Confirmed genuinely a simple rolling release, not a lottery (unlike Yosemite): reservations open on recreation.gov up to 6 months before entry, released daily at 7:00am Pacific. Entry point and entry date cannot be changed after booking (would need a new reservation); exit date/itinerary can be adjusted later. Permit must be PHYSICALLY PICKED UP at the trailhead's Wilderness Office/desk -- a recreation.gov confirmation email is not a valid permit. Pickup window: as early as 1pm the day before entry, no later than 10am the morning of entry; call ahead (559-565-3766) if you'll be later or the reservation is cancelled at 10am and released to walk-ups.

Notes

Off-season permits (Sep 28 - May 21) are free, self-issue, and available 24 hours at kiosks near each trailhead. Walk-up permits with no advance reservation are available from 1pm the day before entry, same fee, paid at the station. Rae Lakes Loop, High Sierra Trail and Copper Creek sell out fast on release day.

Travel into neighbouring units

Confirmed and broadened: 'you can generally obtain your permit for your entire itinerary from the agency where your trip begins (e.g. the Inyo, Sierra, or Sequoia national forests, or Yosemite National Park)' -- reciprocity applies to Sierra NF and Yosemite NP too, not just Inyo NF as previously noted (still applies at the shared cross-Sierra passes: Taboose, Sawmill, Baxter, Shepherd Pass, Kearsarge Pass, Cottonwood Pass). OPEN QUESTION, not yet resolved: the source specifically flags that entries via Jennie Lakes Wilderness (Sequoia NF) DO need a SEKI recreation.gov permit if the route continues into the park, via the JO Pass, Belle Canyon, or Sugarloaf entry points -- even though Jennie Lakes Wilderness itself needs no permit for use that stays within it (see the 'none' permit_group note on the Marvin Pass trailhead). Whether the SPS peaks reached from Marvin Pass (Whaleback, Glacier Ridge) actually cross into SEKI via one of those three named entry points hasn't been confirmed -- don't assume 'none' is correct for that trailhead without checking.

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

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

Verified 2026-09-12 · evidence none-2026-09-12-01, none-2026-09-12-02, none-2026-09-12-03, none-2026-09-12-04

Location

Peaks nearest this trailhead (10)

Assigned by straight-line proximity, not by a verified approach. Permits attach to where you enter the wilderness, so a peak listed here may well be climbed from somewhere else -- and a long point-to-point route may pass peaks that list a different trailhead entirely. Treat this as a starting point, not an approach list.

Provenance

Those are different claims: a source can be current and still not have been re-checked here recently.

Checked	Verdict	Source
2026-07-22 seki-2026-07-22-01	new-group 2026 season May22-Sep26 and rolling 6mo release from web-search synthesis. Never independently re-checked against a primary source since.
2026-07-23 seki-2026-07-23-01	confirms-existing First independent verification of this permit_group (previously web-search synthesis only). CONFIRMS everything already on file, word for word: season is exactly May 22 - Sep 26 2026; fee is exactly $15/trip + $5/person; reservation mechanism is genuinely a simple daily 7am-Pacific rolling release up to 6 months out, NOT a lottery -- no Yosemite-style surprise this time. ADDS real logistics detail not previously captured: permits must be physically picked up at a trailhead Wilderness Office (a recreation.gov confirmation email is not valid), pickup window 1pm day-before to 10am day-of or the reservation releases to walk-ups; per-person fee refundable if cancelled 1+ week ahead; walk-up permits available same fee starting 1pm the day before. BROADENS the interagency reciprocity note: source explicitly names Sierra NF and Yosemite NP as reciprocal agencies too, not just Inyo NF as previously noted. SURFACES A NEW OPEN QUESTION rather than resolving it: entries via Jennie Lakes Wilderness (Sequoia NF) need a SEKI permit if continuing into the park via the JO Pass/Belle Canyon/Sugarloaf entry points specifically -- even though Jennie Lakes itself needs no permit for use that stays within it. This project's Marvin Pass trailhead (Jennie Lakes, tagged permit_group=none) serves Whaleback and Glacier Ridge; whether those specific summits cross into SEKI via one of the three named entry points is NOT confirmed -- flagged in the seki row's interagency_note, permits.csv NOT changed for the none/Marvin Pass row pending that check.	source

Roads End (Cedar Grove)

Permit

Key dates

How reservations work