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Zion NP proposes $9 lottery/permit for Angels Landing
Posted: Aug 13 2021 7:34 pm
by chumley
Angels Landing is a one-half mile (0.5-mile) chained trail beginning at Scout Lookout and is a highly sought after hike at ZION with more than 300,000 visitors making the ascent in 2019. Growth has continued rapidly in 2021 and increasing park popularity has led to intense crowding and congestion along the Angels Landing trail. Crowding continues to raise safety and visitor experience concerns.
To implement and staff the day-use permit lottery system, two new park-use fees would be introduced. First, a six-dollar ($6) application fee would be used to cover the cost for recreation.gov to build and operate an online, lottery platform. Second, a three-dollar ($3) per person fee would be charged to successful lottery applicants and would cover the cost to implement and manage the permit program in the field at ZION. Permits would allow for groups of up to six (6) people and would be connected to the email of one person from each group.
Permit authentication would be required starting March 1, 2022.
Permits would be made available in two lottery formats: 1) advance and 2) day-before. Same day reservations would not be available.
The advance-lottery would be held quarterly with the first lottery opening January 1, 2022
From August 13 to September 12, 2021, the public may comment on the proposed amenity fees at
https://parkplanning.nps.gov/ZionFeeProposal.
News Release:
https://www.nps.gov/zion/learn/news/zio ... y-fees.htm
FAQ:
https://www.nps.gov/zion/learn/news/ang ... nd-fee.htm
Re: Zion NP proposes $9 lottery/permit for Angels Landing
Posted: Aug 13 2021 8:39 pm
by big_load
The crowds at Angels Landing are nuts. We got about 2/3 up the chains before somebody farther ahead freaked out and everything stopped. After a while we decided it wasn't worth waiting any longer, and even bailing out took forever. And that was on a supposedly low-traffic day.
Re: Zion NP proposes $9 lottery/permit for Angels Landing
Posted: Aug 14 2021 6:34 pm
by ShatteredArm
Not a fan of the application fee, they should just raise the price for successful applicants.
Re: Zion NP proposes $9 lottery/permit for Angels Landing
Posted: Aug 23 2021 9:59 am
by KwaiChang
big_load wrote:The crowds at Angels Landing are nuts. We got about 2/3 up the chains before somebody farther ahead freaked out and everything stopped.
Agree and I too experienced a freak out that lead to having to traverse around said freak out. Thankfully after spending some time on top....WITH a ton of people the freak show was gone on the way down. I always wondered what happened to that poor lady. She had a death grip on the chain and there was a gap in the chains by about 15ish feet.....she kept repeating "the chain, the chain". I never could imagine being that scared.
Re: Zion NP proposes $9 lottery/permit for Angels Landing
Posted: Aug 23 2021 2:29 pm
by azbackpackr
@KwaiChang
Now I am just dying to go there. Labor Day weekend is coming up. That would be the perfect time. You know how I love crowds.
angel's landing permit
Posted: Dec 05 2021 6:44 am
by trekkin_gecko
Re: Zion NP proposes $9 lottery/permit for Angels Landing
Posted: Dec 05 2021 8:49 am
by Jim
Any idea where they will enforce the permit? Will this effect the West Rim Trail?
Re: Zion NP proposes $9 lottery/permit for Angels Landing
Posted: Dec 05 2021 9:11 am
by chumley
Seemed to be explained well in the links.
Re: Zion NP proposes $9 lottery/permit for Angels Landing
Posted: Dec 05 2021 10:25 am
by big_load
It's unfortunate, but probably necessary. It was insane the time I visited, which is in what used to be the off season.
Re: Zion NP proposes $9 lottery/permit for Angels Landing
Posted: Dec 06 2021 10:15 am
by ShatteredArm
People regularly fall and die from the trail edged by a sheer cliff.
Methinks they have a different definition of "regularly" than I use.
Sucks that they went ahead with the application fee; I still think the costs should be borne by successful applicants.
Re: Zion NP proposes $9 lottery/permit for Angels Landing
Posted: Dec 07 2021 5:06 am
by azbackpackr
@big_load
I can't bring myself to go there. Moab was bad enough when I lived there. Looking forward to my winter in the Mojave, a vast bunch of nothingness! Solitude is better than scenery.
Re: Zion NP proposes $9 lottery/permit for Angels Landing
Posted: Dec 07 2021 10:57 am
by hikeaz
azbackpackr wrote:Solitude is better than scenery.
Damn straight. (BOTH is
better of course)