Angels Landing Permits Explained: The Seasonal Lottery

Scouts Lookout is the end of the story for most Zion visitors. A few hundred feet beyond it, the West Rim Trail squeezes onto a sandstone fin called Angels Landing — chains bolted into rock, thousand-foot drops on both sides, and one of the most photographed ridgelines in the American West. Since 2022, that final half mile has been closed to anyone without a permit, and the permit is not something you can buy at the visitor center.

If Zion is on your 2026–2027 itinerary, this guide explains exactly how the Angels Landing lottery is structured, what it costs, which season gives you the best odds, and how the day-before fallback works when the big drawing does not go your way.

Why a permit at all?

The narrow ridge — the section between Scouts Lookout and the summit known as Walter’s Wiggles, Refrigerator Canyon, and the chains — gets only a few feet wide. On busy spring and fall days, hundreds of hikers were funneling through it at once, creating queuing, rockfall risk, and dangerous passing. The National Park Service responded by capping the number of people allowed on the fin itself. Crucially, you do not need a permit to hike up to Scouts Lookout; the permit covers only the chain section and the summit spur.

That distinction matters for trip planning. If you lose the lottery, you still get a beautiful, strenuous hike up Refrigerator Canyon and onto the West Rim trail — you just stop before the exposed part.

Four seasonal lotteries per year

Zion does not run one giant annual draw. It runs four separate seasonal lotteries, one for each quarter of hiking season: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. Each drawing covers roughly three months of hiking dates and opens about six weeks before that season begins. The 2027 Spring drawing (for March 1 – May 31 hikes) is expected to open in early-to-mid January 2027 and close around January 20; results typically land a few days later.

The current open drawing as of October 2026 is the Winter lottery, covering hikes from December 1, 2026 through February 28, 2027. It opened on October 1, closes October 20, and results post around October 25. Winter is the easiest season to win — fewer people want to stand on an exposed sandstone fin in December — which makes it the smartest choice if your schedule is flexible.

The day-before (next-day) lottery

On top of the seasonal draws, Zion releases a smaller pool of permits two days before each hike date. This next-day lottery runs every day, year-round, through recreation.gov. It is the same mechanic as the seasonal draw — pay a small fee, pick a date, wait for the result — but it is sized for last-minute planners.

Treat the day-before draw as your safety net, not your main strategy. It is genuinely useful when you are already in Springdale, the season is busy, and the seasonal lottery passed you by. Demand spikes on warm spring and fall weekends, so winter and summer weekdays are far friendlier here too.

Costs, quotas and odds

The $6 application fee is non-refundable whether you win or not. A winning group of four therefore pays $6 + $12 = $18 total. The per-person fee is trivial compared with the value of the permit, which is exactly why demand is so persistent. Odds figures are estimates based on reported demand patterns; the park does not publish a live win-rate, so treat them as planning ranges rather than guarantees.

How to tilt the odds in your favor

• Enter every seasonal draw that overlaps your trip window. Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter are independent games; missing one means sitting out that whole quarter.
• Pick winter or early-morning weekdays. December through February dates draw a fraction of the applicants of April and October weekends.
• Choose the earliest time slot available. Morning hikes avoid afternoon thunderstorms and the brutal midday heat of Zion Canyon, and early slots are often less contested than midday.
• Apply as a small group. The quota is split by group permits; a solo traveler effectively competes for the same slot as a party of four, so smaller parties see smoother availability.
• Run the day-before draw while you are in the park. If you lose the seasonal lottery, enter the next-day draw for every day you have free in Springdale.

Hiking prep and common mistakes

The round trip from the Grotto trailhead is about 5.4 miles (8.7 km) with roughly 1,500 feet (450 m) of elevation gain, most of it in the series of switchbacks known as Walter’s Wiggles. There is no water on the route, so carry at least a gallon per person in summer. The chains are genuinely exposed: hand placement matters, loose gravel is common on the rock, and storms can roll in fast from the west. Check the NPS weather forecast the night before and turn back if lightning is anywhere near the canyon.

The most common mistakes are: entering only the spring or summer draw and forgetting that a winter draw exists; showing up at the Grotto without a permit and being turned around at the chain section; assuming Scouts Lookout itself requires a permit (it does not); and relying on the free Zion Canyon shuttle to be uncrowded on lottery-win days — book the earliest shuttle you can.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: NPS Zion – Angels Landing hiking permits page; recreation.gov Angels Landing lottery. Figures verified October 2026; seasonal windows shift slightly year to year — confirm dates on the official Zion page before applying.