The Wave - April 7th, 2023
The Wave Hike Road-trip, April 2023
While researching for the Fall, 2020 trip to Arizona and Utah and listening to the Dear Bob and Sue Podcast while also reading the books, I learned of a hike known as "The Wave" although it's officially called the Coyote Buttes North Trail. It turns out this rock formation was photographed and used as a Windows PC background image in the Windows 7 which launched in October, 2009. Ever since that time, hikers and sight seekers have been clamoring to visit this place. The high demand triggered the local management group (now Recreation.gov) to install a permit system to limit the number of visitors who are allowed to take the hike each day and a lottery program to determine who would could get a permit each day. The lottery limited the numbers to only 20-40 people per day. They developed a online lottery for half the permits and an in person lottery at the Kanab, Utah field office for the other half.
After failing to win the lottery in October, 2020, I began entering the monthly lottery through Recreation.gov nearly every single month for the next two plus years in hopes of securing a set of permits to take on this hike. Finally in December of 2022, I hit the lottery and landed five permits for [Good] Friday, April 7, 2023 to take the whole family on this potentially once in a lifetime hike.
The initial plan was the just drive out to Page, Arizona, conquer the hike on Friday and come right back home with a larger family cross country road trip planned for June, 2023. After some back and forth discussion with the family and analyzing time limits with sprint breaks and work leave, we extended the trip to a two week adventure instead.
Kahlan, Avery, William, and I left about 9pm on the Monday before the hike and began the long drive west which would include a few stops for sites not seen before (and of course earn a few stamps as well). The key two steps while heading west were Oklahoma City Memorial and Washita Battlefields in western Oklahoma. By Thursday morning, we made our way into Phoenix, AZ to pickup Lindsay from her flight in.
We headed north to Page Arizona where we would stay for a pair of nights passing through Sedona and Tuzigoot National Monument (although it was still closed). I rented us a 4x4 Jeep (you can learn more about why this was necessary in the details I put together on the Wave Hike here) and on Friday, April 7th, we conquered the Wave and saved one of the most beautiful and famous rock formations in the world.
After conquering the Wave, we swung by Pipe Sprint National Monument for a proper visit as we headed up to Bryce Canyon. At Bryce, we had the pleasure of seeing the snow capped Hoo-Doos and even hiked in the snow to the Thor's Hammer formation. After a night in a hotel just outside the national park, we made our way to Zion National park where we took in the Canyon Overlook trail, Emerald Pools Trail, Scouts Landing and part of the West Rim Overlook trail. The Narrows was number one on our list of hikes to do here, but do to snow melt and recent rains, it was closed for safety reasons.
After Zion, we head to Capitol Reef for some slot canyon hiking and probably the absolute best pie on the planet. From there, it was off to Canyonlands Island district for a scenic drive, an overnight in Moab and a solid day of hiking in Arches where we hiked to the most iconic Arch - the Delicate Arch as well as the Double Arch and Sand Arch.
Finally, we headed home taking the family along the Colorado National Monument scenic drive, a brief stop at Black Canyon of the Gunnison, and took in some history at the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site.
It was a great trip and just made us all hungry to take on more trips and see more sites in the future.