Hiking The Wave in Coyote Buttes

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Riding The Wave

Coyote Buttes in Grand Staircase NM

Should we really talk about this place? Is it too fragile, too delicate, too spectacular to flood with the glare of publicity? Will it be overrun and damaged or destroyed? These are factors I never take lightly. Maybe this place should be on the list of wonderful treasures left for you to discover yourself.

But no, I will trust that if you decide to go to the Wave, you will respect it as you would any area of natural beauty and wonder.

Chances are you have never heard of the Wave. It isn’t on any map I can find. Only a couple guidebooks give much detail. Most of the pictures I’ve seen don’t specify what or where it is. To find it on the web you must know the name of the area around the Wave. There is no marked trail, and it is well-hidden in a huge wilderness just over the Utah state line in Arizona.

Yet the Wave is well-known in Germany. Likely more German tourists have seen it than Utahns.

"We had a scientific magazine article that described the region here," said Hildegard Norbisroth, a visitor from Germany. "It’s so very beautiful. I have seen nothing like this before, and I’ve made many holidays in many countries, but nothing like this."

Ancient seas laid down silt that has since hardened into the weathered formations of Zion, Bryce, Arches and the Escalante-Lake Powell canyons. Sandstone formations as diverse as the towering Great White Throne of Zion and the barely navigable Spooky Gulch in the Grand Staircase are popular tourist draws, each with its own charm and beauty.

But there is nothing like the Wave. "It’s not anything like I expected," said John Cameron of Salt Lake. "When I heard the term ‘wave’ I expected something more like ocean waves. This is a gentle wave, but it is so much more fantastic. I don’t know any words to describe it."

I’ll try. The wave is a tiny sandstone wash covering maybe an acre. The walls gently sweep down one side of the wash, across the bottom and up the other side. The whole thing is striated as though someone carefully scraped it with a giant serrated cement trowel. A petrified sand dune 200,000 years old. And the colors!

"We’ve been here a couple of hours, and as the sun has moved across the sky we’re seeing different shapes, deeper textures and different colors," said Linda Cameron. " We’re seeing greens now, whereas it was mostly reds and golds earlier. It is just beautiful." The layers of red and white are blasted into blazing orange and yellow by the sun. While most places are better photographed early or late in the day, this place beams in the midday sun.

The Wave is the crown jewel of North Coyote Buttes, which is part of the Paria-Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness Area midway between Kanab and Lake Powell. It’s a 3-mile hike after an 8-mile drive on a dirt road. You must have a permit, and only 10 are issued for each day. We made reservations nearly a year in advance. A check at press time showed no available spots until after Memorial Day. You can make reservations on the web at http://paria.az.blm.gov/coyotebuttes.html, or contact the Bureau of Land Management, Arizona Strip Field Office, 345 East Riverside Drive, St. George, UT 84790; (435) 688-3230. The BLM will provide a map showing the location, but get specific instructions. There is no marked trail, and the Wave is so small you might walk right past it.

Norbisroth and three other Germans got permits to visit the Wave on the same day the Camerons, my wife, Marianne, and I did. The eight of us were more than enough. The Wave is such a small area that even 10 people may be a crowd, and the experience could be diminished. Allowing just 10 people per day helps limit human impacts on the landscape and preserves the serenity that is so much a part of the enjoyment here.

Reece Stein is Outdoors Editor for KUTV 2News. Look for Roughing It Mondays at 10 p.m. and Reece’s Outdoor Pieces Tuesdays at 5.

Riding The Wave

Coyote Buttes in Grand Staircase NM

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