Grand Canyon Permits – fax question

[Sara]

Hello,

I'll be travelling to the Grand Canyon in May.
I understand that permit requests for May can be faxed in starting on Jan 1, 2013.

Does anyone know if the permits are processed in the order they are received through the fax?
I am wondering if there is any advantage to faxing mine shortly after midnight.

[Bob Gross]

"I am wondering if there is any advantage to faxing mine shortly after midnight."

It can't hurt.

For a different national park, certain reservations opened up on one day in January at 7:00 a.m. I got my reservation in at 7:01 and was successful. Just for grins, I checked back at 7:15, and it was full.

It also helps to make a telephone call to the office where the fax machine is located, and ask them some routine question about the fax reception. That prompts the office staff to check their machine to make sure that it has paper.

–B.G.–

[Greg Mihalik]

Regardless of how you do it – mail, fax, or hand-delivered, "… all of the initial month permit requests received by 5 p.m. on the first of the month will be placed in random order by computer…"

So there is no advantage to hammering the fax.
Just make sure you get your request into the pool.

The details can be found Here.

[HkNewman]

I've faxed some right after midnight which were denied, then some the next morning which were approved so they likely use some sort of random sampling (at least for March trips). Think when the park is at it's best (Jan-Feb) is when people avoid it but it's easiest to snag a permit if that helps.

[Sumi Wada]

All permit requests faxed in on the first day, from midnight to 5pm MST, are thrown into a "lottery" and processed in random order. There's no advantage to faxing early but make sure you get it in that day.

Good luck!

[Sara]

Thank you for all your replies. :)

What a relief – I thought I'd have to skip out on New Year festivities to get the permit faxed.
I'm going to have a fun night out with friends, go for a morning snowshoe and fax my permit after lunch.

Many thanks again!

[Author]

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