We were so pleased with ourselves. We had remembered to act early and reserve exactly the wilderness permit we wanted, for Rafferty Creek in the middle of June, to get up into the upper reaches of the Merced Canyon early in the season. And we got it. And then fate intervened.

I was invited to speak at the Smithsonian about a topic near and dear to my heart...and that's an invitation I can't pass up, even at the risk of losing our permit for Yosemite. So yesterday I called the Yosemite Wilderness office and explained the situation. And I was delighted to learn that we can apply the charges we paid for the cancelled permit towards any other wilderness permit in Yosemite this year.

No, we won't have time to get into the Upper Merced this year. But we will take a trip in Yosemite sometime later in the season. And we've already got our permit paid for!

And by the way, the wilderness office seemed surprised and grateful that we would call to cancel. Apparently most people don't do that...

Is this the same policy in other parks?

There is a somewhat similar policy at Grand Canyon NP.

On behalf of all the fellow last minute hikers/trip planners, THANK YOU for actually calling to cancel your permit.

Not many people do that, but when you actually call, it allows the park to issue a last minute permit to people like me who would otherwise be unable to hike certain popular hikes since I can't book as far out as some permits require due to work.

Best of luck speaking at the Smithsonian, if it didn't already happen!

What! You didn't think to offer your permit to one of us !!!
Yeah, it's good to call them up and cancel. However, I bet a lot of people don't, which is why it never hurts to show up the day of and try to get permits that have been released due to no-shows. That's how I got my JMT permit at the peak of summer two years ago. Though I think that was available because the people probably didn't show up for their permit due to the highway being closed by fire.