Since May 2007 permits for the Coyote Buttes North (CBN) area are not assigned on “first come first serve” basis any more. That time BLM introduced a lottery application form which looks pretty much the same as for The Subway at Zion NP managed by NPS. It’s quite hard to win the lottery because only 10 people per day recieve permits through the online lottery – some days have more then 100 applications with more then 400 people. If the first two drawn lottery applications are each for a group of 5 people, all other applications for that day are moved into the trashcan as the 10 people limit is reached.

But here is a trick: The lottery usually runs on the first day of every month. If you have applied but aren’t lucky, return to the BLM site on the 15th the same month and navigate to the CBN calendar. Reload the page exactly one second after 12 pm MST et voilà .. if you’re lucky some permits become available (shown in green) on random dates. I guess these are won lottery applications which were not payed or something like that.

And to cut a long story short .. guess what .. like last year, I got a CBN permit for the 27th of May. YEE HAA .. lucky me!