Day seven in Utah was Thursday October 22nd. One of the most popular hikes in the American southwest is the hike to The Wave. This hike has become so popular that the Bureau of Land Management [BLM] limits the number of hikers to 20 per day. Special permits are required to hike in to The Wave. Half of the 20 permits that are available each day are awarded in an online lottery, four months in advance. The remaining 10 permits are issued one day in advance, at the BLM office in Kanab. If more than 10 people are present wanting these daily permits, then a lottery is undertaken to award the available permits.
The three of us, Brad, Rob and I, hiked in to The Wave back in 2013. This was at the time that the US Government had been shut down due to the debt ceiling being reached. Almost all government services, including National Parks and Monuments, were shut down. The situation was resolved just before we returned home and we were able to win the in-person lottery and were able to hike in the next day. That was back in 2013, but this time around we were not so much interested in The Wave, as we were with an area of lace rocks that was within the permit area called the North Coyote Buttes. We all attempted the online lottery back in June, but none of us were successful. Since then Brent had been filling us in on some other areas of lace rocks that we could hike to without a permit, however many of these were in areas that were inaccessible due to all the rain.
The three of us, Brad, Rob and I, hiked in to The Wave back in 2013. This was at the time that the US Government had been shut down due to the debt ceiling being reached. Almost all government services, including National Parks and Monuments, were shut down. The situation was resolved just before we returned home and we were able to win the in-person lottery and were able to hike in the next day. That was back in 2013, but this time around we were not so much interested in The Wave, as we were with an area of lace rocks that was within the permit area called the North Coyote Buttes. We all attempted the online lottery back in June, but none of us were successful. Since then Brent had been filling us in on some other areas of lace rocks that we could hike to without a permit, however many of these were in areas that were inaccessible due to all the rain.
One of the areas that was a possibility for us was the South Coyote Buttes. This is also a permit area, but is not nearly as popular as the North Coyote Buttes and it's main attraction, the Wave. We were told that at this time of year, not all of the permits are issued every day. We stopped in at the BLM office earlier in the week. There were about 20 people attempting to win the lottery for the permits to The Wave. Each one is able to attempt to win up to 5 or 6 permits. The odds were obviously not very good so we didn't bother to enter. On the first day that we checked there were two permits available for the South Coyote Buttes. We could have just taken them and not bothered with the lottery process, but there were three of us....
We returned a day later and tried again, and this time there were 4 other people each attempting to obtain various quantities of permits, totalling 13. This necessitated a lottery, which we lost. On this day, Day Seven, we were attempting the lottery again. This was our last opportunity as the permits would be issued for the next day, which would be our last day in the area. Four or five people showed up, again looking for a total of about 13 permits. This triggered the lottery process again, but this time we won. The unfortunate part is that the lottery is not done until after The Wave lottery is complete. So we needed to hang around the BLM office until 10:00AM, somewhat wasting the day. While Brad and I were doing this, Rob took off up to Zion National Park and did some solo photography. This time I won the lottery, and I was awarded a permit for three hikers.
Once this process had been all completed, Brad and I weren't sure what to do. Brent dropped by and showed us on a map the location of a cliff dwelling ruin and a petroglyph site. But he was a little leery of us being able to get down the backroads with my big heavy truck to get to them. If we had been able to use Rob's smaller SUV we might have made it, but Rob was already gone for the day. We chickened out at attempting this and headed out sight seeing for the day. We drove down the highway to the Old Paria townsite. Nothing remains of this site which, aside from being an old historic townsite, was used as a set for some western movies. It was flooded out and rebuilt, before eventually being flooded again and vandalized over the years. The road was quite muddy and greasy and we drove as far as we could before being forced to turn around and head back to the pavement.
We also stopped at the Rimrock Hoodoos trailhead but the parking area was full of vehicles and we decided it was too busy for our liking and didn't bother. Eventually we headed back into town and took a drive up into Kanab Canyon just above town. We stopped in a number of locations and wandered around a bit. Nothing really spectacular here but we did get really close to a small flock of wild turkeys.
By evening we headed back to the house, feeling a little depressed with the fact that the day had sort of been wasted. But, at least we had hiking permits for the South Coyote Buttes for our last day, and the weather forecast was calling for a really nice, sunny day, the first one of our trip.
We returned a day later and tried again, and this time there were 4 other people each attempting to obtain various quantities of permits, totalling 13. This necessitated a lottery, which we lost. On this day, Day Seven, we were attempting the lottery again. This was our last opportunity as the permits would be issued for the next day, which would be our last day in the area. Four or five people showed up, again looking for a total of about 13 permits. This triggered the lottery process again, but this time we won. The unfortunate part is that the lottery is not done until after The Wave lottery is complete. So we needed to hang around the BLM office until 10:00AM, somewhat wasting the day. While Brad and I were doing this, Rob took off up to Zion National Park and did some solo photography. This time I won the lottery, and I was awarded a permit for three hikers.
Once this process had been all completed, Brad and I weren't sure what to do. Brent dropped by and showed us on a map the location of a cliff dwelling ruin and a petroglyph site. But he was a little leery of us being able to get down the backroads with my big heavy truck to get to them. If we had been able to use Rob's smaller SUV we might have made it, but Rob was already gone for the day. We chickened out at attempting this and headed out sight seeing for the day. We drove down the highway to the Old Paria townsite. Nothing remains of this site which, aside from being an old historic townsite, was used as a set for some western movies. It was flooded out and rebuilt, before eventually being flooded again and vandalized over the years. The road was quite muddy and greasy and we drove as far as we could before being forced to turn around and head back to the pavement.
We also stopped at the Rimrock Hoodoos trailhead but the parking area was full of vehicles and we decided it was too busy for our liking and didn't bother. Eventually we headed back into town and took a drive up into Kanab Canyon just above town. We stopped in a number of locations and wandered around a bit. Nothing really spectacular here but we did get really close to a small flock of wild turkeys.
By evening we headed back to the house, feeling a little depressed with the fact that the day had sort of been wasted. But, at least we had hiking permits for the South Coyote Buttes for our last day, and the weather forecast was calling for a really nice, sunny day, the first one of our trip.
Snapshots from along the Old Paria Road
Snapshots from up in Kanab Canyon
Finally a couple snapshots from a roadside stop along Highway 89, just outside of Kanab.
1 comment:
Amazing rock strata in Utah. Can't wait to see your film shots!
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