Written by Amelia Photos & captions by Greg
Coyote Buttes North, aka The Wave, is a once in a lifetime experience that requires a permit…a permit that is obtained by lottery…a three month advance lottery or a two day advance lottery all done via your mobile device.
Before the internets and mobile devices, permits were granted via lottery in person at the BLM office in Kanab, Utah. A decade ago Mr. and Mrs. Fancy Pants thought they’d leave Lee’s Ferry campground in AZ at the crack of dawn to get to the BLM office for the lottery. After about an hour of driving one of us realized Utah was an hour ahead of AZ so that meant we would arrive after the lottery was over. Huge disappointment.
We’d heard of people trying over 30 times and never getting a permit. So we decided to enter the lottery for both Coyote Buttes North and South hoping to get one of the permits. Both are incredible, but North is more popular because of The Wave, so South is supposedly easier to get. At 7:10PM we started counting down the minutes to 7:15PM when the results would be emailed.
Winner, winner, chicken dinner! We got both permits!
A phone call was made, a guide was hired, we declined the Coyote Buttes South, accepted the coveted North, and Mr. and Mrs. Fancy Pants could barely sleep!
Our guide, Andrea, showed us more than The Wave. She took us to places we would have never found without her!
Oh my God Becky! I smiled ALL DAY LONG!
The arduous off camber trek to The Wave with our trusty guide Andrea leading the way.
We walked by many large buttes.
Andrea was super stoked about all the reflection pools.
Look at that smile! Once again, the early bird gets the worm. We left Kanab at 6AM and had The Wave to ourselves in the morning.
Early morning light
Miles of this rock
I got some great reflection shots. This one might be my favorite.
This one’s not bad 😊
Nor is this one 😉
Heading above The Wave to see some other worldly stuff.
Other worldly
We were just speechless.
Amelia on top of a sand dune inside an alcove. 😳
Another quarter mile of some crazy climbing brought us to Melody Arch with its own awesome window!
This puts the size of the window into perspective. I love everything about this picture.
Amelia on the top of the world
Heading up to Top Rock Arch
Top Rock Arch
Back at the bottom of other worldliness looking up at Top Rock Arch.
Back at The Wave the colors are quite different in the middle of the day.
One last pic of The Wave
I just had to include this tough little paintbrush…
…and this hardy Rock Spiraeas.
The hike back was toasty, but we had ice cold Tecates with lime and salt waiting for us!
We spent seven hours in the Coyote Buttes North Wilderness. It was a once in a lifetime experience that blew away our expectations.
Wow!! That looks truly amazing. I have seen pictures by others, sometimes thinking they were enhanced. You both put this in real perspective with humans showing comparison of size.
So happy you both got this experience.
Thanks!! It was really something else
Wow!! The pics are so spectacular- I could only imagine what it was like in person!!
It was other worldly!
LOVELY! 😍
OMG!! Unbelievable!! Once in a lifetime experience!!