A Hot Weather Special Adventure to the Wave in Utah
Surf’s Up in the desert!
This is a trip log of another fantastic and memorable exploration of the Southwest. Our adventure was to the Wave (North Coyote Butte) in Arizona just south of the Utah border. We were fortunate to snag a permit for this highly sought after hike. We picked the hottest time of the year to improve our chances of winning the lottery. We all did numerous training hikes of similar distance and altitude gain (compared to the Wave) to adjust to the heat, to familiarize ourselves with our GPS apps on our smartphones, and to test our gear. We thought we were well prepared; however, our training hikes were of short duration (about 3 hours) and at the Wave, we spent all day (8 hours) in the 95-degree monsoon (humid) heat and we were not prepared for hiking in deep sand up steep slopes. Bottom line is that we found this hike to the Wave grueling. On the trail, we encountered a local guide, Yermo. who was very friendly, helpful and well versed in this area where he has lived for many years. If you are looking for a back-country adventure in the Kanab, Utah area, we highly recommend him – visit Seeking Treasure Adventures.
According to locals, it is rare for the wave to have as much water as was there when we visited. There were many pools along the way…
Click here for a trail map.
Pictures From Our Trip to The Wave
The image at the top of this post shows Richard (Theo) O’Connor, Sue Metz, and Leda Robertson at The Wave.
Be patient these are large pictures and they may take a bit of time to load.
A Few Other Pictures from our Adventure
Our three-day trip to the Wave was with two close friends. On the first day, we drove to Kanab and visited Horseshoe Bend in Page, Arizona and Alstrom Point. Alstrom point involved a 24 mile (each way) 4WD road with a number of crossings of large “dry” washes. This was a bit scary since a flash flood warning had been issued for the area. We did not complete the last mile of the road since it started to rain and we were afraid of not being able to get back across the “dry” washes in a monsoon rain. The area was very remote and the roads poorly marked. We only got lost once.
Our second day was devoted to hiking the Wave.
Day three was the return home with a side trip into Zion National Park where we did a short hike and saw some bighorn sheep on top of a cliff. The temperature on the drive home hit 104° and we made a brief stop at Lone Rock Beach on Lake Powell to cool our feet. Heading up to Flagstaff the temperature briefly dropped to 64° – WOW.
Somehow the rain, which was profuse, seemed to appear just at the right times so we hardly got wet! We spent two nights in Kanab. It was an exciting and satisfying adventure. We found a restaurant that we loved – impressive for a town with a population of 4500. The Rocking V Cafe features healthy, creative and gourmet food and is run by Victor Cooper, a chatty and fascinating guy with many talents – we will return. They fed us well on our last day and provided much local information.