When an opportunity to hike to the North Coyote Buttes aka the Wave one should do everything in your power to ensure that opportunity is not lost! Last week I found myself in this predicament. Friday afternoon Evan Cambell came to my classroom asking what I had going on Saturday. I told him I had work and I can clearly recall him saying "you have to get it off, I have permits to the Wave." With thoughts of the one of the most amazing surreal locations on earth racing through my mind I immediately began trying to arrange someone to work for me. After numerous denials I had one hope left and fortunately for me I did not lose the opportunity to make a second journey to the wave.
Leaving Hurricane at 6AM we (Lindsey Witt, Evan Cambell, Janessa Cambell and myself) drove the roughly two hours to the trail head. The road to the trailhead, deemed impassible when wet, was frozen, but the thought of returning on the same road after it became unfrozen was spoken of, but once again its the wave and one does whatever it takes even risking the potential of being stuck in the mud.
We quickly hiked the 2 1/2 miles to the wave and were the first ones there. All of us sat there stunned at the colors and uniqueness of such a god given location. What an amazing experience to be able to sit and meditiate without any distractions from the outside world. Because of our early departure we were able to enjoy the wave without any other hikers being in the proximity. Also because of our early hour we also had to experience the cold morning air prior to the sun rising over the cliffs above.
Hoping to get our blood pumping and warm up we decided to hike to two arches, a window and magnificent alcove above the wave. Thanks to the directions from Tonya and Bo's website "http://www.zionnational-park.com/coyote-buttes-paria.htm" we scrambled to the top of the slickrock mountain and found top rock arch, melody arch and window, and the alcove. Even though they are not extremely difficult to find it is still exhilarating when after hiking around semi turned around we found such places. The feeling must be somewhat comparible to finding a buried treasure!
After our "discoveries" we made it back down to the wave to find other hikers arriving. Fortunately all who made it to the wave this day all were respectful, and very friendly.
Eventually it was time to return to our car but on the way back we stopped at the mini-wave which can be found east of the wave and then began looking for the dinosaur tracks. We couldnt find the ones from Bo's directions and after giving up began our hike back. After hiking for about ten minutes I stepped on an odd impression in the sandstone and realized that I found the dinosaur tracks, probably different ones than the ones we were looking for. The reason I say this is the GPS coordinates were considerably different than the ones we had. What an amazing day! One to be remembered for years to come!
PS thanks to our fearless driver, Evan, we were able to return safely passing the impassible when wet road!
The Wave from above. The actual wave can be seen in the center-right of the photo.
What an amazing place! Only some higher power could have made something so impressive.
