California's Underrated Glacial Valley In The Sierras Serves Stunning Wilderness With No Permit Lottery Required

Hiking permit lotteries, who needs them? From the infamous lottery system behind Yosemite's legendary Half Dome to the mere 50 daily permits that are issued for the Tall Trees Trail in the Redwoods National Park, the Golden State is now riddled with paths wrapped up in red tape. Okay, so permits are there to help protect the environment, ensure everyone is safe, and throttle numbers on popular routes that would otherwise be super-busy. But there's actually no need to play roulette if you just want to hike. There are still stunning wilderness areas bursting with world-class trails that come without the random permit admin. Take the Mineral King area of the legendary Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park, for example.

Anchored by a deep glacial valley in the southern corner of the reserve, Mineral King has a rep for remoteness, ruggedness, and vastness. It's a 7-mile-long, 1-mile-wide haven for multi-day hikers who don't mind roughing it in the wild. And — here's the kicker — it comes threaded with enough treks to make Yosemite blush, none of which require you to get lucky in a lotto for a permit. 

Brace yourself for the journey in, because it's a bit of an adventure in its own right. You're looking at a 25-mile roadway with more meanders than the Mississippi River. No RVs are allowed on the route, and it's usually closed throughout the whole winter. The entry road begins at the town of Three Rivers, which is about 1.5 hour's drive from the Fresno Yosemite International Airport, which now has flight arrivals from San Fran, Chicago, LA, and even some cities in Mexico.

The whole of the Mineral King area is positively bursting at the sequoia-fringed seams with hiking options, both for backpackers with all the gear in tow, and dedicated day hikers. And it's off-radar hiking at that, without the streams of people that hit other, more-trafficked corners of the national park.

Perhaps the most definitive journey on foot in these parts is the eponymous Mineral King Loop. Clocking up a mega 45 miles or so, it's typically done in five nights or more. The loop is actually a couple of individual hiking trails threaded together to create one big circle through the valley. A common route begins at the Timber Gap Trailhead just off Mineral King Road, and then climbs on thigh-pulsing ascents to meet the High Sierra Trail at nearly 12,000 feet above sea level.

It doesn't have to be uber-challenging, though. Since that loop consists of multiple smaller trails, you can simply choose one of those for a day hike if you prefer. The official National Parks System portal picks out the Monarch Lakes as one of the least-arduous paths, as it whisks you just over 4 miles through fir woods to a soaring alpine lake. According to one past hiker on AllTrails, it's a great place to dodge the crowds: "Such a chill hike. We barely saw anybody hiking here. Once we got to the lake, it was magical. Nobody in sight and we took a dip in the cool water."

Here's the good news: There's no super-competitive lottery system in place for any of the trails in the Mineral King area. There's nothing like The Wave in Arizona, a bucket-list hike that's nigh on impossible to do these days. Nor is this akin to the iconic John Muir Trail, which people permit-up for six months in advance.

However, Mineral King isn't completely admin free. While there's no randomized lotto saying who can and who can't get a-trekking in these parts, you will have to bag a permit to pass through the trailhead you plan on starting at. On the plus side, those permits are released a whopping six months in advance, and it's first-come, first-serve, so you'll know right away if you're one of the lucky ones.

The other thing would-be hikers heading Mineral King way should know is that the routes here are pretty dang tricky. These aren't simple walks in the mountains. Even the shorter day hikes clock up lots of mileage and plenty of altitude gain. What's more, the very bottom of the valley is at 7,500 feet, which means the air will be thin from the get-go. Finally, there are the marmots — they're known to devour car parts, and visitors are now advised to dress vehicles in tarp.