How the Enchantments Lottery Works

The Enchantments are a chain of alpine lakes in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness near Leavenworth, Washington. To camp there between May 15 and October 31 you need an overnight permit from the Forest Service, and almost all of those permits are handed out through a lottery run on Recreation.gov each February. This page explains what the lottery is, how applications are drawn, what your realistic options are if you lose, and where the odds on this site come from.

The basics

Day hiking needs only a free, self-issued day-use permit, available at the trailheads. The lottery permit applies to overnight stays from May 15 through October 31; the lakes are usually snowbound until late June and again by late October.

The five zones

An overnight permit names a zone, and you camp only inside it. The zones are:

• Core Enchantment Zone. The upper and lower Enchantment basins: Inspiration, Perfection, Leprechaun, and the rest of the named lakes, plus Prusik Pass. This is the destination most people mean when they say "the Enchantments," and it is by far the hardest permit to win. A Core permit also lets you camp in any of the other four zones.
• Colchuck Zone. Colchuck Lake and its surroundings, below Aasgard Pass. Second hardest.
• Snow Zone. Nada Lake and the Snow Lakes, on the eastern approach.
• Eightmile / Caroline Zone. Eightmile Lake, Little Eightmile, and Lake Caroline.
• Stuart Zone. Stuart Lake and Horseshoe Lake, below Mount Stuart.

Because day hiking anywhere in the area needs only the free day-use permit, a Colchuck or Snow camp works as a base for a day in the Core, as long as you are back in your own zone to sleep. That is the main reason those two zones are more competitive than Eightmile or Stuart.

Group size

The maximum group size is eight in every zone. The Core Zone is the exception in practice: Core permits are issued for a specific number of people, and the Forest Service will not increase a Core group size after the fact unless quota happens to be free, which it says is unlikely. So for the Core, the number you apply for is the number you get. In the other zones, group size has little effect on your odds because the quota is counted differently.

You cannot change your dates, zones, or group size after you submit. Pick carefully.

How an application is drawn

This is the part that matters for strategy.

Each application lists a first choice and up to two alternates. Each choice is a zone, an entry date, a number of nights, and a group size. When the lottery runs, Recreation.gov puts every application in random order and goes through them one at a time. For each application it checks the first choice. If that zone still has room on that date for that group, the application wins it and the draw moves on. If not, it checks the second choice, then the third. If none of the three fit, the application loses.

Two consequences follow from that:

1. Your first choice is your real bet. By the time the draw reaches your alternates, it has already given your first-choice slot to someone drawn ahead of you. Alternates only help if they are for dates or zones that are still open late in the draw.
2. Alternates cost nothing. There is no penalty for listing them, and no reason to leave one blank. The right move is a first choice you actually want and two alternates that are meaningfully easier to win.

A common mistake is listing three variations of the same hard choice, such as three consecutive August weekends in the Core. Those all fill early, so the alternates add almost nothing. The odds calculator on the home page shows the total probability across all three choices so you can see the difference an easy alternate makes.

What the numbers look like

Every application is recorded on Recreation.gov with its choices and outcome, and that history is what this site is built on. From the last five lotteries, the predicted 2027 first-choice odds for the median day of the season are roughly (Core for a two-person group; group size makes no difference in the other zones):

Those are medians across every day of the season. July and August in the Core run closer to 1–2%, while the second half of October is far easier in every zone. The full day-by-day picture is on each zone page, and the calculator will run your exact three choices.

If you lose

Most applicants do. There are three other routes in.

• The April release. Winners have to claim and pay for their permit by a deadline in March. Everything unclaimed goes back into the Recreation.gov reservation system on April 1. It is first come, first served, and popular dates go within minutes, but it is a real second chance.
• Cancellations. Permits are refundable up to 22 days before the trip, so people cancel through the season. Cancelled dates reappear on Recreation.gov with no announcement. Checking early in the morning a few weeks out works surprisingly often for the smaller zones.
• The daily lottery. Through the season, a share of each zone's quota is held back and given out the day before the entry date, seven days a week. You apply on Recreation.gov from a phone, and you must be within one mile of the Wenatchee River Ranger District office in Leavenworth when you do. If more people apply than there are permits, a drawing decides. It is not a line, so there is no reason to camp out at the ranger station.

Rules once you are in

• Maximum stay is 14 consecutive days, and you cannot leave and re-enter on the same permit.
• No campfires above 5,000 feet or within half a mile of any lake, which in practice means no fires anywhere you would want one. Wood-burning stoves are not allowed above 5,000 feet either; gas stoves are fine.
• No dogs or other pets anywhere in the permit area.
• Use the toilets where they exist. Elsewhere, dig a cat hole at least 200 feet from water and camp, and pack out your toilet paper.
• Goats are habituated and will follow you. They are after salt, not food. Urinate on rocks well away from camp and plants, and never feed them.

Where these facts come from

Rules and dates are from the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest's Enchantments Overnight Permits and Enchantments pages and Recreation.gov's advanced lottery and daily lottery pages. Odds are this site's own estimates, built from Recreation.gov's published application history; the methodology page explains how. Nothing here is official. If this page and Recreation.gov disagree, Recreation.gov is right.

Last reviewed: October 2026.