Day 138: The Wave « Data On The Move

Location: Kanab, UT

Last night, we drove to Kanab and parked in front of the Kanab Field Office, which issues permits to “The Wave.” As of last night, there were four permits available for today, so we planned to wake up at 7:45 a.m., when the office opens, to buy two of the remaining permits. I was at the door when the office opened, securing a permit for Julia, Data and I to hike in the Coyote Buttes area (home of The Wave). Shortly after, another couple bought permits, the final permits for the day. We tossed around the idea of taking a nap, since we had only slept for five hours, but ultimately decided not to. The drive to the trailhead took about 30 minutes, made longer by the fact that we wanted to stop to fill our water bottles. The final eight miles were over a fairly easy dirt road.

We parked at the Wire Pass trailhead and prepared to hike. Despite being in the desert, the weather was somewhat chilly, which was nice. There were a few other people and a tour group getting ready to hike to The Wave when we arrived. We packed up our things and hit the trail around 10 a.m. There is no set trail to The Wave, so we followed a combination of footprints, rock piles and the directions given to us at the Kanab Field Office. The trail was roughly three miles long and fairly rugged. Most of the terrain was comprised of either deep sand or sandstone slickrock. I had opted to wear my Keen sandals, which, ironically, aren’t very practical in the sand.

Immediately, we noticed a few things. First, Data was able to roam around off-leash, resulting in his wearing himself out fairly quickly, causing him to stay close to us. Second, even cool days in the desert can become uncomfortable while climbing steep slopes of sand in the midday sun. Third, the entire Coyote Buttes area is absolutely fascinating, geologically.

The Wave itself is a fairly small and narrow gully, curving between spires of red sandstone. The basin is very smooth with bright white striations curving through the deep red background. We arrived at noon and spent some time resting and talking with the handful of people already there. After a few minutes, we noticed that we could actually see the movement of the shadows across the rock, which meant that even lighting at The Wave would be short-lived. I spent some time photographing the area before we moved to a less-iconic, but equally impressive formation nearby.

Julia and Data sat atop a 40-foot ledge of beautiful rock, while I prepared the camera for a delayed shutter release in order to capture the three of us. While I was doing this, Data spotted me and tried to crawl down the nearly-vertical rock face. He quickly realized his mistake and attempted to turn around, but it was too late. He was out of Julia’s reach and I was too far away to do anything. We watched helplessly as he slid to the base, jumping at just the right moment to land safely at the base. Considering the potential for disaster, Data responded very well and walked away with little more than a few scuffed nails.

After taking our photo, we walked back through The Wave and a few hundred yards west to another unique sandstone formation. Instead of bright reds and whites, the colors were more muted whites and yellows, but jutting layers of rock swept across the area, creating yet another impressive effect.

After taking a few photos of this formation and a few final shots of The Wave, we began to head back to the car. We left at 3 p.m., leaving plenty of time to get back to the car before dark. We made much better time on the way back, the result of cooler temperatures, familiarity with the terrain, a more forgiving ratio of uphills to downhills and a slight sense of urgency with regard to time. As we approached the parking lot, we caught up to two women from Aspen, CO we had seen at The Wave. As we walked and talked, Data spotted a large jackrabbit and took off, running dangerously close to a barbed-wire fence, his second close call off the day.

Back at the car, we gave Data water until he refused to drink (he had also had plenty of water before and during the hike) before heading back to Kanab. We stopped at Lotsa Motsa Pizza, a small local place, for dinner, but the food was so bad, we threw it out and went across the street to McDonald’s instead. We then went across the street again to the Hitch-N-Post RV Park, where we were able to shower, a big relief.

Now, we are using the internet at a nearby Holiday Inn Express. We will sleep here in the parking lot before waking up early to make our way to Zion National Park.

Here are some photos from today. I was unable to upload to SmugMug today, so I will have to do that tomorrow. Click “there’s more to this” to see them all.

Julia and Brett