Grand Canyon National Park’s weighted lottery for calendar year 2008 noncommercial river permits is now accepting applications. Lottery applications will be accepted through the Weighted Lottery website (https://npspermits.us) from May 1, 2007 through 12:00 noon (Arizona time) on May 28, 2007. The lottery drawings will take place on May 31st. Applying through the lottery costs $25, paid online at the time the application is submitted. Applicants who win through the lottery will immediately be charged an additional, $400, non-refundable trip deposit (applied towards the final $100 per person cost of the permit).

A total of 213 trips are available through this lottery for calendar year 2008 launches: 41 of these are for small size (1 to 8 person) trips and the rest are for standard size (1 to 16 person) trips. A calendar showing the available dates and the dates that have already been filled is available: Launch Calendar. More information can be found at the River and Weighted Lottery FAQ page.

More Background

For more than two decades the private permit system was administered as a wait list. At the time the waitlist was closed in 2003, more than 8000 names were on the list. Since only 300-400 names were removed from the list each year, wait times for a permit were approaching 15-20 years. AW participated in the development of a new management plan that includes additional launch dates and the new weighted lottery system to allocate launch dates. The Colorado River Management Plan was released in March 2006.