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. People have died attempting it in summer heat after losing the route. Phones have no coverage there.

What you actually see

• 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.

Honest expectations

Permits are lottery-only and the odds are poor - most applicants never get one. There is no trail and people have died from heat and disorientation. 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.