How Half Dome Permit Cancellations Work on Recreation.gov

Half Dome day hiker permits are managed by Yosemite National Park and sold through Recreation.gov, not by HutAlert. The National Park Service runs two separate drawings: a preseason lottery each March that allocates most of the roughly 225 daily day hiker permits for the whole cables season, and a daily lottery that releases additional permits two days before each hiking date, sized to the park's own estimate of under-use and cancellation from the preseason group. A permit costs a $10 non-refundable application fee plus $10 per person, and the per-person fee is fully refunded if you cancel by 11:59 p.m. Pacific time the day before your hiking date.

The National Park Service opens preseason lottery applications on March 1 and closes them March 31, Eastern time, with results emailed in mid-April. About 225 day hiker permits are available for each day the cables are up, out of a combined daily cap of roughly 300 hikers that also includes about 75 backpacker permits issued separately through the wilderness permit system.

• Application window: March 1 through March 31 (Eastern time).
• Results: emailed in mid-April.
• Day hiker permits per day: about 225.
• Combined daily cap: about 300 hikers, roughly 225 day hikers plus about 75 backpackers.

Two days before each hiking date, the park opens a second lottery for permits that preseason winners did not use or are expected not to use. The National Park Service describes the size of this release as based on the park's estimated rate of under-use and cancellation, a direct acknowledgment that a meaningful share of preseason winners do not end up hiking. Applications for the daily lottery open at midnight and close at 4 p.m. Pacific time, with notification the same night, so this is a short, specific window rather than a slow-moving calendar.

This is structurally different from a 10th Mountain hut cancellation. A hut-night opens the moment one operator's calendar updates and stays open until someone books it. A Half Dome daily permit is drawn from a pool of applicants for that date, so watching a page will not get you a permit. Entering the daily lottery window is what matters.

The $10 application fee is non-refundable regardless of the lottery outcome. If you win a permit and later cancel, the separate $10 per person permit fee is fully refunded, but only if the cancellation happens by 11:59 p.m. Pacific time the day before your hiking date, or if the cables are not up for the season. Canceling after that deadline, or simply not showing up, forfeits the permit fee and does not carry over to a credit or transfer.

HutAlert does not monitor Half Dome, Yosemite wilderness permits, or any other Recreation.gov inventory. Its coverage is limited to the 14 huts in the 10th Mountain owned and Benedict groups in Colorado, watched on that operator's own public availability calendar. This guide exists because the mechanics are genuinely useful if Half Dome is part of the same trip planning as a hut reservation, not because HutAlert can watch the permit for you.

If Half Dome specifically is the goal, the daily lottery two days out is the realistic path once the March preseason lottery has closed, and it depends on entering the window, not on refreshing a calendar.