Permits now required to hike Zion’s Angels Landing; lottery on Jan. 3

(CNN) — One of America’s most popular national park hikes will require a permit as of 2022.

Officials at Zion National Park have announced that as of April 1, visitors who want to tackle the famous Angels Landing hike will have to enter an online lottery for a permit.

“Angels Landing is one of the most iconic destinations in Zion National Park, and issuing permits will make going there fair for everyone,” National Park Service superintendent Jeff Bradybaugh said in a statement. “The system we’ve put in place will reduce crowding on the trail, address safety concerns and make it easy for visitors to plan ahead.”

The hiking permits will be required year-round, 24 hours a day.

Interested travelers will need to go to Recreation.gov and pay $6 to enter an online lottery. There will be two kinds of lotteries: quarterly and 1-day advance. The first will open on Jan. 3, for permits April 1 to May 31. The lottery closes on Jan. 20, and winners will be notified on Jan. 25.

Subsequent blocks of three months of dates will be opened to lottery on the first days of April, June and October.

The permits reserved for day-before allocation can be applied for each day starting April 1, from 12:01 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mountain Time. Winners will be notified at 4 p.m.

The visitors who get permits will then need to pay $3 per person. The $6 application fee — for up to six people — is not refundable.

The permits designate a time slot at which hikers can set out from the Grotto trailhead: before 9 a.m., 9 a.m. to noon, or after noon.

The Angels Landing hike is one of the most popular in the NPS network; the 1,488-foot-tall rock formation offers sweeping views of the canyons below.

It can also be dangerous. There have been 11 known fatalities there since 2004, most recently a Utah man who fell to his death in March.

Most years, more than 300,000 people hike the trail, about 5 miles round trip. On many stretches, the narrow path skirts sheer drop-offs.

The permit will be required for only the last half-mile of the Angels Landing route, which has protective chains along the footpath. Visitors without permits would still be able to hike the West Rim Trail to other viewpoints, including Scout Lookout.

The permit system is similar to that for Yosemite’s Half Dome, which since 2010 has allowed about 225 hikers per day during its summer/fall peak season.