Asked Questions, Yosemite National Park, National Park Service. Read 2026-10-15.
4. Wilderness Permits, Yosemite National Park, National Park Service. Read 2026-10-15.
5. Wilderness Permit Reservations, Yosemite National Park, National Park Service. Read 2026-10-15.
6. Yosemite National Park Wilderness Permits (Mono Meadow division), Recreation.gov. Read 2026-10-15.
7. Backpacking Mono Meadows to Clark Fork of Illilouette Creek, Day 1 to Ottoway Lake, Beaut-Tree.net (trip of August 24, 2013). Read 2026-10-15.
8. Simple Beauty (Mono Meadow Trail), Hiking Yosemite and Beyond (blog, hike of November 3, 2012). Read 2026-10-15.
9. Backpacking to Half Dome in Yosemite National Park, Hikeology (blog post of March 2024 about a July 2023 trip). Read 2026-10-15.
10. Buena Yosemite: Mono Meadow, Valhikes (trip of August 2025). Read 2026-10-15.
11. Wilderness Regulations, Yosemite National Park, National Park Service. Read 2026-10-15.

Safety & planning

Alternatives to a Mono Meadow permit