Grand Canyon National Park · Arizona
Midway point campground.
Get an alert when a spot opens in your Havasupai Gardens zone.
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Source: nps.gov
70% of the openings our scanner caught on Havasupai Gardens were gone within 10 minutes.
3,060 ft of descent · 12.9% average grade
Bright Angel Trailhead
Just west of Bright Angel Lodge in Grand Canyon Village. Village (Blue) Route shuttle, or Lot D by Maswik Lodge.
As of September 2026, Havasupai Gardens in Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona requires a permit issued via lottery. Havasupai Gardens is a high-demand permit, rating 8/10 on PermitSnag's demand index. Cancelled Havasupai Gardens permits are re-released on the booking system, and PermitSnag alerts you the moment one opens. The Havasupai Gardens lottery opens The 16th of the month, five months before your start month and closes 5 pm MST on the 1st of the following month, with results announced Up to 750 applicants are awarded a booking timeslot; everyone else gets access on the 1st of the next month. The permit season for Havasupai Gardens runs year-round. The Havasupai Gardens route covers 4.5 miles with 3,060 feet of elevation gain, rated strenuous.
Permits get cancelled daily. Peak cancellation times are 24-48 hours before the trip date.
Get notified when cancellations happen. Pro and $19 single-permit alerts are checked about every minute, 24/7; free accounts are checked hourly.
Sign up at National Park Service if you don't have an account. Verify your email and add payment info ahead of time.
Submit your application between The 16th of the month, five months before your start month and 5 pm MST on the 1st of the following month. Apply for multiple dates to increase your odds.
Results are announced Up to 750 applicants are awarded a booking timeslot; everyone else gets access on the 1st of the next month. Check your email and your National Park Service account.
More on Havasupai Gardens: Live availability activityWhen Havasupai Gardens permits open upHavasupai Gardens Campground lottery datesDo I need a Havasupai Gardens Campground permit?Estimate your lottery oddsBoost your odds with a pool
Havasupai Gardens permit fee: $10 per permit or lottery application, plus $15 per person per night below the rim. Park entrance fees are paid separately on arrival.
Half the descent to the river, a ranger station, cottonwood shade and a tap: Havasupai Gardens is the night that turns a brutal day hike into a trip you can actually enjoy.
Havasupai Gardens is the campground partway down the Bright Angel Trail, the one that makes a Grand Canyon backpack humane instead of heroic. The park's trail-distance table puts it 4.5 miles below the South Rim at 3,800 feet; its campsite-information page and the Recreation.gov permit both say 4.8. The climb back to the 6,860-foot trailhead is 3,060 feet either way. The park publishes 15 small group sites and 1 large group site, with a ranger station, emergency phone, toilets and piped water, and every site has a picnic table, a pack pole and a metal food storage can.
The name changed in November 2022. The US Board of Geographic Names voted unanimously on the NPS's request, made on behalf of the Havasupai Tribe, to rename Indian Garden to Havasupai Gardens. The campground code on your permit is still CIG.
Getting a night here means a Grand Canyon backcountry permit through Recreation.gov, and a cancellation alert catches the space that opens there after each monthly draw. Applications open on the 16th and close at 5 pm MST on the 1st, four months before your start month; up to 750 applicants get a timeslot to build an itinerary, and everyone else gets access on the 1st of the following month. Two nights maximum per campground per hike, or four between November 15 and February 28. A handful of last-minute in-person permits exist for this campground between March 1 and November 30: one night only, and no earlier than the day before you start.
Water here comes off the Transcanyon Waterline, and the park publishes a live per-location status on its Key Hiking Messages page precisely because, in its own words, these statuses are current but can change suddenly due to breaks in the waterline. On August 9, 2026 that page read water ON at Havasupai Gardens and both Bright Angel Trail resthouses, and water OFF due to pipeline break at Bright Angel Campground, Cottonwood and Manzanita. Read it the morning you leave, and carry treatment regardless. The park's own instruction is that day and overnight hikers should always carry water treatment options.
It is 4.5 miles from the Bright Angel Trailhead at 6,860 feet down to 3,800 feet, per the park's trail-distance table, though the campground page and Recreation.gov both put it at 4.8. Either way the climb out is 3,060 feet. The trail follows the Bright Angel Fault into a side canyon, which is why it has the only shade and the only taps of the three corridor trails. Mile-and-a-Half Resthouse comes first, then Three-Mile, then the long series of switchbacks called Jacob's Ladder, and then the ground flattens and the cottonwoods start.
From camp, Plateau Point is the classic evening walk: 1.5 miles out across the Tonto Platform to a railing above the inner gorge, with the Colorado River 1,300 feet below you. The Tonto Trail runs east from here to the Tip Off and the South Kaibab. The park listed both the Plateau Point Trail and the Tonto from the Tip Off as open on 2026-08-09.
The place was Ha'a Gyoh long before it was a campground. The Havasupai farmed the springs here, and the Park Service pushed them out. The last Havasupai resident, Captain Burro, was forcibly removed in 1928. In November 2022 the US Board of Geographic Names voted 19-0 on a request the NPS submitted on behalf of the Havasupai Tribe, and Indian Garden formally became Havasupai Gardens. You will still see the old name on trail signs, in old guidebooks, and in the campground code CIG on your permit.
You drop out of the switchbacks and the noise changes. There are big cottonwoods, running water in Garden Creek, picnic tables and a roof over the ranger station: the first shade of any consequence since the rim. Sit down and the walls go up 3,000 feet on three sides, and the rim you started from is a thin line you have to tilt your head back to see.
Best for: Fit hikers who want a night below the rim without committing to the river. If you can manage a 3,060-foot climb with a pack over 4.5 miles, this works.
Recommended experience: One prior overnight with a loaded pack and one long, sustained climb. No scrambling, no route-finding, no technical skill required.
Not recommended for: Anyone attempting it as a summer day hike, and anyone without heat experience. The park's rescue statistics are built out of people who went down further than they could climb back up.
Trailhead information
The only trail access. Recreation.gov says the campground, formerly known as Indian Garden, is accessed from Grand Canyon Village via the Bright Angel Trail, 4.8 miles and 3,060 feet below the rim.
Grand Canyon Village. NPS says the South Rim Backcountry Information Center is open daily year-round, 8 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. Mountain Standard Time.
March-May and September-November. The rim is cool, the campground is comfortable, and the climb out is survivable in daylight. Summer works only if you are on the trail before dawn and off it by 10 am. Winter is quiet and gets you the four-night Corridor limit from November 15 to February 28, but expect ice on the top two miles and carry traction.
Rim temperatures are mild and the inner canyon is warm rather than dangerous. The top two miles can still hold ice in early March.
Crowd level · high
The park advises against hiking between 10 am and 4 pm. Monsoon thunderstorms build most afternoons from July.
Crowd level · high
The best combination of the year: cool rim, warm canyon, stable weather, and the monsoon finished.
Crowd level · high
Quiet and cold on the rim, mild at the campground. The top two miles of the Bright Angel are icy from roughly December through February.
Crowd level · low
Trailhead (5,000 ft)
Backcountry Tips
Today
59°
48°
60%
Wed
65°
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Thu
74°
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Fri
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Sat
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Plateau Point at sunset, with the inner gorge going dark below you while the buttes across the canyon are still lit.
The campground itself gets soft light late. The walls block direct sun early, which gives you a long, gentle window under the cottonwoods.
Day hikers turn around at Three-Mile Resthouse or Plateau Point and are gone by late afternoon. From about 4 pm the whole Tonto Platform belongs to whoever is camped here.
Emergency contacts, ranger station locations, and satellite communicator tips for Havasupai Gardens.
Bear canister requirements, approved container lists, and rental locations for this permit.
Gear Checklist: Required and recommended gear for Havasupai Gardens · Shuttle Services: Trailhead transportation options · Guide Services: Experienced wilderness guides
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Yes. Every overnight stay below the Grand Canyon rim needs a backcountry permit, issued through Recreation.gov. The permit costs $10, plus $15 per person per night, and park entrance fees are separate.
Yes. The US Board of Geographic Names voted unanimously in November 2022 to rename Indian Garden to Havasupai Gardens, on a request the National Park Service submitted for the Havasupai Tribe. The campground code on your permit is still CIG, and older signs and maps still carry the old name.
The park publishes two figures. Its trail-distance table and the Bright Angel Trail handout say 4.5 miles; its campsite information page and the Recreation.gov permit say 4.8. Both agree on the vertical: 6,860 feet at the trailhead down to 3,800 feet at the campground, so 3,060 feet of climbing on the way out.
There is a tap, and it runs off the Transcanyon Waterline. The park publishes a live per-location status on its Key Hiking Messages page because, in its words, these statuses are current but can change suddenly due to breaks in the waterline. On August 9, 2026 it read water ON here. Check it the morning you descend, and carry a filter or chemical treatment either way. The park tells every hiker to.
Applications open on the 16th of each month and close at 5 pm MST on the 1st, four months before your intended start month. The draw runs late on the 2nd and gives up to 750 applicants a timeslot to build an itinerary. Everyone else can book whatever is left starting on the 1st of the following month.
Two, consecutive or not, per campground per hike. Between November 15 and February 28 the Corridor limit rises to four nights per campground per trip.
Yes. It is about 1.5 miles each way from camp across the Tonto Platform to a viewpoint 1,300 feet above the Colorado River. The park listed the Plateau Point Trail as open on August 9, 2026. There is no water and no shade out there, so carry what you need and skip it in the middle of a summer day.
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The campground at the bottom, on Bright Angel Creek beside Phantom Ranch, 9.5 miles down the Bright Angel Trail.
It is the destination everyone actually wants, and by the park's own description the most requested below-rim campground in Grand Canyon, so it is much harder to draw. Its tap depends on the same Transcanyon Waterline and read water OFF due to pipeline break on August 9, 2026.
The park-wide overnight permit, covering the corridor campgrounds and the threshold and primitive use areas beyond them.
More freedom to build a multi-night itinerary, and the same lottery. Off-corridor use areas have no maintained trail, no toilets and no water at all.
The corridor campground on the North Kaibab side, 6.8 miles below the North Rim.
Quieter and far less contested, but the North Rim road is closed December 1 to May 14, and rim-to-rim hiking stops from 11:59 pm on October 15, 2026 until roughly February 2027 for waterline work.
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