I write the guides
Same person who runs the scanner, with contributions from friends who guide for a living. This page is where the guides come from and how I keep them current.
How this started
I missed the Enchantments lottery two years running. The first version of PermitSnag was a script that checked one permit page every few minutes and texted me when something opened.
Friends asked if they could use it, then their friends. It grew into a scanner that watches every permit on this site. The guides grew alongside it, because an alert is only useful if you already know how the permit works: when the window opens, what a group size means on that trailhead, which zone the number on the screen belongs to.
I still have a day job. No investors, no co-founder, no company. What the scanner costs goes on my personal card before anyone pays me.
Where the information comes from
Agency pages first
Every date, quota and fee in a guide traces back to the agency that issues the permit, or to the booking system that sells it. When an agency publishes a change, the guide changes.
The booking systems themselves
Recreation.gov, ReserveCalifornia, Utah State Parks and the BLM lotteries each release permits in their own way. I read those systems every day to keep the scanner working, and what I learn there goes into the guides.
Published odds only
If an agency publishes a lottery success rate, the guide quotes it and links the page it came from. If no agency publishes one, no number appears. I do not estimate odds.
I apply for these too
PermitSnag exists because I missed the Enchantments lottery two years running. I go through the same applications and the same booking pages you do, which is how I find the parts worth writing down.
What I hold myself to
Honest about the alert
Pro watches are checked about every minute and free watches hourly. Every guide here promises exactly what the scanner delivers, and states the cadence it runs on.
Never your credentials
I never store your booking-site password and I never book on your behalf. An alert takes you to the official page for that permit, and you finish it there.
Corrections come to me
There is one inbox and I read it. If a guide has a date wrong or an agency moved its window, send it over and I will fix the page.
Guides I've written
Some of the hardest permits in the country have a guide of their own. Each one is built from the issuing agency's pages and from what my friends and I have learned getting these permits ourselves, and rewritten when the agency changes something.
Who else contributes
I collect guides and reports from others. Friends contribute, and several of them work as outdoor guides. Between us we have obtained hundreds of wilderness permits across the country, and that experience goes into these pages.
Trip reports come from experienced permit holders and anyone else who went. A short note about water, snow on the pass, or how the permit check went at the trailhead helps the next person more than anything written from a desk.
Reports are posted under your profile. Anything I write or compile myself is published under the PermitSnag Team account, so you can always tell which is which.
Write a trip reportAsk me something
A wrong date in a guide, a permit you want covered, or a question about how a lottery works. It reaches me directly.
Email support@permitsnag.comReady to watch a permit?
One free watch, no card. The scanner takes it from there.