We should soon learn whether the staff at Grand Canyon National Park has figured out a better way to issue non-commercial float permits for the Colorado River, as they just recently launched a website through which you can apply for one of those permits.
    The hope behind the site is to give folks some realistic expectation that they can actually float through the canyon without having to sign on with a commercial operator. Before the park revised its lottery system, some folks near the bottom of the permit system's waitlist had an estimated 25 years to wait before their number came up.
    You can't submit an application via the new system until October 1, but you can still go to the site, set up a user profile, and register to be notified via email regarding news and upcoming releases of launch dates. For 2007, the park plans to issue 197 non-commercial launch permits.
     If things go as planned, folks who have never been down the river, or who haven't been down it in a long, long time, will have a better shot at landing a permit than someone who floated last year.
    And if you've been on the previous waitlist for a long, long time, you'll enhance your odds of landing a permit through the lottery as you'll essentially receive one "extra chance" to win a permit for each year you've been on the waitlist.