By Margie Goldsmith
I sit looking out at pristine wilderness, a swirling sandstone canyon of domes as smooth as marble. The canyons are the color of cake batter to which cinnamon, nutmeg, and chocolate have been added but not yet stirred, forming a rainbow of colors that run ribbon-like around the mounds. Looking out around me, I think of Pompeii, where everything was stopped and preserved exactly the way it was.‚ These rocks look exacted like giant waves, petrified in motion. No wonder they call this The Wave.
I first heard about the Wave last year at Red Mountain Adventure Spa in Ivins, Utah. Red Mountain’s brochure features the Wave on its cover, one of the adventure spa’s many hiking excursions. The Wave is also one of the most photographed areas of the West “by those photographers lucky enough to nab a permit. That’s the problem. Some people wait up to three years for a permit because the Bureau of Land Management, which controls the area, wants to keep it pristine and allows only ten hikers in per day. This makes getting a permit as hard as snagging a Rolling Stones’ ticket. These tight restrictions, also make Red Mountain Spa, which obtains about fifteen Wave permits a year, that much more appealing.
Look on any map of Utah or Arizona and you won’t find the trailhead to the six-mile Wave hike. Located in the North Coyote Buttes midway between Page, Arizona, and Kanab, Utah, the trailhead is in Arizona, but the Wave “considered by many to be the crown jewel of American hikes and no bigger than a couple of football fields “is in Utah. So how do you find it? The Bureau of Land Management supplies a navigation map and detailed directions along with the permit. However, some people still never find it and end up lost, spending the night in the wilderness “all the more reason to go with Robert, Red Mountain’s hiking guide, who’s been to the Wave fifteen times.
The Wave is three hours from Red Mountain Spa, and the last eight miles of the trip out to the hike are spent on a bumpy dirt road, abruptly ending at the trailhead. From there, it’s another three miles through barren desert-mountain terrain and steep hills of sand. The trail isn’t marked; there are no trees, and only an occasional cairn (three rocks piled on top of each other) indicates you’re headed the right direction. After about one and one-half hours of hiking, I arrive at a hidden slit in a rock, known as the Secret Passage, and enter a jaw-dropping sandstone wash of rounded hills polished smooth by wind and water, each with a different shape. Some look like pillars or cones, others like giant cauliflower and broccoli heads.
There is not a sound, only the whispering wind. I look out at the huge rocks almost a million years old, so smooth I want to slide down them. Sitting on top of a rock pod in this surreal scenery, is like meditating. Without concentrating on letting my thoughts go or trying to listen to the sound of my breath, I feel completely centered.
To book the Wave Hike at Red Mountain Spa, plan at least 2 “3 months in advance. Contact the Adventure Concierge at Red Mountain Spa, (800) 407-3002, adventureconceirge@redmtn.com.‚
March/April 2006
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