How does The Subway lottery work, and how many permits are issued per day?

The Subway runs on a lottery with a daily quota of 80 people, and every person entering the Left Fork drainage needs to be covered by a permit. The fee is small, $5, and groups can be up to 12 people, though smaller parties move much faster through the technical obstacles.

Eighty per day sounds generous next to famous quotas like The Wave's 64, but demand concentrates hard. Spring through fall weekends draw the heaviest application volume, since the route needs both warm-enough water for the pool sections and snow-free approach terrain. The practical windows most people target are late spring through early fall, and within those, Saturdays are the toughest draw.

Strategy follows directly from that shape. Weekday dates measurably improve your chances. Shoulder-season dates improve them further, with the trade-off of colder water; a wetsuit turns a chilly June pool into a manageable one and turns shoulder-season water from dangerous to merely unpleasant. If your dates are rigid, apply for every eligible day in your window rather than pinning hopes on one.

Remember the quota covers both route styles; the bottom-up hike from Left Fork Trailhead, which needs no ropes, draws from the same permit pool, so competition includes non-canyoneers.

If the lottery fails, watch for cancellations against your dates; released permits do come back into availability, and an automated alert catches those windows far more reliably than manual refreshing. And keep The Narrows in your back pocket; its bottom-up section requires no permit at all.