Havasupai Falls is one of those places you have to see at least once in your life! It’s a hiker’s playground! You get to explore 6 unique waterfalls with beautiful blue-green waters surrounded by the stunning red walls of the Grand Canyon! However, getting a permit is not only pricey but it can get very hard to obtain.
If you want to reserve a permit for 2025 keep reading to get some insider tips on how to snag a Havasupai Falls permit and to find out some tricks on what to do if you don’t get one right away because permits do sell out within minutes for the desirable months, and within hours February through November will be sold out.
Table of contents
How to get permits
In order to reserve a permit you will have to go to the Havasupai Reservation website and create and account.
There are two types of accounts and each one has their own website:
Check out Everything you need to know about Havasupai Falls to read what kind of amenities the campground and the Lodge have.
You will have two chances at snagging a permit with the Reservation Pre-sale system that was introduced in 2024 and through the public opening day.
TIPS:
- I highly recommend you sign up, open an account, and fill out all the details including PALT (Potential Alternate Trip Leader) and credit card information prior to “Reservation Pre-sale” and “Permit opening day” so you don’t waste time and focus solely on snagging some permits before they sell out.
- Enter the Reservation Pre-sale system to increase your chances.
- If you don’t get a permit through the pre-sale, set up an alarm for 7:40AM on February 1st (Mountain Standard Time-MST) and log into your account.
- KNOW YOUR DATES! have at least 3 diffent dates picked out as back ups in case the original gets sold old. Be flexible about your dates! Flexibility is the key to getting a permit! If you can’t select one day, check the days prior or even ahead of the day you wanted to see if a reservation is available.
- Check out Everything you need to know about Havasupai Falls to figure out what months work best for you.
- If you’re going with a group, not everyone in the group needs to buy a permit separately BUT it increases your chances if everyone in the group has their own account and tries to get a permit for the whole group at the same time. Make a conference call and have everyone in the group added to the call so the minute someone in the group gets a permit the rest can stop trying.
Pre-sale Lottery Reservation System
In 2024 a new pre-sale reservation system was implemented by the Havasupai Tribe Tourism Office to ease the amount of traffic the website would get during the pubic opening day in February 1st which would cause server errors and many people would have technical issues when trying to obtain a permit. Since Havasupai Falls has gotten more popular over the years and it’s getting even harder to get permits, this pre-sale system is a big gamble but it allows you to increase your chances at scoring a permit.
- The reservation pre-sale system opens on January 5th at 8AM (MST) and it stays open through January 18th at 5PM (MST).
- Only a limited number of reservations are available with this system.
- DOES NOT GUARANTEE A RESERVATION SPOT!
- There is a presale fee of $15 per person (up to 12 people) which is NON-REFUNDABLE for both campground and Lodge reservations.
- Campground permit example: You want to get a permit for 6 people so you will have to pay a pre-sale fee of $90 and you don’t get this back if you don’t get a permit.
- Lodge permit example: You want to get a permit for 6 people so you will have to pay a pre-sale fee of $120 because each lodge room houses 4 people so you will have to pay for 2 lodge rooms NOT per person. If you’re not selected, the fee will not be refunded.
- You will be able to select 3 start dates and an optional month in case your 3 preferred dates are not chosen.
- If your preferred dates are not chosen, you have to commit to a random starting date from the month you selected that will be generated if you win.
- Last year the winners of the pre-sale lottery were informed January 26th. If you win a permit, Congrats! Your credit card you put on file will automatically be charged the full amount for your entire group on top of the pre-sale fee and you can’t back out.
- If for some reason the dates you were awarded don’t work with you, you can transfer them to your PALT (s) or put it up in the cancelled/transferred list BUT you will lose a 10% of the total amount as the transfer fee.
In my opinion:
- SKIP the pre-sale lottery system is a big gamble and not worth the money, especially for big groups. It’s meant to increase your chances at scoring a permit but the fact that you have to commit to a random date in a month you had as a backup plan doesn’t sound that great.
- You will have a higher chance at getting a permit through the transfer list closer to your desired dates than through the pre-sale lottery system.
If you don’t get a permit through the pre-sale lottery system, don’t sweat it! You still have two more chances at scoring a permit to paradise. You get another chance at the public Permit opening day, and by looking at the Transfer list throughout the year to get a cancelled reservation that gets posted from an original permit holder.
Permit Opening Day
Mark your calendars because the day to obtain a permit for Havasupai falls is February 1st at 8AM (MST).
Once you have an account ready to go on the Havasupai Reservations website, log into it around 7:40AM MST and keep an eye on clock. You might want to refresh the page a couple of times so you don’t get logged out.
Mayhem breaks loose once 8AM comes closer and the influx of people trying to access the website at the same time will cause some issues with the server and mess things up so you have to be quick once permit day goes live.
TIP: Log in to your account on a computer that is connected to wifi and also on your cellphone using your data only and not connected to your wifi to increase your chances of getting through.
The website should refresh automatically when you click on “Find Reservations” button but I recommend to manually refresh your page right before 8AM and it should reload with a “Make a campground reservation” or “Make a Lodge reservation” depending on what type of account you decided to open.
When you get through you will be asked to select the number of people in your party and hopefully you get to the calendar page before the website crashes.
Keep in mind that the bigger your group is, the harder it will be to get a reservation for the most desired months. If you can’t find the dates available, try lowering the party size.
Once you’re at the calendar page select your dates and hope they go through. If you can’t click on the desired date on the calendar it means that it’s not available.
If your date goes through you will have 2 minutes to verify your information and pay the fee per person in full. (Campground reservation is $455 per person for 4 days/3 nights, and Lodge reservations are $2,277 per lodge room for 4 days/3 nights- only 4 people per room allowed).
The first time I thought I was going to pay for my permit the summary page froze on me and I had to repeat the whole process again. Luckily the second time I tried everything went smooth and got my May dates. If for some reason you get technical issues, KEEP TRYING! refresh and repeat, this is where being flexible comes in handy. I was ready to start clicking on any random days to be able to get a ticket but somehow I made it the second time I tried to select my dates.
If you made it through and paid, Congrats!
You're going to Havasupai Falls!
You should be able to see two buttons when you go to the dashboard. One will say “Your Campground Reservation” and the other one says “Your Pack Mule Reservation.”
If you’re planning on reserving a pack mule, do it now. Click on “Your Pack Mule Reservation” and follow the steps. You wont actually secure a pack mule reservation but rather you will reserve a spot in the wait list.
For more information about the process on reserving a pack mule check out Everything you need to know about Havasupai Falls.
You didn't get a permit February 1st, now what?
If you’re one of the unlucky ones and didn’t snag a permit on February 1st, don’t worry! You will be able to get another chance to get one when you scout the Transfer List.
Permits to Havasupai Falls are non-refundable or transferable to another date BUT the trip leader can place the reserved dates on a transfer list to get their money back (minus a 10% transfer fee) once their reservation gets bought by other people through the transfer list. This is when you come in and get that reservation!
Reservations from the transfer list get taken pretty quickly so you have to be extremely flexible with your dates at this point.
The transfer list is updated once every day at 8AM (MST) so you have to look at the website every day and hope someone posts their reservation for the month(s) you want to go to.
TIP: If you manage to see a cancelled reservation with your desired dates but the number of people/spots that you need is one too many, you can buy that reservation and use the cancellation/ transfer system to transfer the extra spots BUT keep in mind that you will be losing 10% of what that cancelled reservation cost due to the 10% transfer fee they charge.
You got a Permit to Havasupai Falls, Now what?
CONGRATS! You managed to get a Havasupai Falls permit and that’s huge! Now it’s time to plan your trip, here are some helpful links that will help you make the planning process easier:
- Havasupai Falls Camping List
- Camping in Havasupai Falls
- Everything you need to know about Havasupai Falls
- Havasupai Falls itinerary options
I would love to hear your experience and how you were able to snag your Havasupai falls permit, let me know in the comments how it went for you or if you have any questions about securing a permit.
Hope this was helpful! Good luck!
