The Wave

Most serious hikers, especially in the southwest, have The Wave on their bucket list. But the daunting lottery process makes it a near impossibility to get there. This very popular destination is controlled so as not to be overrun with only 20 permits per day. A quick search showed that over 50,000 people entered the lottery in 2014 and the success rate was around 10%. I'm sure it's worse today as pretty much everything is getting more popular. Sometimes I think the Powerball lottery would be easier to win... So of course when our friends Gina and Shawn invited us to go along on their successful lottery draw of 4 permits - we were in!

The Wave is a Navajo Sandstone formation on the Arizona and Utah border near Kanab, UT, featuring undulating U-shaped formations of erosion in beautiful geometric patterns. The Wave itself is beautiful and amazing, but the entire journey presented fascinating geology and interest for those like us who are willing to look. The hike is only about 8 miles round-trip, including some additional exploring. We used most of the available light in the day to thoroughly enjoy our once in a lifetime experience. 

A passing storm front the day before left some residual moisture in the morning threatening a few sprinkles as we packed up and left the trailhead. But the rain clouds quickly dissipated leaving us with puffy clouds and some gusty winds. 

Our route (there is no marked or formal trail) took us along the edge of of a sandstone ridge in Coyote Buttes North. Hiking south, we had remarkable formations close in to the west, and wide sweeping vistas to the east.

We took our time meandering, exploring, and taking lots of photos. There in no use in hurrying as The Wave itself is best photographed at mid-day when the sun is overhead. We arrived in time for a leisurely lunch before exploring the main event. It was pretty cool.

We struck out to the west on the high bench to explore further. The Second, or Middle Wave, was fun to see and explore. 

For a sense of scale, Shawn is in this photo

After an hour or so of poking around we returned to The Wave for one last look and some fooling around. 

A very happy Gina.

Susan grabbed this image of me getting low for photos

Here's a couple of happy hikers

Me surfing The Wave. Photo courtesy of Shawn Peters

Next up was a short side trip toward Sand Cove for a couple of waypoints we had for The Boneyard and dinosaur tracks.

We returned to the car pretty much the same track we went out, ending a magnificent day in a special location. A great big thanks goes out to Gina and Shawn for taking us along and the great company for our week in southern Utah!