What Is The Wave And Where Is It?
The Wave is a rather famous sandstone formation out in the desert of Northern Arizona. It is the product of years and years of wind and water erosion. It is a natural formation and it does look just like the photo on a bright sunny day. The Wave is located in Vermilion Cliffs National Monument and within Vermilion Cliffs it is located in the Coyote Buttes North section of the monument.
The fist time I hiked out to The Wave was back in 2011. Thirteen people showed up for 10 next day permits to be given out for the hike the next day. I was the last one to get picked for a permit. Since then the popularity of The Wave has absolutely exploded. Hundreds of people apply for permits every day. It now costs a whopping $9.00 to enter the lottery to get a permit for The Wave. The actual permit only costs $7.00. Due to the limited number of permits, it is more of a “wilderness experience” than most anywhere else you might go in the US National Parks. Even that is not like it was. Back in 2011 a maximum of 20 people per day got permits. Now as many as 60 may get permits.
What Is It Like To Travel To The Wave At Coyote Buttes North?
Traveling to The Wave is an adventure and it is a pretty amazing place. If you are lucky enough to get the advanced permits then it is time to figure out how you are going to get there and planning your trip. You might not get another permit for years so make sure to use the one you get!
Vermilion Cliffs National Monument where The Wave is located is located between the towns of Kanab, Utah and Page, Arizona. Highway 89 connects the two. A rough dirt, rock and clay road called House Rock Valley Road branches off of Highway 89 and goes down to the Wirepass Trailead. That’s where the hike out to The Wave starts.
If you’ll be hiking to The Wave you’ll probably want to stay in Kanab, UT or Page, AZ or somewhere between the two. Aside from some campgrounds in between Page and Kanab, there isn’t much lodging. There is one hotel in Big Water, Utah which is between Page and the turnoff for House Rock Valley Road. Big Water usually has the cheapest gas in the area too. Both Choice Hotels and Wyndham Hotels have some properties in the Kanab, UT and Page, Arizona area. There is a hostel in Kanab if you are looking for cheaper lodging
If you are flying in, the Las Vegas airport may be a good choice. Alternatively the St. George, Utah airport may be another to consider. The town of Page, Arizona has a small airport you may be able to fly into as well. If you’ll be exploring some of the Utah National Parks you may want to fly into Salt Lake City, Utah or the Grand Junction, Colorado airport.
Once you get the transportation and lodging all planned out, it’s time to start planning the day of your hike out to The Wave. You’ll have to hope for decent weather. If there are any heavy rains right before your hike to The Wave or the day of your hike, House Rock Valley Road may be impassable and you’ll have to abort your hike. In order o improve your chances of successfully and safely getting down to the trailhead you’ll probably want to get a rental car with AWD or 4WD and higher than average clearance. Regular passenger vehicles usually make it down the road assuming the road is in decent shape but you never know what you will encounter along the way.
It’s good to get an early start on the day of the hike. Before you had down make sure you’ve got AT LEAST one gallon of water in the car for every person in the car. On a really hot summer day you might need to carry a gallon per person out with you. Bring some food, a flashlight, a handheld GPS if you have one and whatever other emergency gear you might deem necessary out in the hot, dry desert wilderness.
When you get your permit from the BLM, it will have some color photos of landmarks that will come in handy when hiking out to The Wave. There isn’t really a trail per se so you’ll need those landmarks to navigate your way out to The Wave. Be prepared for walking on lots of uneven sandstone and through some sand dunes. The round trip hike is about 6.2 miles if you just hike out to The Wave and back.
If you have time and a sufficient supply of food and water, there are plenty of other cool sights to see on the way to The Wave, in the area of The Wave and out past The Wave. The Coyote Buttes Dragon is one cool formation to look for out there.
Once you’ve seen all you care to see out there, it will be time for the hike back. It is definitely worth staying out in the area until close to sunset. If you do stay out that long, it is important to keep in mind that there is no well marked trail to get back. You’ll mostly be navigating by photos of landmarks given to you by the BLM. So long as you have the BLM handout, a flashlight and GPS unit, the hike back in low light shouldn’t be too bad but people have died in the past.
When you get back to the car, you’ll probably be pretty wiped out. If there has been any rain while you were out on the hike you may want to stay down around the Wirepass Parking are for the night. It is BLM land so you should be OK to sleep in your vehicle around there.
What Does It Take To Get A Wall Art Quality Photo Of The Wave At Coyote Buttes?
The biggest obstacle for getting awesome photos of The Wave is just getting the permit to hike out there. Once you get the permit, prep for the hike and figure out everything you want to take with you, you’ll need to figure out how much room and wright to dedicate to your camera gear. In order to get decent photos to post on social media, just about any camera will do. A newer iphone will take some nice photos out at The Wave.
Anyone can hike out to The Wave, stand in the same spot everyone else does and get the same photo. If you want to get wall art quality photos you’ll want to hope for clouds in the skies, water in the potholes or even in The Wave itself. The whole thing sometimes floods and makes for really cool reflection shots.
When you go out to The Wave be sure to take TONS of memory and multiple camera batteries. If you spend an entire day out there you’ll come home with tons of photos and quite possibly burn through 2 or more batteries. Frame up lots of different shots from different perspectives in and around The Wave. You can stand in The Wave, you can stand to the side, you can climb up above it and you can take closeup photos of the wild sandstone textures.
Once you’ve gotten some photos of The Wave itself, go hike around a bit and look for other sandstone features that can make for awesome shots of the textures and colors of all over the landscape out there. When you’ve done that, stop back at The Wave with a fresh perspective and snap some more photos. After a full day, chances are you’ll have some really awesome shots if you’ve taken the time to observe the lines and textures and use them to compose some awesome shots even if they are in large part abstract.
What Is The Best Gear For Photographing The Wave At Coyote Buttes North?
The best photo gear for photographing The Wave at Coyote Buttes North is the best camera gear you have. If you want to be able to create awesome wall art quality prints you’ll want to take a decent DSLR or mirrorless camera. A camera with a full frame sensor would be ideal. Your primary lens should be something like a 24-105mm lens. It may not be that specific lens but that zoom range is a good all around lens for photographing the area.
In addition to that, a wide angle zoom lens like a 16-35mm or something similar will help you get the really wide angle shots in those instances when you are unable to zoom back with your feet. There will be some limited opportunities to use lenses that are longer than 100mm. A 70-200mm lens would round out a nice compliment of three lenses to take out with you.
The landscape in Coyote Buttes North is vast. If you can handle the additional weight, you’ll find some areas that will lend themselves well to panoramic photos. I use a heavy solid steel Nodal Ninja for stitched panoramic photos and took that out in addition to all the other gear. It was A LOT of weight especially considering the gallon or so of water, food and other gear I took out that day.
A stable tripod and a circular polarizer are both handy to have out at The Wave too.
What Is The Story Behind This Coyote Buttes North Wall Art Photo Of The Wave?
This permit for The Wave was the first one I’d ever gotten from the advance lottery. All others were next day walk up permits. It was quite a surprise when the confirmation email came through for this permit. The permit was for mid April in 2015. I was in the middle of a road trip while a friend flew out to join me for the hike to The Wave and some other sights around southern Utah.
After spending some time at Zion, Bryce and Escalante, the day arrived to go hike out to The Wave. The night before the hike we drove down and planned to spend the night at the Stateline Campground near the Wire Pass trailhead. The Stateline Campground has no amenities, not even any water. We didn’t expect it to be crowded. Unfortunately it was totally full. It was only mid April! We drove around a little bit to try to find another spot to pitch a tent. We’d been doing a lot of hiking elsewhere in the area and were looking forward to laying down.
In addition to the campground being full, other spots along the road were also taken. When we couldn’t find anywhere to pitch a tent we ended up driving back to the Wire Pass parking lot and going to sleep there. We were in a Subaru Outback with four seasons worth of gear in it. There was enough room to put the seats back at a 45 degree angle at best. It was like trying to fall asleep in an airline seat. It certainly wasn’t ideal given the long strenuous hike the next day to The Wave but it was about the only choice at that point.
After hardly sleeping at all, the sun started to come up. We both moaned knowing it was time to get up and get going. I was totally exhausted and my body hurt a bit from sleeping this way. I’m sure the feeling was mutual. We did sit in the car and get a little more rest after the sun came up but didn’t want to waste the day. A bit sore and already exhausted, we got out of the car into the cool spring air. We had some snacks, guzzled a ton of water, loaded up out backpacks and started the hike out to The Wave.
There was no really adverse weather predicted for the day. There was no precipitation and the temperatures were forecast to be fairly warm and mild. The skies were supposed to be partly cloudy. The one thing of concern was the high winds that were forecast.
In the morning on the way out, there was a little wind but it was pretty mild. Since I’d been out there numerous times before, I knew where I was going so we wandered around to check out some of the sights off the main path on the way out there. As we got close to The Wave, the winds started to increase. By the time we got out there, the winds were certainly noticeable but not much to worry about. The skies were partly cloudy and added a bit more depth and texture to photos of The Wave formation as seen in the photo in this article.
Soon after we got out to The Wave and snapped some photos, the winds began to pick up significantly. Had we been out in the middle of a flat sandy desert area the high winds would have been a major problem. Fortunately the Coyote Buttes North area is not flat. The are in and around The Wave itself is pretty well protected from high winds. A good portion of the area adjacent to it is also pretty well protected. Once you start to climb to some of the higher areas around and above The Wave, there isn’t much of anything to block the wind and the sand the wind blows all over the place.
This was the first time I’d experienced high winds at The Wave. At times the afternoon winds were strong enough to shake a tripod with a camera on it. Occasional gusts were strong enough to block the whole thing over. On this hike to The Wave I’d hoped to hike up to Top Rock. It’s a bit challenging to figure out the way to get up there if you haven’t been before (and I hadn’t). It’s even more challenging when the wind is blowing sand hard enough to sting the skin and potentially cause it to scratch the camera lens and get in the camera and lens.
After a few failed attempts to get up to Top Rock and the arch up there, I decided to stay in the lower more protected areas. The winds continued to howl and the whip the sand through the air. It stung my skin, my eyes and I worried about the finer sand particle getting inside the zoom lenses and the camera any time I had to changes lenses even in the more protected areas at lower elevations.
After a while we just sat around in a protected area to take in the surreal, spectacular views in all directions. The original plan was to hang out until sunset but the winds and resulting blowing sand combined with increasing cloudiness made that not seem like a great idea. The evening light out at Coyote Buttes can be really awesome. It’s the best time to photograph The Dragon. On this afternoon, the lighting was fading. Walking back in low light with high winds and sand stinging every inch of exposed skin wasn’t appealing. It is challenging enough to hike back near dark without having to squint to keep the blowing grains of sand from getting in your eyes.
With about 90 minutes to go before sunset, we started hiking back to the car. We were both exhausted by the time we got back to the car. After chowing down on some snacks, drinking lots of water and resting for a half hour or so, we decided to head back up House Rock Valley Road. That night we ended up in Big Water, Utah and stayed at what is now the Roadway Inn in Big Water, Utah. It wasn’t a luxurious place but it was clean and more than sufficient for a good night sleep and a shower.
In What Formats Is This Photo Print Of The Wave In Coyote Buttes North Available?
This print of The Wave is available in sizes up to 40×60 inches and comes on paper, canvas, metal, acrylic, and wood. Any of these with any finish will look great when hung in an area with diffused lighting. The shinier and more reflective prints will be really bright and vibrant while paper or canvas prints with a matte finish will be more subtle. If the print will be hung in an area with bright natural or artificial lighting, particularly an area with exposed light bulbs, then a matte finish will look better and not reflect the light.
There are Sherpa fleece blankets and shower curtains available. The blankets are beautiful, super soft and cozy. The shower curtains are great quality, durable and can add a great look to a bathroom especially when combined with bath towels with the same or a similar design.
Cel phone cases, apparel including t-shirts and sweatshirts as well as heavy duty canvas bags make great day to day fashion accessories. The canvas tote bags are really heavy duty and work well as grocery shopping bags and even beach bags.
If you’ve jumped on the jigsaw puzzle craze, this image is available on jigsaw puzzles that come in 500 and 1,000 piece sizes.
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