How to Get an Enchantments Permit

There’s a stretch of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness above Leavenworth — granite basins, a chain of alpine lakes, mountain goats picking their way across the slabs — that might be the finest overnight in Washington. And it’s spectacular the whole season: wildflowers and long light through summer, then a few weeks of golden larches in the fall. Camping up there, watching the light come and go, is the whole dream. It’s also gated behind one of the most brutal permit lotteries in the country.

In 2023 the Enchantments lottery drew close to 40,000 applications — demand has climbed more than 60% since 2020 — and fewer than 7% of applicants walked away with a permit. For the Core Zone, the one everyone actually wants, it’s worse.

So the odds are ugly. But “ugly odds in the March lottery” is not the same as “no way in,” and there are more paths here than most people realize — including one that needs no permit at all. Let’s walk through all of them.

Enchantments permit, in one breath

• Covers: overnight camping in the Enchantment Permit Area, May 15 – October 31. (Day hiking needs no permit — more on that below.)
• Five zones, pick one: Core Enchantment, Snow Lake, Colchuck Lake, Stuart Lake, and Eightmile/Caroline. Your permit is good only for the zone you requested — except a Core permit, which lets you camp in any zone.
• How you get one: an annual advanced lottery, then leftover/cancellation dates all season, plus a day-before geofenced lottery.
• Where: Recreation.gov — advanced lottery is permit #233273, the daily lottery is #445863 (Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest).
• Group size: up to 8. The Core Zone is additionally capped at 24 people per day, which is why it’s the hardest to draw.

How the lottery works

The main door is the advanced lottery on Recreation.gov, and the calendar is tight.

You apply February 15 through March 1. As with most rec.gov lotteries, when you apply inside that window makes no difference, so don’t lose sleep over it. You pick your zone, your dates, and your group.

Results post in mid-March. Fees are modest and mostly upfront: a $6 non-refundable application fee to enter (you pay it whether or not you win), plus a $5 per person, per night recreation fee once you have a permit. One more rule worth knowing: you can hold only one Enchantments permit per season — including if you’re listed as someone’s alternate — so pick your entry carefully.

The zone choice is the whole game. Everyone piles into the Core Zone — the larch-and-lakes basin the photos come from — and with only 24 people allowed per day, that’s where the sub-7% odds get truly grim. The outer zones (Colchuck, Stuart Lake, Snow Lakes, Eightmile/Caroline) are meaningfully easier to draw and still drop you into spectacular country. If your goal is to be in the Enchantments rather than to camp in the exact center of the postcard, requesting an outer zone is the single biggest thing you can do for your odds.

And the timing lever: the Enchantments are worth it all season, but late September into early October — larch season — is by far the most contested window on the calendar. If you’re flexible, summer and shoulder-week dates are every bit as stunning and far easier to draw.

Didn’t win the lottery? You’ve got four more ways in

This is the part worth staying for.

1. Leftover permits, first-come. After the advanced lottery awards, any dates the winners don’t lock in get released back to Recreation.gov, first-come, first-served. There aren’t many — most dates go in the lottery itself — and they disappear fast, but they’re real.

2. Cancellations, all season. This is the big one. Because Enchantments permits are refundable if you cancel more than 22 days out, people actually do give them back — and canceled permits return to Recreation.gov first-come, with no set schedule. Last-minute cancellations are common in the days right before a trip, as plans fall apart. If you’re flexible on your start date and you’re watching, cancellations are a genuinely viable way in, right up to the days before.

3. The day-before geofenced lottery. A share of permits are handed out through a daily lottery that runs 7 days a week all season. You apply the day before your start date — the lottery opens at 7 a.m. Pacific — through the Recreation.gov app, from inside the geofenced area near the Wenatchee River Ranger District in Leavenworth (there are no alternate leaders on these permits, and you can only enter once per season). It rewards people who are already in town and willing to try their luck the day before — a real option if you’re road-tripping through.

4. Just day-hike it — no lottery permit required. Here’s the thing most people don’t know: the lottery permit is only for camping overnight. Day-hiking the Enchantments doesn’t require it — you just fill out a free self-issue day-use permit at the trailhead and display a Northwest Forest Pass to park. The classic thru-hike — up over Aasgard Pass from the Colchuck side and down to the Snow Lakes trailhead, roughly 18 punishing miles — is done this way every single day of the season. It’s a big, hard day and you’ll miss the sunrise-and-sunset magic that overnighters get, but if you just want to see the Enchantments this year, you already can. No lottery required.

So the honest framing: if you want to camp among the larches — and that’s the real prize — you need a permit, and cancellations are your best season-long shot at one. The catch is that those cancellations are invisible unless you happen to be refreshing Recreation.gov at the exact moment one appears, and then quick enough to claim it before the next person. That’s the tedious, unwinnable-by-hand problem BigDirtyHikes is built to solve: we watch the Enchantments permit for your zone and dates and alert you the second a spot opens, so you’re first to it. You book it yourself on Recreation.gov — we just make sure you see it in time.

• Only entering the Core Zone. It’s the longest odds on the board. An outer-zone permit still puts you in the Enchantments — and you can day-trip into the Core from several of them.
• Giving up after March. Leftovers, season-long cancellations, and the daily lottery put a lot of people in those larches. The March result is the beginning, not the end.
• Chasing only larch-season weekends. Late September is the crush. Summer and shoulder dates are far more gettable.
• Not knowing you can just day-hike it. If a permit never comes, the thru-hike is legal and permit-free. Plenty of people call that a win.
• Underestimating the terrain. Aasgard Pass is ~2,000 feet of loose, steep climbing in under a mile. Whatever way you get in, the country doesn’t care about your permit — which is where a dialed pack starts to matter.

You’ve got the permit. Now build the pack.

Overnight in the Enchantments means alpine cold, real elevation, and hauling everything up and over passes that punish extra weight. That’s what the BigDirtyHikes pack builder is for: build your Enchantments pack, watch the weight climb as you add gear, and reuse a gear closet trip to trip. Ounces you don’t carry over Aasgard are ounces your knees will thank you for.

Why trust this guide

Permits are the thing we know cold. Untangling how Recreation.gov actually releases, holds, and returns them — including the cancellation timing above — is what we work on every day. If a date on this page is ever wrong, tell us and we’ll fix it fast. Accuracy is the entire point.

Frequently asked questions

When does the Enchantments lottery open? The advanced lottery runs on Recreation.gov from February 15 to March 1 each year, with results in mid-March.

How much does an Enchantments permit cost? A $6 non-refundable fee to enter the lottery, plus a $5 per person, per night recreation fee if you get a permit.

Which Enchantments zone is hardest to get? The Core Enchantment Zone, by a wide margin — it’s capped at 24 people per day and it’s what most people request. Outer zones are much easier to draw.

Can I get an Enchantments permit without winning the lottery? Yes. Leftover dates are released first-come after the lottery, cancellations return to Recreation.gov all season (last-minute ones are common in the days before a trip), and a day-before geofenced lottery hands out a share of permits to people inside the geofence near Leavenworth.

Do I need a permit to hike the Enchantments? Only to camp overnight. Day-hiking — including the full thru-hike — doesn’t require the lottery permit; you just fill out a free self-issue day-use permit at the trailhead and display a Northwest Forest Pass to park. The lottery permit is required only for overnight stays, May 15 to October 31.

By BigDirt · BigDirtyHikes