Yosemite Wilderness Permit — White Wolf to Smith Meadow

White Wolf to Smith Meadow: what makes it different

White Wolf to Smith Meadow starts at the White Wolf campground, follows the old Tioga Road to Harden Lake and then runs northwest toward Hetch Hetchy. The first 1.75 miles are gravel road. Past Harden Lake, hikers in 2009 and 2022 both reported brush and a trail that was hard to follow, so this permit suits people who can route-find.^3,8,9,7

Getting to the start

Recreation.gov says the trail starts from White Wolf and goes northwest past Harden Lake toward Smith Meadow. The Park Service table lists a flush toilet in the White Wolf campground when it is open, and names the Big Oak Flat Information Station as the issuing station.^7,1

The Harden Lake trailhead page says the hike starts at the head of a gravel road, a piece of the former Tioga Road. If the road to White Wolf is closed, add about 2 miles round trip. The trailhead is reachable by car only while Tioga Road is open, and overnight parking there ends October 15.³

Hiking Project says the trail starts across from White Wolf Lodge and passes a campground, with a gate that blocks the old road to vehicles.¹⁰

The first leg

The Park Service puts the junction to Harden Lake 1.75 miles down the gravel road and calls the full Harden Lake trip 5.8 miles round trip with 390 feet of gain on the return. A park concessioner's page lists 355 feet, so the gain is a little under 400 either way.^3,11

The road follows the Middle Fork of the Tuolumne River. Hiking Project says the river runs fast and loud early in the season, with pools by summer, and that the meadow beside the lake usually peaks by June or early July.^3,10

Terrain and difficulty

The Park Service says that past the lake you can drop steeply toward the edge of the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne, and a loop back by Lukens Lake and White Wolf is much harder and adds about 1,000 feet of climbing.³

No agency page prints a distance from Harden Lake to Smith Meadow. The Smith Peak trail to Harden Lake branches off just before the lake, heading northwest, according to Hiking Project.¹⁰

Quota at this entry point

• 2026 daily quota at White Wolf to Smith Meadow, overnight wilderness, lottery share: 15 people a day. This is the lottery share, drawn 24 weeks ahead, from the Park Service trailhead table.¹
• 2026 daily quota at White Wolf to Smith Meadow, overnight wilderness, week-ahead share: 10 people a day. This share opens a week before the trip. The table prints no combined total, and Recreation.gov availability for this permit would not load.¹

Rules specific to this entry point

A one-night stop at the White Wolf backpackers campground is allowed as part of a continuous long-distance permit. Other rules are the general ones: camps 100 feet from water and trails, a bear canister, and no pets or bicycles on trails.^2,3

The concessioner's page says camping at Harden Lake is allowed with no designated fire rings, and warns of bears drawn to the water and of mosquitoes for overnight stays.¹¹

Where it leads

Harden Lake is the first goal. Both trip reports below judged it poor for camping: a 2009 hiker found it a pond one to two feet deep, and a 2022 hiker found scummy edges and water that was hard to collect, though the frogs were loud.^9,8

Beyond lie Smith Meadow, Harden Gardens and, to the northwest, Hetch Hetchy and its backpackers campground. The 2009 report says that campground has drinkable running water.⁹

What trip reports say

Waterfalls West, posted May 7, 2022, walked the route from the Hetch Hetchy side. The first section to Smith Meadows was mostly fine, with a creek crossing near three hours in. Past the meadow the trail vanished into brush from waist height to over the head, and it took at least an hour of bushwhacking to reach the ridge top. The writer blames an old fire and no maintenance.⁸

The same writer covered about 11 miles and 3,700 feet from Hetch Hetchy to Harden Lake on day one, and camped at the lake after roughly 7 hours.⁸

Lance Simms, October 17 to 25, 2009, came the other way from Pate Valley. The southern route was overgrown with wild rose after an earlier fire, and he pushed through 3 to 4 miles of thorny brush that cut his arms and legs. A ranger told him repair was planned. He covered about 12 miles from Harden Lake to the trailhead in around four hours and judged the lake unfit to camp at.⁹

When to go from here

The 2026 window for White Wolf and Tioga Road is June 18 to October 14. The wilderness permits page, updated December 31, 2025, says reservations run late April through October, and the reservations page, updated June 22, 2026, says May through October. The trailhead table is the specific source here.^1,5,6

The concessioner's page says snowfields can hide the trail in spring and that water is often low by mid to late summer. Both trip reports were in other seasons, May and October, and both found the same brush.^11,8,9

Compare with nearby entry points

• Lukens Lake to Yosemite Creek: Lukens Lake to Yosemite Creek is the other Big Oak Flat permit on Tioga Road, but holds 6 plus 4, has no toilet and heads south to Yosemite Creek.¹
• Cathedral Lakes: Cathedral Lakes holds the same 15 plus 10 and is issued at Tuolumne. It has no toilet and the Park Service rates its demand very high.^1,4

Sources

1. Trailhead Information, Yosemite National Park, National Park Service. Read 2026-10-15.
2. Wilderness Regulations, Yosemite National Park, National Park Service. Read 2026-10-15.
3. Harden Lake Trailhead, Yosemite National Park, National Park Service. Read 2026-10-15.
4. Tuolumne Meadows Backpacking Trails, Yosemite National Park, National Park Service. Read 2026-10-15.
5. Wilderness Permits, Yosemite National Park, National Park Service. Read 2026-10-15.
6. Wilderness Permit Reservations, Yosemite National Park, National Park Service. Read 2026-10-15.
7. Yosemite National Park Wilderness Permits, White Wolf to Smith Meadow division, Recreation.gov. Read 2026-10-15.
8. Day 1: Bushwhacked, Waterfalls West. Read 2026-10-15.
9. Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne Backpacking Trip, Lance Simms. Read 2026-10-15.
10. Harden Lake Trail, Hiking Project. Read 2026-10-15.
11. Harden Lake via White Wolf Lodge, Yosemite Hospitality. Read 2026-10-15.

Safety & planning

Alternatives to a White Wolf to Smith Meadow permit