Win the permit lotteries and build a national park trip around them
A target list of permitted experiences with each lottery's application window and odds, applications submitted across the calendar with group strategy applied, walk-up and cancellation fallbacks planned, and a trip itinerary that holds together whether or not the marquee permit comes through.
Free preview: 5 of 31 steps
Work through them in the real run view, exactly as a buyer does. No account, no payment, nothing saved.
3 free unlocks per month — yours to keep forever
No account needed — nothing is saved.
Included with every copy
- Your own copy — keep it forever
- Gets better over time — free updates included
- Run it on web and mobile
- Invite a partner to go through it with you — you share the same progress
- Make it your own — a private copy you can edit to fit your situation
- 1 knowledge checks to test what you've learned
- The playbook's community — ask questions, get additions, and see how other buyers improve it, right on the step
Who it's for
Hikers and road-trippers chasing a specific permit-gated experience — the Wave, Angels Landing, a Grand Canyon river trip, Havasupai, Half Dome, the Enchantments — who keep finding out about the lottery after the window closed. Best for people who can start four to five months before a spring, summer, or fall trip, give the dates a midweek bias, and hold one or two buffer days. The executed itinerary is the Southwest Grand Circle; readers after other parks run the same lottery calendar and swap in their own loop.
About this playbook
This playbook turns the national park permit lottery — the reason most dream trips quietly die — into a calendar you run months ahead. You map every major US lottery (the Wave, Zion's Angels Landing, Grand Canyon backcountry and river permits, Havasupai, Half Dome, the Enchantments), pick the one permit your trip hangs on, and apply inside each window with the group rules and midweek timing that actually move the odds. Then you walk a six-day Southwest Grand Circle — Zion, the Wave country around Kanab, Page's Antelope Canyon, and the Grand Canyon South Rim — with a no-lottery substitute planned into every day, so a failed draw costs a hike, not the trip. It does not cover Alaska or international permits, guided-trip bookings, or parks outside the lottery system, and the executed itinerary is the Southwest loop, not every park at once. You end with applications in the system, a permit you can actually hike, and a trip that holds together either way.
Covers 2 situations
Which permit does this trip hang on?
What did the day-before lottery say for tomorrow?
The playbook asks you along the way and shows you only the steps that apply to you.
What you'll do, step by stepFree preview
Only a sample is open: 5 of 31 steps can be read in full. The rest unlock when you buy.
Phase 1: Run the lottery calendar
8 stepsPhase 2: Day 1 — Arrive and stage in Springdale
4 stepsPhase 3: Day 2 — Zion permit day
4 stepsPhase 4: Day 3 — Wave country around Kanab
5 stepsPhase 5: Day 4 — Page hub
3 stepsPhase 6: Day 5 — Grand Canyon South Rim
4 stepsPhase 7: Day 6 — Sunrise and return
3 steps
Details
What you need first
A free Recreation.gov account with a verified email and phone, created before any lottery window opens. A driver's license and a credit card for the rental car, plus a second driver. A six-day block (add two nights for a below-rim backpack) in April–June or September–October, with two flexible dates. Hiking shoes already broken in, a day pack, and a 4-liter water bottle per person. The Recreation.gov app installed before you leave — the daily lotteries only work inside their geofences.
Tags
Common questions
Glossary
- Recreation.gov
- The U.S. government reservation platform that runs the permit lotteries for The Wave, Angels Landing and other sites in this playbook. In this guide you create one verified account per adult hiker there and use it to submit, check and pay for applications.
- The Wave
- A small, permit-limited expanse of striped Navajo Sandstone in the desert on the Arizona–Utah border, reached from the Wire Pass Trailhead south of Kanab. In this guide it is the most common marquee permit for the Southwest loop and can only be hiked with a won advanced or daily lottery permit.
- Coyote Buttes North
- The BLM permit area that contains The Wave and that limits daily entry by lottery. In this guide its advanced and daily lotteries are entered on Recreation.gov with strict application months, group caps and confirmation deadlines.
- Angels Landing
- A narrow, chain-assisted summit ridge in Zion National Park reached from the Grotto via the West Rim Trail past Scout Lookout. In this guide the section beyond Scout Lookout to the summit requires a seasonal or day-before lottery permit that rangers check on the trail.
- Grand Canyon backcountry
- The below-rim overnight system for Grand Canyon National Park that issues itineraries and campsites such as Havasupai Gardens. In this guide you enter its early-access lottery on Recreation.gov only if you plan a night below the rim; rim day hikes need no permit.
- Havasupai
- Tribal land in a side canyon of the Grand Canyon known for waterfalls, accessed from Hualapai Hilltop and booked on the official tribal reservation site. In this guide a Havasupai reservation is paid in full at booking and becomes its own trip, not an exchange inside the six hiking days.
- Half Dome
- The granite dome in Yosemite National Park whose cables route requires a preseason or daily lottery permit. In this guide it is an alternate lottery you enter on its official page only if its dates can coexist with the Wave-based itinerary.
- Enchantments
- A permit-limited alpine basin of granite and lakes in Washington’s Alpine Lakes Wilderness. In this guide it is an alternate lottery run on Recreation.gov that you enter only if its dates fit alongside the Southwest loop.
About the creator
Similar playbooks
