I miss the good old days when there were no quotas, and permits were free. Thanks to increased traffic in the wilderness, those days are long gone. Recreation.gov can be frustrating, but it works pretty well most of the time. With the exception of permits that use a lottery, you know immediately whether you got the permit or campsite you wanted.
Recreation.gov doesn’t always state the time of day when permits become available. In 2020, Inyo National Forest wilderness permits became available six months in advance at midnight, and they sometimes disappear fast. In one case, I needed a one-person permit for the North Fork of Big Pine Creek. At fifteen seconds after midnight, all the permits were gone, and I had to book a different entry date.
You can create a recreation.gov account, learn your way around the site, and then log in at different times of day to see when the reservations for the trailhead or campground you want become available.
