These National Park Attractions Are So Popular You Need to Enter a Lottery to See Them

Coyote Buttes North has one of the most distinct sandstone formations in the world. Access to the most stunning part of the Coyote Buttes is The Wave, a striking, sloping natural sandstone formation that improbably resembles the ocean. No trail leads to The Wave, and getting there requires a six-mile round-trip hike under arduous conditions. That doesn’t stop hundreds of thousands of people from wanting to see The Wave each year. To control crowds, the National Park Service requires a permit to visit–and they are not easy to get. The lottery for The Wave opens four months in advance of all available dates. For example, you must enter the January lottery for an April trip. Those who aren’t lucky enough to win the lottery in advance can try their luck in a same-day lottery, but competition is fierce.

The Colorado River winds its way through the Grand Canyon. Rafting through this natural wonder is an incredible way to experience the beauty of the Grand Canyon. Commercial trips that last a few hours are easy to access, but more adventurous visitors want to try their hand at tackling the river on their own. Experienced rafters can enter a lottery for a River Permit. Those who pull a winning number can strike out on their own to paddle, raft, or float through the Grand Canyon for a once-in-lifetime thrill. The lottery is weighted to give those who have never been on a Grand Canyon river trip before a better chance of winning than repeat rafters. Keep an eye on the Grand Canyon National Park’s website to find out when the next lottery opens.

The Phantom Ranch at Grand Canyon is such a popular place to stay that snagging one of the ranch’s coveted cabins requires winning a lottery. These charming cabins are coveted, in part, because they are only lodging below the Canyon rim. The lottery opens fourteen months in advance, so you need to apply in January 2024 for an overnight in March 2025. If you do snag a spot, be sure you have a way to reach your cabin. No roads lead to the Phantom Ranch. Cabins can only be reached by mules, on foot, or by rafting the Colorado River, which also requires entering the lottery.

Visitors to Yosemite who want to spend the night in an undeveloped part of Yosemite need to enter a lottery to have this extraordinary experience. If you win the lottery, your permit is not for a campground site or other lodging within the park, so you must be completely self-sufficient. The majority of available slots are released six months in advance, and the remaining spots open a week in advance. Yosemite’s North Pines campground also has a lottery, so be sure to enter the correct one.

The Grand Canyon may be more well-known, but Hells Canyon has the deepest river gorge in North America. Snake River, which forms the boundary between Idaho and Oregon, boasts some of the best white water rafting in the country. While navigating the river, you will pass multiple rapids, a historic ranch, and more. Bring binoculars on the trip to spot big horn sheep, the great blue heron, and plenty of wildlife indigenous to the Pacific Northwest. Look down the river to see sturgeon, Chinook salmon, trophy steelhead trout, and other marine life that calls Snake River home. Floating in the canyon’s Snake River requires a permit year-round, but during peak season (roughly Memorial Day through mid-September), you need to enter a lottery to get one. The lottery opens at the beginning of March, so mark your calendars.

A unique way to see Dinosaur National Monument is to float through it as the monument unfolds all around you. Seeing the monument from the river is the best way to experience some of the monument’s most remote canyons. After winding through the monument, Green River cuts through the Uinta Mountains. This is the largest east-west extending mountain range in the contiguous United States. The lottery for the season opens in December.  If you don’t win a lottery spot, you can join a commercial tour to explore the Green River with a group.

In the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps built a quaint cabin on the banks of Sweetwater Spring in Ocala National Forest. The Sweetwater Cabin, located in the forest’s remote Juniper Prairie Wilderness area, has two canoes guests can use to paddle down the famous Juniper Canoe Run. The cabin also has a lovely observation deck and is ideally situated to enjoy the solitude of the surrounding forest. There is only one Sweetwater Cabin; the only way to spend a night is by entering the lottery—plan on entering about seven months before your trip.

Usually, private vehicles can only drive a small portion of the one and only road that runs through Denali National Park. However, for four days most years, the park allows a small number of vehicles to drive as far as the open road takes them. It’s an incredible way to see Denali’s stunning landscape and Alaskan wildlife. Even if you win the Road Lottery, you will still be at the mercy of Mother Nature. How much of the road is open varies according to weather conditions. In 2023, the lottery was canceled due to a landslide, although the lottery is expected to resume. If you don’t hit the lottery, you can hop on a bus run by the National Park Service and join the masses on a Denali road trip.

Some adventurers are brave enough to withstand freezing temperatures to zoom through the snow alongside the wildlife that calls Yellowstone home. If that sounds like your kind of trip, you will need to enter a lottery to get a coveted permit to drive a snowmobile through Yellowstone National Park. Snowmobile permits are granted for one to four days, and only four permits are issued daily. Those lucky enough to win are in for the adventure of a lifetime.

The Mt. Whitney Trail takes hikers to heights of over 6,000 feet through switchbacks, past waterfalls, and by scenic lakes. Mt. Whitney’s summit is the highest point in the contiguous United States, and reaching it is an accomplishment. The Mt. Whitney hike is strenuous but not technical, making it a very popular destination. You need to win a lottery to attempt the hike, either for a day trip or an overnight outing. Lottery spots are available all year long, but choose your dates wisely. The trail becomes covered in ice and snow during the winter, and specialized equipment may be necessary to hike the trail when that happens.

Thousands of years of flash-flooding in Zion National Park created tall, curved canyons that resemble subway stations. Once through the canyons, called The Subway, travelers are treated to vibrant blue, crystal clear waters. The Subway, located in Zion’s Left Fork wilderness area, can be reached by hiking or canyoneering. However, to get there, you first need to enter a lottery two months in advance for a chance to grab a coveted permit.

Over a hundred wild brown bears descend each summer on Alaska’s McNeil River State Park. The beads gather there to hunt the thousands of salmon that swim through the sanctuary during their annual upstream migration. The sanctuary is virtually untouched by human development. Viewing the bears, surrounded by gorgeous wilderness and Alaskan Wildlife, and in the shadow of a volcano is a bespoke experience. If this sounds like a must-do experience, try your luck by entering the state park’s lottery. Competition is fierce, and only ten people are permitted to view the bears at a time.