What is the Road Lottery?
Each September the park hosts a four-day event called “Road Lottery.” During these four days, winners of a lottery drawing are given a chance to purchase a single, day-long permit, allowing them to drive as much of the Denali Park Road as weather allows. In years with early snow, the Park Road might open no farther than Savage River (mile 15); in milder years, lottery winners are able to enjoy a trip out to Wonder Lake (mile 85).
An extra (fifth) day of lottery, called Military Appreciation Day, is open only to active duty military service-members and their families. The military is in charge of distributing road travel permits for Military Appreciation Day.
How Does the Lottery Work?
The public must apply in May each year for that year’s lottery. The entry fee is $10 per person and is non-refundable. Winners of the lottery must then pay a $25 permit fee to drive the park road.
The drawing of winners occurs in June. As winners are drawn, they are assigned one of the four possible dates for driving the park road — those dates vary each year, but they are always the second weekend after Labor Day. Applicants can arrange the possible dates in the order of their preference and, if drawn, the applicant is awarded their most-preferred date which still has space in its allocation of 400 winners.
Chances of winning vary — 1600 winners are drawn each year, but the number of entrants fluctuates. In general, odds of being drawn are around 1-in-6.
http://www.nps.gov/dena/planyourvisit/road-lottery.htm
“During these four days, winners of a lottery drawing are given a chance to purchase a single, day-long permit, allowing them to drive as much of the Denali Park Road as weather allows.”
Does that mean that nobody can come in for the other 361 days?