The Zion Subway Permit Lottery
How to get a Subway permit: the four seasonal lottery windows, the daily lottery two days ahead, unclaimed spots, the fees, collecting the permit, and where NPS's own pages disagree.
Every Subway hike needs a Wilderness permit, and NPS hands them out by lottery on recreation.gov. You can try a seasonal lottery, which opens months before the hike, or the daily lottery, which takes applications only two days before it. Either way it is a draw: applying costs $6 and promises nothing. This page sets out the dates as NPS publishes them, what you pay, how you collect the permit, and the two points where NPS’s own pages disagree.
The band on the homepage works out which of these windows is open on the day you look.
The seasonal lottery
Four times a year NPS takes applications for the next three months of hikes. These are the windows in the table NPS lists, which prints no year:
| Apply between | For hikes in | Results by email | Unclaimed spots reservable |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 and 25 November | January, February, March | 27 November | 15 December, 10:00 am MT |
| 1 and 25 February | April, May, June | 27 February | 15 March, 10:00 am MT |
| 1 and 25 May | July, August, September | 27 May | 15 June, 10:00 am MT |
| 1 and 25 August | October, November, December | 27 August | 15 September, 10:00 am MT |
From the lottery table on NPS’s Canyoneering Permits page (updated 12 August 2026) and The Subway page (updated 14 January 2026), which agree on every date above.
You rank up to four dates in one application, and each person may send one request per canyon per season. The application fee is $6 and is not refunded. If you are drawn, the email arrives on the 27th and you have two weeks to claim the reservation on recreation.gov. Whatever winners leave unclaimed becomes reservable on recreation.gov at 10:00 am MT on the 15th of the following month.
The daily lottery
The daily lottery is the late option. It covers the Left Fork (the Subway), Mystery Canyon and the top-down Narrows in a day, and it takes applications only two days before the day you want to hike, between 12:00 am and 3:00 pm MT. One application a person a day, with up to four canyons on it, at the same $6.
So for a Saturday hike you apply on the Thursday before, by 3:00 pm MT; for a Monday hike, on the Saturday. Miss the 3:00 pm close and the lottery for that date has closed; the next window opens at midnight, for the day after.
NPS puts about half of all canyoneering permits up for advance reservation and fills the rest through the daily lottery. It publishes no daily number for the Subway, so nothing on this site prints one.
Where the two NPS pages disagree
Two details differ between NPS’s own pages, so we give both and work out neither:
- The daily draw. The Subway page (updated 14 January 2026) says the drawing is held at 3:00 pm MT with notification by 4:00 pm. The Canyoneering Permits page (updated 12 August 2026) says the drawing is held at 4:00 pm MT. Both agree that applications close at 3:00 pm.
- Walk-in permits. Spaces left after the daily lottery become walk-in permits, in person at the Wilderness Desk only. The Subway page says the day before or the day of the hike; the Canyoneering Permits page says the day before.
If either matters to your plan, ask the Zion Canyon Wilderness Desk before you travel.
Fees and collecting the permit
- $6 to apply or to reserve, not refunded.
- $10 a person for the permit itself, refunded if you cancel, or take fewer people, before 5 pm on the day of the trip.
- The park entrance fee is separate: $35 a vehicle or $20 a person on NPS’s fees page, with $100 more for non-US residents aged 16 and over unless they hold an annual pass.
The email from recreation.gov is not the permit. The person who made the reservation collects it in person at the Wilderness Desk in the Zion Canyon Visitor Center, the day before or the day of the hike. Allow at least 20 minutes, and bring the make, model and plate of your car. NPS’s hours page (updated 16 September 2026) gives the Zion Canyon Wilderness Desk as open 8 am to 5 pm, and the Kolob Canyons desk as closed until further notice.
The rules that come with it
The permit covers day use only: no camping on the route. A group can be at most 12. Every applicant needs their own skills and equipment, because guiding is not allowed in the Zion Wilderness. Top-down permits stop from 16 April while the snowpack at NPS’s Kolob station holds more than 35 inches of water, until it falls below 10 inches; the Chief Ranger can change those dates. NPS also notes that a reservation does not guarantee the canyon will be open, and recreation.gov warns that routes and the park can close for fires, floods and rockfall.
If no permit comes
If you are not drawn, What to book without a Subway permit lists the trips that need none, from a slot-canyon walk to a full day of rappelling, each labelled for what it is. The Subway or the Narrows covers the river hike that needs no permit up to Big Spring.
Sources
- National Park Service: The Subway (updated 14 January 2026), Canyoneering Permits (updated 12 August 2026), Fees, Operating Hours (updated 16 September 2026), Superintendent’s Compendium (2026). All checked November 2026.
- Recreation.gov: Left Fork (Subway) Seasonal Lottery and Canyoneering Daily Lottery, checked November 2026.
Between Draws, a Slot Canyon You Can Book
East Zion Adventures' 2-hour UTV ride and slot-canyon walk from Orderville, east of the park. No permit, no climbing, no rappelling. It is not the Subway.
Check slot-canyon dates