Lotteries suck. This tool texts you as soon as a permit becomes available.

BY ASH CZARNOTA

In 2010, Yosemite National Park introduced a lottery system for its iconic Half Dome hike to address overcrowding and limit the number of people on the dangerous Cables route. Since then, various land agencies have implemented similar lotteries to protect the country’s most popular trails from being loved to death. With outdoor participation on a decade-long upswing, demand for these highly coveted permits has surged, leaving more people vying for fewer slots. To put it in perspective, you have a one in five chance of winning a Half Dome permit, but for trails with tighter quotas like the John Muir Trail, those odds drop to just one in 25. And as reported in Issue 2, the odds you secure a permit for Washington’s popular Enchantments are less than 7%. 

Those who strike out in the various lotteries for permits to these places might be able to try again by entering a daily lottery, gambling on a walk-up permit, or obsessively refreshing Rec.gov in the hopes of scooping up a cancellation. But no matter the strategy, you’re at the mercy of Lady Luck. But there’s another hack to up your odds of scoring a permit, one that does the grunt work on your behalf.

Outdoor Status is a service that crawls through Recreation.gov, notifying you the moment a permit becomes available due to cancellation or re-release. Users can set up custom alerts for their desired permit and entry date, and those with flexible travel plans can track multiple start dates for the same permit. Once a matching permit is found, Outdoor Status sends a text with a direct link to the permit reservation page—an invaluable feature, especially for competitive permits that disappear as quickly as they become available. Outdoor Status operates on a pay-per-tracking basis: It costs $15 to track a single permit for up to six dates. If you can’t snag a permit for your desired dates, your next tracker is on the house. If you have more than one trip lined up for the year, their $49 annual plan allows unlimited tracking on any of the 68 permits Outdoor Status monitors, along with unlimited dates.

While Rec.gov charges anywhere from $6 to $10 just to enter a lottery (without any guarantee of success), Outdoor Status does all the heavy lifting to give you the best shot at securing a permit for your dream hike. 

Photo: Taylor McKenzie Gerlach