If you’re a hiker, photographer, or a person with good taste, Havasu Falls, AZ is probably on your bucket list.
The only problem? It’s on everyone else’s bucket list, too.
Each year on February 1, tens of thousands of wannabe-backpackers flood the Havasupai Reservation website, trying to snag a permit. Most will be unsuccessful.
Webpages crash, kick you out, or refuse to load; dates sell out before most people even see them; and sometimes payment fails at the very last second.
But I still managed to snag Havasu Falls permits THREE YEARS IN A ROW. And now, I’m letting you steal my secrets!
If you follow these 8 tips and are willing to be flexible with your dates, I guarantee you’ll see Havasu Falls in 2020.
1. Create an online account before February 1
Visit havasupaireservations.com BEFORE February 1 to create an account. Permits go on sale February 1, 2020 at 8am MST, but if you don’t have an account by January 31 you may miss your chance.
2. Add your payment info and a Potential Alternative Trip Leader beforehand
On opening day, every second counts. You can speed up the reservation process by adding your payment information and Potential Alternative Trip Leader ahead of time.
A Potential Alternative Trip Leader (PATL), new for 2020, is someone who you can transfer your permit to if, for some reason, you are unable to use your reservation personally. You can list an unlimited number of PATLs on your account, so it’s best to include at least two.
3. Divide and conquer
Assuming you plan to hike to Havasu Falls with friends, make a strategic plan for securing permits. Everyone in your group should attempt to make a reservation, since it’s likely that only one of you —or none of you— will be successful. (Just make sure you confirm with the group immediately before you press Submit to avoid any double bookings.)
To increase your chances of getting a summer weekend, for example, you could have three people in your group each target a different weekend in August, with one person trying for a less popular date (like March or April) as a backup.
4. Be online 5 minutes early and start refreshing
Though the permits officially open at 8:00am MST, there may be slight variances in computer clocks. In 2017, the permit page opened a full 30 seconds early by my clock, and people who some people who thought they were logging in on time missed their chance.
NOTE: To speed up page loading time, your browser may “cache” the reservation page and not show you calendar when it opens, even when you hit refresh. To avoid this, change your browser settings or open each new tab in Incognito mode.
5. If your page isn’t loading, try other browsers
In previous years, Safari and Firefox have had trouble accessing the reservation system during peak demand while Chrome was still working. In other years, it was the other way around. The reservation website gets better every year, but it’s a good idea to have multiple browsers installed just in case.
6. Have ALL your possible dates in front of you
By the time you reach the calendar page, your ideal dates may already be taken. And even if you’re able to add the perfect date to your cart, the page may freeze before your payment goes through, forcing you to start all over again.
To maximize your chances of getting a permit, look at your schedule for all the available dates —March 1, 2020 through February 29, 2021— and make a note of which dates you would be willing to get permits for if they were the only permits available.
Summer weekends and holidays, like Memorial Day and July 4th, will be the most competitive. Weekdays in February 2021 will be the least competitive.
That said, there is no bad time to visit Havasu Falls. As the Havasupai website says, “With demand so high, the best time to visit is, frankly, whenever you are able to make a reservation.”
Personally, I prefer winter to summer: you’ll enjoy more active wildlife, a cooler, more pleasant hike, and, if you’re lucky, a fairytale snow at the rim. See my posts Why Winter is the Best Time to Visit Havasu Falls and What to Pack for Havasu Falls in Winter!
Don’t book a date unless you’re pretty sure you can make it work, because if you can’t go you’ll lose 10% of what you pay when you transfer it to someone else. No re-selling is allowed other than through the official transfer system. (And if you can’t find someone else who wants your tickets, you’ll lose 100% of the money.)
Keep in mind that depending on where you’re coming from, you’ll need to take off work at least a day before and a day after your trip to get from your home to Hualapai Hilltop and back again. Because permits are now a minimum of 3 nights, that means your trip will be at least 5 days long unless you live very close to the trailhead.
7. Block off your morning and don’t. stop. trying.
As more wannabe-backpackers get frustrated with the reservation system, see that their dates are sold out, or have to get back to work, the website will move faster and more dates will become available. Keep refreshing! Your ideal date, which was in someone’s cart a few minutes ago, may be available now if their session crashed before they could complete payment.
8. If you don’t get a permit, there’s still the transfer page.
Even if you do everything right, you still might not get permits on February 1. Yes, it’s really that popular!
Thankfully, there’s the Official Cancellation/Transfer Page. This is the only way to get re-sold tickets for Havasu Falls. You’ll pay the same price as an original reservation, and the person transferring them to you will lose 10% of what they paid.
To see available dates, log in and visit the Official Cancellation/Transfer Page. As of this writing in January 2020, there were several dozen permits still available via the transfer page, which refreshes daily. There are almost always a few dates available, though summer and weekend dates disappear fast.
If you don’t get the permits you want on February 1, keep checking this page every day —even multiple times a day— to see what’s open. People need to cancel their trips for all kinds of reasons, sometimes at the last minute, and you just might get lucky.
If you’re persistent, patient, and flexible with your dates, I guarantee you’ll be able to see Havasu Falls in 2020.
GOOD LUCK!!!
Questions about Havasu Falls permits for 2020, or about the trip in general? Let me know in the comments!
If you liked this, you might enjoy my other posts on Havasu Falls:
Why Winter is the Best Time to Visit Havasu Falls
What to Pack for Havasu Falls in the Winter
The Best Hiking Gloves for Havasu Falls and Half Dome
And if you’re looking for more bucket list adventures, don’t miss my post on Yosemite Firefall. (No permits required!)
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