Off Wrights Lake Rd near Hwy 50, Desolation Wilderness; standard approach to Pyramid Peak.
Permit
Permit
Desolation Wilderness Permit
Agency
Eldorado NF / LTBMU
Quota
Required
Quota season
May 22 - Sep 30
Fees
Overnight recreation fee is per ADULT (over 12): $5 for the 1st night, $10 for 2-14 nights. Children 12 and under are free. Capped at $100 of recreation fees per permit. A $6 non-refundable reservation fee applies to every overnight permit, on top of the recreation fee. A $20 Desolation annual pass makes the recreation fee free for the pass holder, but the $6/permit reservation fee still applies. America the Beautiful interagency passes (including Senior and Access) do NOT apply to this permit. Changing party size, number of days, or the first-night zone costs a $5 change fee; changing the entry date means cancelling and rebooking at another $6. Day-use permits are free. Pyramid Creek, Eagle Falls, Loon Lake, Rockbound, and Twin Lakes day use areas charge a parking fee, waived for overnight permit holders, who must display the parking pass in the vehicle.
In season only: First release (67% of the quota) -- opens 182 days before your entry date -- booking today covers entry around 2027-03-13.
Roughly two-thirds of each zone's quota is reservable on recreation.gov up to 6 months before arrival. Permits print starting 7 days before entry.
In season only: Same day walkup (33% of the quota) -- issued in person, day-of, first-come -- no advance reservation.
The remaining ~one-third of each zone's quota is never listed online -- issued same-day, first-come, at a ranger station on the date of the first night's stay.
Off season only: Off season release -- opens 0 days before your entry date -- booking today covers entry around 2026-09-12.
Outside the quota season permits are still required, still booked through recreation.gov, and can be booked and printed on the day of entry -- not a trailhead self-issue kiosk. There is no limit on the number of overnight users per zone off-season, though the 12-person group cap still applies.
How reservations work
Reservable on recreation.gov up to 6 months before arrival. You select a Destination Zone (45 total, numbered 1-45) and must spend your FIRST night in it; after that you may move between zones on the same permit, provided you exit by the last date booked. The quota counts INDIVIDUALS selecting a zone for their first night, not permits or groups. The agency states it chose a destination-based quota rather than a trailhead-based one because Desolation is relatively small and many zones are reachable from a single trailhead. About two-thirds of each zone's quota is reservable online; the remaining ~one-third is held for same-day, first-come permits issued at a ranger station. In quota season the permit prints starting 7 days before entry; outside quota season it can be booked and printed on the day of entry, and no per-zone limit applies. Thru-hikers completing the full Tahoe Rim Trail loop in one continuous journey book a separate 'Tahoe Rim Trail (Thru Hike Only)' zone instead of a numbered one.
Notes
A signed, PRINTED permit must be carried by the group leader at all times -- a digital or paper reservation CONFIRMATION is not a valid permit. CANCELLATION: cancel 8 or more days before entry for a full refund of recreation fees; within 7 days nothing is refunded, and a no-show refunds nothing, so cancel to release quota for others. CHANGES are only allowed more than 8 days before entry -- once the permit becomes printable at 7 days out, no changes are possible. A free day-use permit is required ONLY during quota season, self-issued at a trailhead or obtained from a local Forest Service office; outside those dates Eldorado NF states plainly that none is needed, while recreation.gov's overview paragraph says year-round and contradicts its own operational section (reasoning at desolation-2026-09-12-13, closed at desolation-2026-09-12-11). CONDITIONS: the Caldor Fire burn scar holds dead and fire-weakened trees; heavy snow may begin in October and last through July, and most trailheads are not vehicle-accessible in winter. ACCESS GAP: the permit page names 13 trailheads -- Loon Lake, Van Vleck, Rockbound, Twin Lakes, Lyons Creek, Pyramid Creek, Ralston Peak, Echo Lake, Glen Alpine, Mt. Tallac, Bayview, Eagle Lake, Meeks Bay -- and this project holds three of them. The other ten are a known coverage gap, not a claim they do not exist.
Rules in force
What applies once you hold the permit. Rules marked with a scope other than "this permit" are inherited — state law or an agency-wide policy — and are stored once rather than restated per permit.
Fire
Campfires are prohibited year-round throughout Desolation Wilderness. Camp stoves are permitted.
A stove still requires the separate California Campfire Permit that applies statewide. · source
You may gather downed firewood while camping without a permit, but may not cut any tree, and may not take gathered wood home. Eldorado National Forest
Bringing firewood from outside the forest is prohibited, because it transports non-native pests. Buy it from the camp host or from a grocery store, where it is vetted pest-free. This permits the gathering, not the fire: Desolation and Mokelumne both ban campfires outright, and the statewide campfire permit is still required for a stove or lantern. · source
A free California Campfire Permit is required before you may have a campfire, camp stove, lantern or barbeque -- but holding one does NOT mean fires are allowed where you're going. Local restrictions override it. Two different permits exist; for everywhere this project covers, take the one for federal- and state-controlled lands, not the private-lands one. CA state law
TWO PERMIT TYPES, and the wrong one is not a valid document. CAL FIRE issues one permit for federal- and state-controlled lands, covering campfires, barbeques and portable stoves, and a separate one for private lands, which additionally requires written permission from the landowner. Both carry the same caveat that local burn restrictions may apply. Every trailhead in this project sits on federal land -- national forest, national park, BLM, or the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit -- except two on East Bay Regional Park District land (Del Valle and Stanford Ave), which is a special district fitting neither category cleanly; which permit applies there is not confirmed. The same portal also issues permits for burning debris, which is a different product and not what a backcountry traveller needs. THE PERMIT IS A PRECONDITION, NOT AN AUTHORISATION: CAL FIRE's own guidance says to check local rules, since many areas restrict or ban campfires outright, especially at elevation or in high fire danger. Where a wilderness bans fires, the permit still matters for a camp stove. YOU MUST CARRY IT: Eldorado NF states the permit has to be available for rangers and other officials to check while you are camping, so an unproduced permit is a permit you do not have. The lantern question is settled: CAL FIRE's permits FAQ omits lanterns from its enumeration, but the campfire-safety page and Eldorado NF's own FAQ both include them, so the fuller list stands on two sources against one summary. The issuing forest states it is also required in some developed campgrounds -- being in a campground is not a reliable exemption. Free, valid for a full calendar year (January 1 to December 31), and available from CAL FIRE, US Forest Service or BLM offices as well as online. The signer must be 18 or older, so a group of minors cannot self-issue. Obtain it at readyforwildfire.org/permits, which links to the portal at permit.preventwildfiresca.org. NOTE: Eldorado NF's own camping page cites 'www.preventwildfiresca.org', which does not resolve -- readyforwildfire.org is the working entry point. · 36 CFR 261.52(k); PRC 4433 · source
A hard-sided, bear-proof food storage container is REQUIRED for all food and toiletries.
The permit page states the requirement without qualifying it to overnight use, and gives no elevation or zone exception; it notes bears have become more active. It says containers "may be available for rental" and to contact a Forest Service permit office, without naming terms. The specific terms below come from the 2022 USFS trip-planning guide rather than the permit page, and are the older of the two sources: fines up to $5,000 for non-compliance; canisters rent free at Placerville Ranger Station, while LTBMU rents them for a $50 deposit plus a daily fee ($5 for 1-3 days, $10 for 4-7, $15 for 8-14). Confirm rental terms before relying on them. · 36 CFR 261.58(cc) · source
Maximum group size is 12 people together at any time, children included in the count.
recreation.gov's booking widget enforces this as a hard cap of 12 group members per permit, and the cap is flat rather than per zone -- it reads '12 max' whichever destination zone is selected. Note what the figure is sourced to. A destination zone is the OVERNIGHT quota mechanism: you book a zone for your first night. So this confirms the overnight cap. NO SOURCE ON HAND STATES A GROUP SIZE FOR DESOLATION DAY USE, which is a separate, free, self-issued permit that is not booked through this widget. Do not assume it is also 12: neighbouring Mokelumne, administered by the same forest, caps day hikes at 12 and overnight groups at 8, so the two numbers demonstrably differ within one agency. · source
Camp on a durable surface at least 100 ft from any lakeshore or stream and from trails.
Restoration sites have been closed to let damaged shorelines and meadows recover from overuse -- walk around them rather than through. Separately, four areas (Eagle Lake, Grouse and Hemlock Lakes, and the north and east sides of Lake of the Woods) allow camping only at designated sites; see data/permit_zones.csv for those zones' own rules. · source
Dispersed camping outside a developed campground is limited to 10 days per ranger district per calendar year. Eldorado National Forest
Most Eldorado NF land is open to free dispersed camping unless specifically prohibited. There is no trash service -- pack it in, pack it out -- and no potable water, so bring your own rather than relying on lakes, streams or springs. Remove all equipment and garbage when leaving. Eldorado NF's FAQ confirms dispersed camping is allowed forest-wide and restates that your group is responsible for all trash and should take it home. It also says to check with a Ranger District office for fire restrictions before you go, and that a campfire permit is required for a cooking appliance, lantern or campfire even when dispersed. · source
Human and dog waste must be packed out, or buried in a 6-8 inch cat hole at least 200 ft from water or trail. Pack out toilet paper.
Wash and clean cookware at least 200 ft from any water source. Soap of any kind, biodegradable included, is prohibited in streams, lakes and any other water source. No trash service -- pack out everything you pack in. · source
State fish and game laws apply -- a wilderness permit is not a fishing licence.
This is the whole of what the permit page says on the subject: it defers to California fish and game law without restating any of it. Season, limits, gear and licensing are set by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and are not captured in this project, so check CDFW directly rather than treating this row as the rule. · source
Dogs are permitted but must be under control at all times, and El Dorado County has a mandatory leash law.
The agency's stated reasons for the control requirement: dogs impact wildlife, and barking intrudes on other visitors' experience. Bury or pack out dog waste on the same terms as human waste. Worth checking against neighbouring units before a multi-wilderness trip: Yosemite bans dogs from its wilderness entirely, so a dog-legal Desolation itinerary does not generalise. · source
Dogs must be physically restrained on a leash under six feet for the whole visit -- not merely under voice control. Eldorado National Forest
Eldorado NF states this as a forest-wide requirement, and it is stricter than the "under control at all times" wording on the Desolation permit page. Bag dog waste and put it in a trash receptacle or take it home; in wilderness, bury it in a cat hole off trail and away from water. Off-leash dogs threaten wildlife and endanger or inconvenience other visitors. · source
Livestock limited to 2 per person and 12 per group; keep them 200 ft from water and 100 ft from campsites.
Do not tie stock directly to trees except briefly while loading, unloading, or resting on the move -- highline instead. Weed-free forage only. Some trails are not recommended for stock. · source
A firearm may be carried only if it is visible and unloaded, unless you are actively hunting. California state firearm law applies. Eldorado National Forest
This governs carrying; discharge is restricted separately (Desolation bars any discharge within 150 yards of a campsite or occupied area). Concealed or loaded carry outside active hunting is not permitted here. · source
Drones are allowed on the forest but NOT over congressionally designated wilderness, which includes Desolation and Mokelumne. Eldorado National Forest
Since almost every objective in this project lies inside designated wilderness, the practical answer for a summit flight is no. Drones are also barred wherever a Temporary Flight Restriction is in place, which is routine over active wildfires -- check before flying in fire season. · source
Commercial use may be prohibited or require a special use permit.
Charging a fee to lead a group into the wilderness counts as outfitting and guiding and needs a special use permit -- contact a Forest Service office. · source
This permit's quota is assigned per destination zone, not per trailhead. Booking asks which zone you will spend your first night in; after that night you may move between zones on the same permit, as long as you exit by the last date booked. A day hike needs no zone.
Which zone serves a given objective is not asserted here. Zone names often match a lake or peak, but a zone is a mapped boundary and a name is not that boundary — that mapping needs the official zone map, and is an open question until it has one.
01 Rockbound Lake
02 General Creek
03 Genevieve
04 Grouse Lakes— Special Management Area -- designated campsites only, marked by a tent symbol on a 4x4 post; camp within 30 ft of the post (the 2022 USFS guide says 25 ft -- unresolved, see permit_source_log.csv). One permitted group per site, first-come. If every designated site is taken on arrival, camp at least 500 ft from the lakeshore instead.
05 Brown Mountain
06 Rubicon
07 Stony Ridge
08 Tells
09 Highland
10 Lelands
11 Camper Flat
12 Phipps
13 Lakes #3 and #5
14 Schmidell
15 Dick's Peak
16 Middle Velma
17 Lower Velmas
18 Eagle— Special Management Area -- designated campsites only, marked by a tent symbol on a 4x4 post; camp within 30 ft of the post (the 2022 USFS guide says 25 ft -- unresolved, see permit_source_log.csv). One permitted group per site, first-come. If every designated site is taken on arrival, camp at least 500 ft from the lakeshore instead.
19 Lawrence
20 Red Peak
21 Lois
22 China Flat
23 Dick's Lake
24 Kalmia
25 Maude
26 Rockbound Pass
27 Mt. Price
28 Half Moon
29 Gilmore
30 Cathedral
31 Tyler
32 Twin
33 Aloha
34 Susie
35 Grass
36 Hemlock— Special Management Area -- designated campsites only, marked by a tent symbol on a 4x4 post; camp within 30 ft of the post (the 2022 USFS guide says 25 ft -- unresolved, see permit_source_log.csv). One permitted group per site, first-come. If every designated site is taken on arrival, camp at least 500 ft from the lakeshore instead.
37 Smith
38 Waca
39 American
40 Lake of Woods— Special Management Area on the north and east sides only -- designated campsites only, marked by a tent symbol on a 4x4 post; camp within 30 ft of the post (the 2022 USFS guide says 25 ft -- unresolved, see permit_source_log.csv). One permitted group per site, first-come. If every designated site is taken on arrival, camp at least 500 ft from the lakeshore instead.
41 Tamarack
42 Triangle
43 Lyons
44 Avalanche
45 Ralston
Tahoe Rim Trail (Thru Hike Only)— A separate zone created for individuals completing the full Tahoe Rim Trail loop in a single continuous journey; permits for it went live 2026-03-20 09:00 PST. The source calls it a zone but counts the destination-zone quota as 45 without it, so it carries no zone_code here -- it is booked instead of a numbered destination zone, not in addition to one.
Location
Coordinates
38.8103, -120.2394
Elevation
6,706 ft
Side of range
west
Wilderness
Desolation Wilderness
Agency
Eldorado NF
Provenance
We last checked
2026-09-12
Those are different claims: a source can be current and still not have been re-checked here recently.
Verification history
Checked
Verdict
Source
2026-07-22
desolation-2026-07-22-01
new-group
Initial Apr24-Oct18 season guess and 70/30 split guess -- season later found wrong by a primary source; split never independently confirmed.
2026-07-22
desolation-2026-07-22-02
corrects-existing
CORRECTED the 2026-07-22 web-search entry: quota season is Friday-before-Memorial-Day through a FIXED Sep 30 end date, not Apr24-Oct18 (that range was untraceable to any real source). Unconfirmed 70/30 split language dropped in favor of the actually-confirmed mechanics (45 Destination Zones, 6-month window, walk-in during season).
Independent check of the live recreation.gov permit page and its booking UI. CONFIRMS the 45 destination zones (the booking dropdown lists exactly 01-45), the first-night-in-selected-zone rule, the Friday-before-Memorial-Day through Sept 30 quota season, the 6-month reservation window, and max group size 12. ADDS several hard requirements this project had never captured: bear canister REQUIRED with fines up to $5,000 under 36 CFR 261.58(cc); a signed PRINTED permit must be carried by the group leader and a reservation confirmation is explicitly NOT a valid permit; permits print starting 7 days before entry in quota season; campfires prohibited but camp stoves permitted. ADDS a constraint to the roam-after-first-night rule that was missing here: you must exit by the last date booked. Also names the 13 access trailheads (Loon Lake, Van Vleck, Rockbound, Twin Lakes, Lyons Creek, Pyramid Creek, Ralston Peak, Echo Lake, Glen Alpine, Mt. Tallac, Bayview, Eagle Lake, Meeks Bay) -- this project has only 3 of them.
USFS-authored trip planning guide (PDF metadata author 'Rhodewalt, Amelia -FS', USDA Forest Service branding), hosted by the Desolation Wilderness Volunteers rather than on an fs.usda.gov URL, and four years old -- treated as corroborating but stale, with the 2026 recreation.gov check taking precedence on any disagreement. Note its filename date (2022-08-18) and internal CreationDate (2022-09-08) differ. INDEPENDENTLY CORROBORATES the 45 zones, the first-night zone semantics almost verbatim, the Memorial-Day-Friday-to-Sept-30 quota season (backing this project's earlier correction away from Oct 18), and max group size 12 with children counted. SOURCES the two-thirds reservable / one-third same-day walk-up split now recorded in release_policies.csv, which was not represented anywhere before. ADDS the $20 annual pass, the no-refund window inside 7 days, the four Special Management Areas by name, and stock limits.
Official Eldorado NF / LTBMU zone map (ESRI ArcMap export, 2011 -- the oldest source consulted for this group, so positional/boundary detail is not treated as current). Its text layer carries zone labels 1 through 45 with no gaps, a fourth independent confirmation of the count and the first evidence they are contiguously numbered. CONFIRMS campfires prohibited year-round, group max 12, the 100 ft camping setback, and the four Special Management Areas by name. Its rules block states a permit is required for day AND overnight use year-round, siding with recreation.gov against Eldorado NF's day-use page (see the unresolved-conflict entry). Shows 13 trailheads INCLUDING Tells Creek and EXCLUDING Van Vleck -- the reverse of the 2026 sources, indicating the access roster genuinely changed rather than one source being wrong. Does NOT carry per-zone quota numbers in any extractable form, so those remain unknown.
DAY-USE PERMIT REQUIREMENT IS CONTESTED BETWEEN TWO OFFICIAL SOURCES. Eldorado NF's own day-use page states day use permits are available at trailheads only from the start of quota season through Sept 30, and that 'outside of these times no day use permits are needed'. recreation.gov's permit page states a wilderness permit is required for overnight camping AS WELL AS day visits, year-round; the official 2011 zone map says the same. This project currently asserts year-round, siding with two sources against the land manager's own page -- normally the land manager would win on a regulatory question, which is why this is logged rather than resolved. IMPORTANT PROVENANCE CAVEAT: the Eldorado NF text was read via a web-search snippet, not a direct page fetch (blocked from this environment), so it needs a first-hand read before being acted on. Do not silently flip the value on snippet evidence alone.
FEE TIER BOUNDARY DISAGREES ACROSS SOURCES. This project records $10 for 2-14 nights (from the 2026 recreation.gov check); the 2022 USFS guide states $10 for 2-13 nights. Could be a real fee change since 2022 or a misreading in either direction -- neither the current recreation.gov permit page text nor the booking UI screenshots captured so far show the fee table, so nothing on hand settles it. Kept at 2-14 with the conflict noted in fee_notes rather than silently switched. SEPARATELY CORRECTED, not a conflict: fees are per ADULT, not per person -- children 12 and under are free, which this project had omitted entirely and which materially changes the cost for a family.
Read the permit page's Fees & Cancellation tab, which no earlier check had reached. RESOLVES THE FEE TIER CONFLICT logged earlier today: the page states '$5 per person for the 1st night; $10 for 2-14 nights' for adults over 12, confirming this project's 2-14 and showing the 2022 USFS guide's 2-13 is simply out of date. The per-ADULT framing and the free-for-under-13 rule are likewise confirmed verbatim. ADDS a large amount of fee and booking policy never captured here: recreation fees are capped at $100 per permit; a Desolation annual pass waives the recreation fee but NOT the $6 reservation fee; America the Beautiful passes (Senior and Access included) explicitly do not apply; cancelling 8+ days out refunds recreation fees while 7 days or less refunds nothing and a no-show refunds nothing; changes are barred entirely once the permit becomes printable, and otherwise cost $5 (party size, days, or first-night zone) or a full cancel-and-rebook at $6 (entry date). ADDS the parking waiver, and NAMES FIVE day-use areas with parking fees -- Pyramid Creek, Eagle Falls, Loon Lake, Rockbound, and Twin Lakes -- where the 2022 guide named only the first three. ADDS livestock spacing rules, the 150-yard firearm restriction, water treatment guidance, and the commercial-use/outfitting special use permit requirement. VERDICT IS STILL unresolved-conflict because the DAY-USE question (year-round per recreation.gov and the zone map, quota-season-only per Eldorado NF's own page) remains open and nothing here speaks to it. Recorded this way deliberately: unresolved_conflicts() takes only the latest entry per permit_group, so logging the fee resolution under a clean verdict would have masked the still-open day-use conflict.
Read the permit page's 'How Does the Quota Work' and 'Need to Know' sections. NEW CONFLICT FOUND on the Special Management Area camping distance: recreation.gov says camp within 30 ft of the marked post, the 2022 USFS trip guide says 25 ft. Taken as 30 ft here on the same newer-source-wins basis used for the fee tier, with the disagreement recorded rather than dropped. CORRECTS this project's own modelling of the Tahoe Rim Trail entry: it was recorded as 'not itself a zone', but the source states plainly that 'a new zone has been created' for TRT thru-hikers, live 2026-03-20 09:00 PST, for individuals completing the full loop in a single continuous journey -- it is still carried without a zone_code, since the same page counts the destination-zone quota as 45 without it. ADDS the quota's unit of measure, which was never stated here: it counts INDIVIDUALS selecting a zone for their first night, not permits or groups. ADDS the agency's own rationale for the model -- a destination-based quota was chosen over a trailhead-based one because Desolation is small and many zones are reachable from one trailhead, which is direct confirmation that zone and trailhead are properly separate entities here. ADDS that off-quota-season has NO per-zone limit at all (group cap still applies), refining the off_season release phase. REFINES the Special Management Areas: only the north and east sides of Lake of the Woods are included, and if every designated site is occupied the fallback is to camp 500 ft from the lakeshore. ADDS waste rules (200 ft, 6-8 inch cat hole, pack out toilet paper, no soap of any kind in water, cookware cleaned 200 ft away), restoration-site closures, protection of natural features, and -- entirely absent before -- that DOGS ARE PERMITTED subject to El Dorado County's mandatory leash law, which matters because neighbouring Yosemite bans them. Verdict stays unresolved-conflict: the day-use year-round question is still open, and the new 25-vs-30 ft disagreement joins it.
Bookkeeping, no new evidence. The fee tier conflict was settled earlier today by the permit page's Fees & Cancellation tab ('$5 per person for the 1st night; $10 for 2-14 nights' for adults over 12), but that entry had to carry verdict=unresolved-conflict because unresolved_conflicts() tracked only one conflict per permit_group -- a clean verdict would have masked the still-open day-use question. Conflicts now carry a conflict_id and are opened and closed independently, so this entry closes desolation-fee-tier on the evidence already logged. The earlier entry stands unedited: the log is append-only, and the workaround it records is part of the history.
Read the permit page's remaining rules sections (Waste, Bears and Food Storage, Pets, Natural Features, Livestock, Other Considerations, Commercial Use) plus the Guest Reviews and Mobile Coverage panels, completing a full pass over this page. CONFIRMS verbatim, with no drift found: the 200 ft / 6-8 inch cat hole waste rule and pack-out-toilet-paper requirement, the blanket soap ban including biodegradable soap, cookware cleaned 200 ft from water, all five livestock rules (2 per person and 12 per group, 200 ft from water and 100 ft from campsites, no tying to trees except while loading or resting, weed-free forage, some trails not recommended), the 150-yard firearm restriction, water treatment, natural features, the El Dorado County leash law and dog waste rule, and the commercial-use/outfitting special use permit requirement. CORRECTS A NARROWING THIS PROJECT INTRODUCED ITSELF, not a source conflict: the bear canister rule was recorded as applying to 'all overnight visitors'. The permit page states the requirement flat, with no overnight qualifier and no elevation or zone exception, and this row already cited that page as its source. The qualifier was ours, and it is the kind that gets a day visitor fined. Also re-attributed the $5,000 fine figure and the Placerville/LTBMU rental terms, which come from the 2022 USFS guide rather than the permit page -- the page says only that containers 'may be available for rental'. ADDS a rule held nowhere before: 'State fish and game laws apply.' Captured under a new 'fishing' category, stated as the deferral it is -- a wilderness permit is not a fishing licence, and CDFW's season, limit, gear and licensing rules are not in this project at all. ADDS the agency's stated rationale for the dog-control rule (wildlife impact and barking). ADDS AN ENTIRELY NEW DATA TYPE in data/connectivity.csv: crowd-reported mobile coverage, the first table here sourced from visitors rather than an agency. Verizon reads '0.8 - Major Issues' from 272 visitor reports. The page states neither the scale's maximum nor how the average is computed, so the number is stored with rating_scale_known=False and rendered with that admission attached. AT&T shows 209 reports but its rating fell below the fold of the screenshot and is recorded as unread rather than omitted, which open_questions() surfaces. DELIBERATELY NOT CAPTURED: the Guest Reviews panel (842 reviews, 4.5 stars, 610/140/46/17/29 by star). It rates satisfaction with the permit and booking experience, not any fact about the wilderness, and nothing in it changes a trip plan. Neither open conflict on this group is touched by any of the above: the day-use season question and the 25-vs-30 ft Special Management Area setback both still need a first-hand read of the disputed source.
Scope correction, no new evidence. An earlier entry today recorded adding data/connectivity.csv, holding recreation.gov's crowd-reported mobile coverage for this permit area (Verizon 0.8 'Major Issues' from 272 reports, AT&T unread). The maintainer has since ruled mobile coverage out of scope for this project, and the dataset, its module, its tests and its rendering have been removed. The earlier entry stands unedited, as the log is append-only; read it together with this one. Nothing about any permit or regulation fact changed, and neither open conflict on this group is affected.
CLOSES THE DAY-USE SEASON CONFLICT, and flips this project's stored value. Eldorado NF's FAQ states: 'Day use permits for the Desolation Wilderness are available at the trailheads starting with the beginning of quota season (Memorial Day Friday thru September 30th), outside of these times no day use permits are needed.' WHY THIS RESOLVES IT. The conflict was logged, not resolved, for one stated reason: the Eldorado NF text had been read through a web-search snippet rather than a direct page read, and that entry said explicitly not to flip the value on snippet evidence alone. That blocker is now gone. This is a first-hand read of the full text of a SECOND Eldorado NF page, carrying its own last-updated date of 2026-06-12, saying the same thing as the day-use page. The land manager now states it twice, first-hand and currently. WHY THE LAND MANAGER WINS. recreation.gov's permit page and the 2011 zone map both say a permit is required for day use year-round. recreation.gov is a booking platform operated across agencies, not the regulating authority for this wilderness, and the zone map is the oldest source consulted for this group. On a regulatory question the forest that administers the land decides. This is the reasoning the original conflict entry itself set out. WHAT CHANGED: permits.csv now says a free day-use permit is required at the trailhead during quota season only, with the recreation.gov disagreement stated in the same note so a reader meeting the contrary text on the booking site is not blindsided. Parking fees are unaffected and apply in either season. The SMA setback conflict (25 vs 30 ft) is untouched by this page and remains open.
The live booking widget, which no earlier check had captured. CONFIRMS the group size cap of 12 from the system that actually enforces it: the party stepper is labelled 'Group Members (12 max)' and the cap is flat rather than per zone, reading the same whichever destination zone is selected. CONFIRMS this project's zone dataset at the string level -- the dropdown shows '06 Rubicon', matching the label built from data/permit_zones.csv exactly, which is independent corroboration that the numbering and naming are right. CONFIRMS the quota season end date: the September 2026 calendar offers availability through the 30th and stops there. SCOPE CORRECTION TO AVOID A MISREADING, and the reason this is logged rather than acted on as new data. The widget was offered as evidence of a DAY USE group size limit. It is the overnight flow: a destination zone is the overnight quota mechanism, booked for your first night, and Desolation day-use permits are free, self-issued at the trailhead, and not reservable here at all. The 12 therefore confirms the overnight cap, which this project already held, and says nothing about day use. STATES A GAP rather than filling it: no source on hand gives a group size for Desolation day use. Assuming it equals the overnight 12 would be a guess, and a demonstrably unsafe kind -- Mokelumne, under the same forest, caps day hikes at 12 and overnight groups at 8. Two numbers, same agency, different products. Recorded in the rule's detail so the absence is visible on the page instead of being read as covered.
STRENGTHENS THE DAY-USE RESOLUTION, on evidence from the source that had been treated as the losing side. recreation.gov contradicts ITSELF. Its overview paragraph says visitors must obtain a permit 'for overnight camping as well as day visits, year-round', and that sentence was the whole basis for the year-round claim. But its structured Permit & Season Information section separates the two products and says: 'Day Use Permit: Obtain a free permit from a local Forest Service office, or at trailheads IN THE SUMMER.' The same section makes the year-round claim explicitly and only for overnight permits ('Permits are required all year round'). So the operational text agrees with Eldorado NF, and the year-round day-use reading rests on one overview sentence that bundles day use into an overnight claim. The conflict was closed correctly earlier today; this shows it was closer to a misreading of a loose sentence than a genuine disagreement between agencies. The stored note now cites recreation.gov's own operational wording rather than resting the answer on authority ranking alone. ADDS that a day-use permit is obtainable from a local Forest Service office, not only at a trailhead -- relevant outside summer staffing. ADDS A HAZARD not previously held: the page warns about travel through the Caldor Fire burn scar, where dead and fire-weakened trees remain a danger, and states heavy snow may begin as early as October and persist through July. NAMES THE 13 TRAILHEADS: Loon Lake, Van Vleck, Rockbound, Twin Lakes, Lyons Creek, Pyramid Creek, Ralston Peak, Echo Lake, Glen Alpine, Mt. Tallac, Bayview, Eagle Lake, Meeks Bay. This project holds three (Lyons Creek, Mount Tallac, Wrights Lake/Rockbound). The remaining ten are recorded as a coverage gap rather than added, because adding a trailhead requires coordinates and none are given here; inventing them would be worse than the gap. Consistent with the 2011 zone map entry logged earlier, which showed 13 trailheads including Tells Creek and excluding Van Vleck -- the reverse of this list, indicating the access roster genuinely changed rather than one source being wrong. CONFIRMS, with no drift: 45 destination zones, the first-night rule, the six-month window, quota season Friday-before-Memorial-Day to September 30, no per-zone limit off-season, the printed-permit requirement, the bear canister rule and its $5,000 citation, the 100 ft camping setback, the campfire ban, max group size 12, and the TRT thru-hike zone going live 2026-03-20 09:00 PST.