Sequoia & Kings Canyon After Permit Season

Late Sept – early Oct is hard to predict.

I have seen storms 3rd week of Sept come thru with 6 inches of rain to 3 feet of snow… and I have seen 80 degree temps with sunny sky. It’s the transition time.

If you were to enter SEKI from the east…. starting in Inyo National Forest on the east side of the Sierra… permits (other than Whitney) are MUCH easier, especially if you are flexible.

The other thing that is hard to predict for that time of year is smoke. Usually, smoke is not bad that time of year… but two years ago it was horrible into October…

Thank you DWR. Kind of what I figured. I’m having a fit to get back to SEKI because it is so beautiful!

Last trip was late August, 2020… 2 years ago. Trip started out with a mamma bear and 2 cubs… followed by a near-death off trail experience with a rock sliding out from a 200 foot cliff and grazing me on the shoulder…followed by the wildfires you’re are describing which closed Sequoia NP (where my car was parked)…. followed by a 24 mile fast march day to escape on Bubb’s Creek where I almost landed on a big rattlesnake (yes, a 225 lb 60 year man old can magically levitate!).

Maybe I’ll plan better next year and go for something earlier in WA or WY. If anyone has another opinion I would love to entertain it!

Thanks – Russ

I might have been a bit too discouraging… maybe a 65 or 70 percent chance of decent to good weather that time of year… But always stay flexible… or … October is good in the Canyons of Utah…

“….not wanting to deal with permits.”  I think you mean the quotas and the permit reservation systems.  My experience has been that you almost always need a permit to enter wilderness managed by the National Forest Service or the National Park System, even in winter.

Call the Inyo NF Ranger office in Bishop and ask for advice.  Some of the trailheads are a lot easier to get permits for than others in late season.

My experience has been that you almost always need a permit to enter wilderness managed by the National Forest Service or the National Park System, even in winter.

These regulations are done on a case-by-case basis. For example, in Colorado, the vast majority of wilderness areas on Forest Service land require no permits for entry or dispersed camping. In fact, no permits exist. The exceptions are the relatively small number of wilderness areas that experience particularly high visitor volumes, which are the ones that I avoid anyway. Most of those just involve filling out a form at the trailhead, and a few extremely crowded areas require reservations (Indian Peaks, Maroon Bells, etc).

@ Dan. Thanks for the broader context.

There are many areas in California where all you need to camp on Forest Service or BLM land that is not designated Wilderness, is a fire permit.

But in reference to accessing SEKI, I would think (but could be wrong) that almost all trailheads will require a Wilderness Permit issued from a Ranger District or self registration at the TH until very late in the Fall, and some would still require it into Winter.