Tuolumne Meadows store is exiting the wilderness

Ummm…I wouldn’t worry about it.

There’s a small community of climbers who live out of the campground for weeks or even months. They line up to get breakfast each morning  at the little tent restaurant.

I’ve stopped at that store for bug spray or what have you after getting my permit at the 120 entrance to the park a good number of times. It never crossed my mind that I was  “exiting the wilderness”  and would  have to get another permit.

No worries!

Don’t ask, don’t tell.

<p style=”text-align: left;”>Technically, stopping at the store to resupply exits the wilderness. Hiking past it, not so much. Discretion is advised</p>

I’m not sure purchasing a burger at the store is the determining factor.  It’s probably just your route which the park service will view as a work-around of the permit process that tries to keep the impact spread out.  Most people start and end in Tuolumne Meadows and don’t pass through to access other parts of the area on the same trip. Same would be true for a trip that starts at Glacier Point and drops to the valley floor and goes up to Yosemite Falls or similar.  This is not allowed as well and I’m sure it’s in the big wilderness guideline document on the park website if you care to research it.

As for not worrying about it as some are suggesting, rangers are out on the trails and do ask to see permits. Paying a fine or having to exit your trip early are possibilities. Then again, I’m a rule follower.

Is the store open again? Last I checked everything was shutdown for rebuilding.

That sounds pretty insane seeing as how the trail itself is right there. What if you have to go to the bathroom? Do you have to pee behind the store? What if you sent yourself a box? You can’t get a resupply? Or maybe you are allowed to enter the Federal property of the USPS but can’t enter the private property of the store in the same building? Makes zero sense. Surely you have to be misunderstanding the permit.

The rule is not specific to the Tuolumne Meadows store; it’s true of any trailhead. You can’t exit the wilderness and then re-enter it without a second permit. The rule exists to keep people from getting one permit and then using it to hike multiple trips, trailhead to trailhead.