The Wave

The formation is Navajo sandstone laid down as dunes around 190 million years ago, lithified and then eroded so that the cross-bedding of the original dunes is exposed as curving coloured bands running through a shallow basin - the effect is of frozen motion. It is fragile, and the Bureau of Land Management restricts access to a small number of people per day for Coyote Buttes North, allocated through advance and daily lotteries that are heavily oversubscribed. There is no trail: successful applicants get a photo map and navigate about five kilometres each way across open desert. In summer heat, losing the route is a real danger. Phones have no coverage there.

What's there

• Exposed dune cross-bedding - curving bands in Navajo sandstone.
• A strictly capped daily quota - allocated by lottery.
• No marked trail - navigation by photo map across open desert.
• Rock about 190 million years old - originally wind-blown dunes.

When to go

March to May and September to November. A full day.

Practical notes

Permits are lottery-only and the odds are poor - most applicants never get one. There is no trail. The access road is unpaved and impassable when wet. No phone coverage.

Nearby

Buckskin Gulch is at the same trailhead; Page and Lake Powell are east.