So we'll be in San Diego the last weekend of September and I'm thinking about staying a few extra days after the family leaves to drive up to Yosemite and hike Half Dome.

It looks like the daily lottery is my only option to get a permit for the cables which starts 2 days prior to the day you want to hike. Is this accurate?

They have "wilderness permits", are those for camping anywhere along the trail, or is it something else?

The campgrounds look full for whats reserveable, but it looks like this "Camp 4" is on a lottery system which you can enter the day before you want to stay there. Are there any other options locally that day hikers typically do that can guarantee me a spot now?

I would be driving to Yosemite on 9/30 getting there in the evening. I would ideally like to hike the dome on 10/2 and head back to San Diego airport on 10/3. I would just like to get my flight changes done now, but it's such a gamble with the lottery system.