My number was drawn for the very last spot and I tried to avoid making eye contact with the many people I knew had traveled thousands of miles for that same chance. I had applied for 3 people, and by 9:12AM they had drawn 29 people. 30 permits drawn on the same day swells the number of hopeful applicants and the anticipation to Walmart Black Friday doorbuster levels. This last Feb, with heavy snow on the forecast every other day, there was still over 200 people milling around the Kanab Center Gymnasium before the 9am drawing.ĭuring winter hours, the Friday drawing is special because they draw for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. There are some advantages to being a local, and one of those is that I can run over to Kanab and enter the lottery in the dead of winter and try to get one of the 32 daily permits (the other 32 being available online months in advance.) This used to be the way to get a higher chance because of the lower crowds during off-season, but no longer.

This bucket list item attracts people from all over the world, with well over a thousand people a day applying for just 20 permits, which will increase to 64 daily permits as of February 2021. One of the most highly sought hiking permits in the American Southwest is for the Wave, AZ, located about 40 minutes west of Horseshoe Bend and Antelope Canyon.

Alstrom point tours at horseshoe bend