Angels Landing Winter Permits: Which Lottery to Use

For an Angels Landing hike from 1 December through 28 February, enter Zion National Park's seasonal permit lottery if you can commit in October. It lets you rank up to seven desired days and times months ahead. Treat the day-before lottery as a genuine second route, but not as the easier plan: it leaves the permit decision until the day before the hike.

The two routes at a glance

The National Park Service's Angels Landing permit page says everyone who hikes Angels Landing needs a permit and links applicants to the official Recreation.gov Angels Landing permit portal. For the winter season, the choice is timing rather than exemption.

Use the seasonal lottery when your winter trip has structure

The winter seasonal application window opens on 1 October and closes on 20 October. Results are dated 25 October. The application lets you pick and rank seven days and times, including windows of days and times. That flexibility is the seasonal route's practical advantage: you can express several acceptable options instead of reducing the trip to one last-minute attempt.

The seasonal application costs $6 and is non-refundable. One application can cover up to six people, including the person submitting it. That means the application fee is $6 for one person and still $6 for a six-person group on one application—not $36. This is the application cost only; do not treat it as a promise that the application will succeed.

Rank only dates and times your whole party can actually use. Seven preferences add flexibility, but an unusable choice does not become useful merely because it ranks lower.

Use the day-before lottery as the late route

The day-before lottery opens daily at 12:01 am Mountain Time and closes at 3:00 pm Mountain Time on the calendar day before the intended hike. If you want to hike on Tuesday, for example, Monday is the application day.

For December-to-February dates, Mountain Time is on its winter standard offset, UTC-7. The window therefore converts to 07:01-22:00 UTC. In Hong Kong, that is 15:01 on the application day to 06:00 the following day. Overseas applicants should anchor their reminder to the Zion application date, then convert from UTC for their own location; the closing time may fall on the next local calendar day.

The phrase “day-before” follows Zion's Mountain Time calendar. Your local date may differ, so do not wait for the day before the hike in your own timezone without converting the window.

A worked winter timeline

Suppose your party wants to hike on 12 January. The preferred route is to submit one seasonal application between 1 and 20 October, ranking 12 January plus other genuinely usable winter dates or time windows. The NPS lists 25 October for seasonal results, giving the party an answer before the December-February permit season begins.

If that route does not provide the permit needed, the remaining listed route is the day-before lottery on 11 January, Zion time. Its winter window is 07:01-22:00 UTC. The party still needs a permit for every hiker; merely submitting either application is not the same as holding one.

Which route should you choose?

The short answer

Use the seasonal lottery first for a planned December-to-February Angels Landing hike: apply from 1 to 20 October, rank up to seven usable preferences and look for results on 25 October. A single $6 non-refundable seasonal application covers up to six people. Use the day-before lottery if you missed that route or still need a permit, applying from 12:01 am to 3:00 pm Mountain Time on the day before the intended hike. Everyone hiking Angels Landing still needs a permit.