Permits, passes and what actually opens the gate.

No, and this is the single most expensive misunderstanding visitors bring here. Within forty minutes of town there are two National Park Service units, a Utah state park, a county and Bureau of Land Management recreation area, and BLM and Park Service river permit systems. An America the Beautiful pass covers the two national parks and does not open Dead Horse Point State Park or the Sand Flats Recreation Area. The 55 dollar Southeast Utah annual pass covers four federal units and nothing else.

Thirty dollars for a private non-commercial vehicle, valid seven days at either park. A motorcycle is 25 dollars and anyone on foot or by bicycle pays 15 dollars, with under sixteens free. The Southeast Utah annual pass at 55 dollars covers both parks plus Natural Bridges and Hovenweep national monuments for a year, which is cheaper than two single vehicle entries. America the Beautiful is 80 dollars for residents and 250 dollars for non-residents as of 2026. All figures are National Park Service figures current in August 2026.

Canyonlands backcountry permits, including the White Rim Road, release four months before each season at 8am Mountain on Recreation.gov: spring opens 10 November, summer opens 10 February, fall opens 10 May and winter opens 10 August. Westwater Canyon private river permits release two months before the launch date at 8am Mountain, first come, with no lottery. Fiery Furnace permits at Arches have no fixed public release ritual but behave in spring and autumn as though they do, so book months ahead.

Always, and there is no free way onto that road. A single day out on it, whether by vehicle, motorbike or bicycle, runs on a day-use permit capped at 50 issued daily. Anything involving a night below the rim runs on an overnight permit instead, priced at 36 dollars for the reservation with 5 dollars a head a night on top of that. The overnight allocation is 20 numbered sites grouped into 10 camping areas, with a ceiling of 15 people and 3 vehicles per site in the Island in the Sky district. Everything is booked on Recreation.gov, and the two shoulder seasons take more applications than the park has permits to give.

No. Dead Horse Point is a Utah state park with an entirely separate fee schedule. Day use is 20 dollars for a private vehicle carrying up to eight people and is valid only for the date of purchase rather than for a seven day window. A Utah resident aged 65 or over pays 15 dollars, a motorcycle is 10 dollars, and walk-in or bike-in visitors pay 10 dollars per four people. Resident annual permits run 125 dollars, or 65 dollars at 65 and over.

Almost never. Sand Flats Recreation Area is managed by Grand County in partnership with the Bureau of Land Management and funds its entire operation from its own gate income, taking no county tax money. Most federal passes are not honoured there, with the Federal Recreational Lands Access Pass the exception. The fees are 10 dollars for a private vehicle for seven days, 5 dollars for a bicycle or motorcycle, 35 dollars for an annual pass, and 20 dollars a night per vehicle to camp.

Sixteen dollars per person for the ranger-led hike and 10 dollars per person for a self-guided permit, both booked through Recreation.gov and both separate from and additional to park entry. Children under five are not permitted on either. The Fiery Furnace is a maze of sandstone fins inside Arches with no marked trail through it, so a self-guided permit means route finding rather than following. The ranger-led places disappear first, and neither is reliably available as a walk-up in spring or autumn.

They are required year round and released through Recreation.gov two months ahead of the launch date at 8am Mountain, taken first come with no lottery. Between 1 April and 30 September private use is limited to five permits or 75 people per day, whichever comes first, and from 1 October through 31 March that rises to seven permits or 150 people. Permit fees are non-refundable. Westwater is 17 miles of Class IV water, the first genuine whitewater stretch of the Colorado in Utah.

Often enough that any published figure needs a date on it. Arches has both added and removed a timed-entry requirement across recent years, most recently lifting it for 2026 in an announcement on 18 February 2026. Federal pass pricing changed in 2026 with the introduction of a separate non-resident rate. Utah State Parks and Grand County set their schedules on their own cycles. Every figure on this page is current as of August 2026 and taken from the managing agency, and the agency's own page remains the thing to check before travelling.