September 22, 2026
Enchantments Snow Zone opens almost all of October, plus St. Helens and Subway
What dropped this week
The biggest move this week came from the Enchantments Snow Zone, which picked up availability changes across nearly all of October — October 1 through 31, skipping only the 14th. If a fall Enchantments trip is on the list, dates are open right now. St. Helens had three separate availability changes this week: September 25, October 11, and October 24. The Subway opened up for September 27, and Happy Isles to Little Yosemite Valley has a slot on September 28. In the Needles, both Druid Arch and Elephant Canyon opened for October 15. Dead Horse Point's Wingate Hike-In and Wingate Yurts both picked up September 28, October 1, and October 2. And south of Bend, Devils Lake/Wickiup (South Sister) opened for September 25 and 26.
Open right now
Right now there's open availability on the Whitney Mountaineer's Route and Mt. Whitney Day permits at Sequoia & Kings Canyon, plus Mt. Whitney Overnight. Dead Horse Point's Wingate Yurts and Wingate Hike-In are open too. Rounding it out: Conundrum Hot Springs in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness, the Lost Coast Trail in the King Range, and Grand Gulch on Cedar Mesa all have current openings worth grabbing.
Lotteries opening/closing soon
The Wave's lottery window closes September 30, then the next one opens October 1. Angels Landing's lottery also opens October 1. If either is on your radar, get applications ready now since both land right at the start of next month.
This week's data insight
Looking at this month's availability changes by day of week, Monday runs hottest with 384 detected changes, followed by Tuesday at 368 and Thursday at 364. Sunday is the quietest by a clear margin at 257. If you're checking manually instead of running alerts, weekday mornings are where most of the action shows up, while weekends tend to be slower.