The Wave: What They Don't Tell You

we're going to take you on a tour to a world famous sandstone formation called the wave from our own personal experience we'll share with you what we saw in a lot of things we wish we had known about before we went we'll give you some background on how the wave became such a popular attraction and why only a few people are allowed to visit we'll show you what we were given to find the wave and also discuss what we weren't given the lack of important detailed information about what this hike is really like was a big surprise to us and is one of the reasons we made this video we think you should know before you go located on the remote arizona utah border the wave is a challenge to get to in more ways than one first you'll need to acquire a permit to go there second the hike is a bit of a navigational challenge third it's not an easy hike and lastly there are so many things to see in this area besides the wave itself that you'll have a hard time choosing what to go see using our unique style of visually presenting what you'll see we hope to give you a better understanding of what to expect when you visit this magnificent creation of mother nature or maybe you'll find that after watching our tour you'll feel like you've already been there and not need to go through all the challenges yourself with the help of google earth's 3d renderings of the landscape we'll show you some of the features you might want to visit and point them out along the way that way you can plan your hike to focus on what looks the most interesting to you we'll also take you on a virtual hike point out what you'll see along the way and what to see once you get to the wave now let me give you some background about the wave using the map we saw earlier here is the area we're going to visit the wave is located in what's known as coyote buttes north along with a wave there's a whole bunch of other places to see in this region there's also coyote buttes south that has many unique and beautiful rock formations too both of these areas are in what's called the perea canyon wilderness this wilderness area is sandwiched between vermilion cliffs national monument and as of 2021 the uncertain boundary of grand staircase escalante national monument the wilderness area is not in either monument it does straddle the arizona and utah border we first learned about the wave around 1999 when we were looking for slot canyons to photograph and we heard about buckskin gulch when we visited the blm visitor center in st george utah to learn more about buckskin gulch the very helpful staff there told us we ought to go to the wave instead we said the what the wave they repeated they showed us pictures and told us that there were plans in the works to significantly limit visitation to it well since we were more interested in slot canyons than swirling sandstone at that time we went to buckskin gulch little did we know that the wave would turn into such a sought after destination spot it took us 22 years until we finally got lucky enough to see it visitation exploded after 2009 when microsoft included a picture of the wave on their windows 7 release plus pictures of the wave were circulating all over social media and europe people just had to come out and see this place now as you may know only 20 people per day are allowed into this area as of february 2021 however that number has increased to around 64 depending on your group size after seeing the delicate sandstone formations in this area first hand we wonder if that's too many people per day to be stomping all over this special place it took mother nature millions of years to create this and once someone steps on and destroys one of the small rock features it's gone forever there are two ways to get permits one is to show up in person and walk into the blm visitor center in kanab before 9 a.m and participate in a lottery the other is to use the online lottery system at recreation.gov the walk-in lottery is for up to 16 people or four groups whichever comes first and the permit is typically for the following day for instance if you win the lottery on tuesday your permit will be for wednesday the online lottery is for up to 48 people or 12 groups whichever comes first and is for four months in advance whatever month that ends up being you can select three days to be included in the lottery there is a fee of nine dollars for doing this which doesn't get refunded if you don't win the lottery for instance if you apply in the month of may you can choose up to three days to be picked by lottery in september to apply for the online lottery use recreation.gov this is the same website you would use to order bus tickets to ride into zion canyon reserve campsites and so many other things let me now give you a brief tour of the website start by going to recreation.gov if you don't have an account click the sign up option i have an account so i'm going to select log in and log in like this in the search box i'm going to spell the word coyote there that's what we're looking for coyote buttes north the wave here is where you'd apply for getting a permit to coyote buttes south another amazing area to visit next you'll see this webpage make sure to read this entire area of the page and understand it also read through these various tabs over here is where you register for the lottery since i'm doing this in may you'll see that the permits will be for a trip in september i'll click on the register for open lottery button a new web page appears with my account information now i'm going to scroll down here is where i pick which dates i'd like to try for i can choose up to three dates change this field here to three by clicking the plus button three times next click the enter choices button you'll see these three choice boxes appear on each of the three choices click the calendar and then pick the date you want to go on i'm going to try for just fridays so i'm simply going to select the first three fridays of the month there's going to be four people in my group so in this section i'm going to type in four for these three fields or click the plus button four times on each over here notice my choices there's going to be a nine dollar fee don't forget to select this check box here i'll click the proceed to cart button a final summary page appears i'll look everything over then click on the proceed to payment button and complete my purchase at some point you'll receive a confirmation email back from recreation.gov i'll be entered into the lottery and be informed when it's complete whether or not i got chosen if you do all this in hopes of getting a permit good luck we've been told that from 50 to 200 people apply for permits via the online lottery every day back in january our friend was lucky enough to get a permit for four people to enter coyote buttes north the blm who manages all the land around here gave him this collection of paperwork for the day of our trip this is the checklist they gave us these are all great pointers definitely bring lots of water some food wear sunscreen a hat and use hiking boots that are comfortable and already broken in you don't want to risk getting blisters on this hike by using brand new boots you also need to bring some form of navigation be sure to go over it and understand it the day before you go so that it's fresh in your mind in a moment i'll show you how simple it is to use google maps or gaia gps on your phone to navigate but be sure to not put your phone into airplane mode because that will disable the gps another item they gave us were these directions on how to find the wave the pictures are fairly accurate but notice that the captions are a bit difficult to read we'll definitely fix that with this video after going on this hike ourselves these pictures and their map really does not provide a good perspective of the entire hiking route and here's the permit tag you must attach to your group leader's body that means the lead person in your group must have this tag visible we attached it to our buddy's backpack since it was the best way to make it visible they also give you two parking tags which is nice if your group has more than one vehicle if you saw our video on buckskin gulch you know that you must purchase a tag at the same trail head wire pass and place that tag on the dashboard of your vehicle so that it's visible do the same with these tags since you already have this tag you don't have to purchase one at the trail head so with all that you may think what else do i need to know well we think there's a lot more you should know which i'm going to talk about right now after our experience hiking to the wave here are some tips we'd like to share with you the first one is know your own hiking abilities as you'll see on our tour although it's only a three mile one-way hike to the wave there are challenges along the way and when you get there the challenge when you get there is that there's a lot of fascinating stuff to see that is not just the wave itself and it's easy to get distracted my experience was that after i passed through the wave i wanted to explore the surrounding area and i experienced what i like to call the alice in wonderland effect it seemed that whenever i took a turn off my intended route i found something interesting and i got distracted soon i found myself going down the rabbit hole wanting to know what was around the corner or down this direction and what other spectacular rock formations were waiting for me to see there one turn led to another and another and another and what i thought would be a 30-minute excursion away from my group who were still back at the wave photographing suddenly turned into an hour or more there was just so much fascinating stuff to see and each turn was down another rabbit hole hopefully you've all read about or have seen alice in wonderland and know what i'm talking about regarding rabbit holes so to sum up our first tip go to the wave with a plan and schedule a time limit and stick to it it's so easy to get distracted and drawn into the scenery that before you know it the sun is setting low in the sky and you still need to navigate that three mile hike back to your vehicle without a clear trail to follow unless you've brought headlamps and plan to walk back in the pitch dark you need to walk back in the daylight our second tip as you hike don't forget to take the time to look down at your feet all around you and even behind you there are so many unique and wonderful things to discover everywhere in north coyote buttes you don't want to miss any of it the one thing that really impressed us were all the shapes patterns and colors they are amazing and seem to be endless it will make you think wow mother nature really went out of her way to make this spectacular place our third tip be mindful of the time of year you're going to visit the wave the most ideal time is either spring or fall but that also means higher competition for permits from other people since those are popular times of the year you may notice that there's snow in some of our pictures that's because we visited the wave in january anytime you plan on visiting the wave between about november 1 through may 1 you run the risk of snow being on the ground which will cover many of the beautiful features you've come out to see so keep that in mind then there's summer not an ideal time to visit the wave temperatures can reach over 100 anytime after june 1 and continue until october 1. there is absolutely no shade to escape the sun's rays in north coyote buttes and our fourth tip learn how to use a navigation app on your phone and use it as your primary pathfinder to get yourself to the wave you could do it the old-fashioned way use a map follow the picture guide the blm gives you or just use dead reckoning but why there's a better way most phones use google maps when you locate wire pass on the map you'll see that the wave trail is marked it will lead you all the way to the main event the wave plus google maps has many other features plotted near the wave that you'll want to see this includes the second wave sand cove the boneyard and the mini wave when we were there i found that the plots on google maps are indeed accurate however the trail isn't you'll see it's in a simple straight line not so accurate in order to use google maps you'll need to learn how to use offline maps this is the process of selecting an area on the map then downloading it to your phone so that it can be used when you are in an area that has no signal here's how you download a map first use google maps to scroll and zoom to the area you need i'll look up wire pass there it is then i'll scroll out a bit so that i can see both highway 89s second get to the offline maps feature in google maps by tapping in the upper right corner to get the menu then select offline maps this screen will open tap on the option called select your own map you'll see the map you are just looking at i'll scroll it out just a little bit to make sure i cover everything lastly i tap the download button it takes a few moments to download then just to be tidy i'll name the map the wave although google maps is simplistic and free you may wish to see more features covered on the map and for the map data to be more accurate like showing the hiking trail in its real location google maps covers just a few features for an all-around better navigation experience i recommend that you up your game by purchasing an app called gaia gps here's the same trail to the wave we saw earlier using google maps and here's the same trail using gaia gps when i hiked the trail i looked at both google maps and gaia gps and gaia gps was right on the money whereas google maps was not close but no cigar getting the map of a particular area onto your phone is the same process with gaia gps you select the option to save a map then choose the area you want to download gaia gps has the ability to include many different map layers including usgs topos aerial imagery those quality national geographic maps national park service maps and many more the added bonus with gaia gps is that it offers a lot of features too many to cover in this video but briefly you can plan your trip on your desktop computer add things to the map then it will show up on your phone you can track where you walked and at the end of the day it calculates how far you walked speed time and shows exactly where you went on the map learn more about gaia gps by going to our blog post covering this tour to the wave all right enough with the maps now let me explain how to get to the trail head to start the hike to the wave you must get to the wire pass trailhead it's located halfway between canab utah and page arizona if you're familiar with navigating on your phone with google maps getting to wire pass is easy simply search for wire pass and let your phone navigate you there if you'd like more animated driving directions to wire pass watch our video tour of buckskin gulch that hike also starts at wire pass and the video gives the same directions you would use for the wave alright let's get on with the hike and our tour of the wave in the north coyote buttes area rather than using a flat or topo map like we normally use on our other tours for this tour we'll use google earth exclusively so that you can see the scope of the terrain in case you're not familiar with the vermilion cliffs area here's where it's located on the colorado plateau you can't help but notice this big orange area we are zooming into that's because everything in this part of the country is orange here's kanab and page as well as lake powell that's the very eastern edge of zion national park the northern reach of the grand canyon is right here vermillion cliffs national monument is this area which is dominated by the peria plateau geographically the wave is located on the peria plateau some of the wacky geology that occurred here was mainly caused by this feature that is easy to pick out it's called the coxcomb the coxcomb is like a rupture in the earth's surface not really an earthquake fault like the san andreas in california or the hurricane fault which is 70 miles to the east the cox comb is what's called a monocline the cox come was not only responsible for creating the wacky geology of the wave but also other places like the odd-looking yellow rock in cottonwood canyon its southern end is also the beginning of the impressive vermillion cliffs okay enough about the cox comb let's zoom in a little closer wire pass trailhead is right here this is where buckskin gulch is located here is the peria river canyon and here is where the wave is located now let's swoop down and check out the wire pass trailhead the parking area was upgraded in early 2021 so now there is more parking and here we are ready to hike the wave with our precious bright green hiking permit that will be attached to someone's backpack the hike starts by walking across house rock valley road and down the drainage of wire pass as you're watching now in half a mile bare right on this trail that ascends up the side of the wire pass drainage this is what the trail looks like it is a little steep once you get to the top the trail gradually descends into another drainage the trail is now in deep sand which takes extra energy to walk in but at least there's a trail to follow you'll want to aim for this notch in the next ridge which is reached after crossing this wash when you cross the wash you'll see this sign that marks the boundary of north coyote buttes the ridge ahead is on pure sandstone so you won't see an obvious trail on the other side of the ridge you'll get this sweeping view of what's called tp valley over here is about where buckskin gulch is located now we're going to aim for this rock feature here called twin buttes again we'll be walking in sandstone so there will be no obvious trail however there might be a few signs marking the way you'll want to pass just to the left of twin buttes when you do you'll need to go through this gate which is part of a fence used for keeping cattle out of the wilderness area yes this area is still used for cattle grazing at times by now if you look far to the south you'll see this large hill with a vertical dark crevice guess what the wave is just below this so it seems like you're almost there but in reality you're only about halfway follow the trail on your phone across this long stretch of sandstone at some point you'll again be walking in deep sand until you finally reach the wash which is called sand cove just below the crevice during this stretch here are some of the rock features you'll see on the right or west side of your hiking path along this portion of the hike don't forget to look right or west and kind of back and up to see this very colorful slope also very important remember to stop and look back from time to time so that you can familiarize yourself with where you came from you'll need to remember these visuals to help you find your way back to wire pass cross the wash and follow the well-defined trail now up a steep sand dune then onto some more sandstone keep in mind that this final stretch is a tough one in some places you need to climb in deep sand which isn't easy in other spots you're on sandstone covered with loose sand which is really slippery and then finally the wave you have arrived here's what it looks like walking into and around the wave [Music] [Music] [Music] have you seen enough okay let's now leave the wave by walking up into the south before we do though let's not forget to look at the mini wave this small feature is located just before the entrance to the wave and a little to the east located about here check this out before you head up and beyond the wave there's no trail to follow so you'll need to rely on your phone's gps and the maps you've downloaded from gaia gps or google maps while you're looking at your phone to make sure you're heading towards the various features be sure to look all around you and take in all of the interesting geology along the way just to emphasize rely on your gps and map not anyone's written or spoken instructions including mine some of the features such as the alcove and melody arch are located way up here if you look up you'll see top rock arch this is not an easy climb i tried it and turned back the alcove is located behind top rock arch a better way to reach the features behind top rock arch would be to go east about a quarter mile from the mini wave then south about a third of a mile again there's no trail on the east side is a slope with a more shallow angle that is a little easier to climb just keep in mind that visiting this area will take you an hour or more and it's quite a climb [Music] here's an example of how i got sidetracked and found myself going down the rabbit hole as i explained earlier [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] now i'm going to work myself over to what's called the second wave along the way there's more rabbit holes to get distracted with just be careful when walking here because not only are there a lot of delicate features that you don't want to destroy there's also a lot of very steep slopes where you can slip fall and keep sliding all the way down stop and think of just how far away you are from any kind of help if you get injured be careful [Music] the second wave is not as spectacular as the wave itself but it is another interesting feature [Music] [Music] [Music] from the second wave i found a place where i was able to slide down a steep slope to this area here called sand cove there are lots of wavy features here too but they have a totally different color tint than what's found near the wave [Music] located near sand cove is also what's called the boneyard this is an area where there are a lot of unique rocks laying around on top of the sandstone they are made of what people refer to as lace rock and are very delicate geologic features [Music] from here follow the drainage of sand cove downwards and it will return to the main trail you took to get to the wave naturally this is also the main trail to return to the wire pass trailhead some people refer to this portion of sand cove as a slot canyon but we don't necessarily agree it's more rounded than a slot canyon for now enjoy the stroll down sand cove with even more wildly sculptured [Music] sandstone [Music] about halfway down sand cove you will reach this obstacle a 15 foot or so drop off if you are not able to get down it like me you can climb out of the canyon on either side if you go east or right to climb out of the canyon you can return to the wave and then follow the same route you walked in on you can also climb west or left out of the canyon and follow this slope back to the main trail you can try your luck at finding dinosaur tracks here but i didn't have time to look for them our visual tour from google earth now returns us to where we entered the wave here follow the same trail from here back to the wire pass trailhead remember things will look totally different heading this direction than they did when you first came towards the wave so again make sure to follow your gps and map once again here is the wave the trail back buckskin gulch and the wire pass trailhead we hope that our information about how to prepare for your visit to this magnificent place was helpful in that you've enjoyed our tour of the wave and north coyote buttes we invite you to browse through our big collection of other hikes and road trips and don't forget to subscribe to our channel so that you can join us on our next adventure as always happy exploring

Channel: BackRoadsWest1

Views: 120,432

Keywords: Hike, wire pass, buckskin gulch, coyote buttes, north coyote buttes, vermillion cliffs, sandstone

Id: VrCBUiNuI1Y

Length: 46min 27sec (2787 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 25 2021