I just “picked up†my June 5 Whitney day permit. I sent an email, as Steve described. They sent my permit thirteen minutes later. No phone calls, answered or otherwise. No waiting in line. No hassle at all.
Same here - received May 24 permit within minutes of emailing to "check in". Situation is much improved to earlier this year.
6 min to receive my MDW permits!
Just when I thought everything was running smoothly, I sent the email to “pick up†my permit for July 30 (Little Lakes Valley). I emailed again three days later when I didn’t get a reply. I still don’t have a reply a week after my first email, though I did receive a reminder that I should pick up my permit. I double checked all the pick up instructions, just to make sure.
A few weeks ago, you could do everything online. Now that the COVID epidemic is getting out of control again,
Inyo National Forest says, “The Preferred Method is to check-in in Person.†They give the impression that email pick up is now the last resort. I sure hope I don’t have to leave home at 1:00 PM on Thursday to get my Friday permit. Does anybody know anything that I don’t?
Edit:
When I reserved my permit, the confirmation email said “Visitor centers are issuing all permits by email and phone for the 2020-2021 season. No walk up service.†It also said “allow two days for processing†when picking up permits by email. Other communication also said they would respond within two days.
Now they say, “Expect to get email permit 1-2 days before the start of the trip.†This means that if anything goes wrong, I won’t know it until it’s too late to do anything about it. In fact, if they send me my permit Thursday afternoon, I will be gone, and the nearest Visitor Center will be closed before I get there. The system was working perfectly, so they changed it!
