This Angels Landing lottery ticket news story was adapted from an August 13 National Park Service press release. You can see the original press release here.
After over 300,000 visitors hiked Angels Landing in 2019 and due to continued rapid growth throughout 2021, Zion National Park is now proposing the implementation of an Angels Landing day-use lottery system in 2022.
The ever-increasing popularity of Zion National Park, including the world-famous Angels Landing Trail, led to severe overcrowding and congestion in the park this year.
For part of the year, for example, there was a ticket reservation requirement to ride the Zion shuttle bus. Now, it looks like visitors may need a ticket to hike Angels Landing next year.
Zion National Park Proposes Day-Use Permit Lottery for Angels Landing in 2022
This year, the crowding issues in Zion National Park have become so bad there are serious concerns about visitor safety and experience. The same is true for other Utah national parks, particularly Arches National Park.
Back in 2017, Zion National Park ran a trail-use study to better grasp the visitor experience on Angels Landing, as well as in The Narrows, two of the most popular hikes in Zion. The study also provided more insights into hiking patterns at these popular hiking locations.
With the results of that research, the park piloted an informal method to manage hiker flows on the infamous chains section on the Angels Landing Trail during holiday weekends in both 2019 and 2021.
This offered even more information about visitor use, safety concerns and congestion issues on this busy trail.
Both public input and those previous efforts now result in Zion National Park’s proposal to implement a day-use permit lottery system to hike Angels Landing in 2022.
In practice, this means that visitors who want to hike Angels Landing would need to get a permit prior to starting their hike.
This pilot lottery system for day-use permits to hike Angels Landing will probably be available on Recreation.gov, the home of most national park reservation systems.
Note, however, that you would still be able to hike the West Rim Trail all the way up to Scout Lookout without a permit. The only section where you’d need a day-use permit would be the 0.5 miles from Scout Lookout to the top of Angels Landing.
We at The National Parks Experience wholeheartedly support this proposed new lottery system. After all, we’re all about “park experiences”, which, ideally, are as enjoyable, memorable and safe as possible.
A more formalized system to organize hiker traffic on Angels Landing is completely in line with our vision of what national park experiences should be.
It would allow for (1) enhanced visitor safety on this dangerous trail section, (2) an improved hiking experience thanks to smaller crowds, and (3) better protection of park resources.
Proposed Angels Landing Day-Use Permit Fees and Lottery System
Two new park fees would be introduced in order to both implement and staff the Angels Landing day-use permit lottery system.
The first one is a $6 application fee. This would cover the building and operation costs of the online lottery platform on Recreation.gov.
The second fee is a $3 per person fee. This fee would be charged to lottery applicants who’ve won an Angels Landing day-use permit. It would cover the in-the-field costs of Zion National Park to set up and manage this new permit program.
Also important to note is that a day-use permit for Angels Landing would be valid for groups of up to six people. One person of each group would receive an email with the day-use permit.
Before being allowed to access the permitted section of the trail, a proof of ID would be required along with the permit.
These Angels Landing hiking permits would be available several months ahead of the intended visit date through an advanced lottery. Right now, it looks like the first lottery for Angels Landing day-use permits will take place in January 2022. This would be for permits from March through May 2022.
Similar to other national park reservation systems that are currently in place, there would also be a second chance to get an Angels Landing hiking permit the day before the hike date.
More Information
It is important to say, though, that this is not official yet. Zion National Park is seeking public comments on this proposal.
If you have thoughts, suggestions, concerns or other ideas, you can leave a comment at https://parkplanning.nps.gov/ZionFeeProposal from August 13 through September 12, 2021.
We will follow up this story with more updates as they are released by the National Park Service.
You can find much more information about this proposed day-use permit lottery system here on the Zion National Park website.