There are only 20 people allowed per day to The Wave. Ten people are allowed in by an online lottery held three months before the actual month of visitation. Ten people are selected the day before the allowed hike at the Grand Staircase Escalante/Paria Visitor Center in Kanab, UT.
At 8:30 on a Tuesday, we were at the Visitor Center to apply for two slots in the lottery. At 9am, the lottery is held - all applications are placed in order, numbered, the numbers are called for each party, and then numbered wooden balls are placed in a bingo cage and drawn until all 10 slots are awarded. We did not win. Boo!
At 8:30am on the following Wednesday, we were back at the GSC/P Visitor Center. As we applied the day before, all I had to do is tell the Ranger, Cara, my previous day's number to be placed in the new lottery. Same procedure. First number out of the bingo cage - a party of six! Depression set in on the crowd! Second number out of the cage - a party of three! Leaves only one slot! True depression swept the crowd of 153.
But we still had a distance to go and plenty to see.
And the last number . . . . Number 8 - Ron Nichols for a party of 2! I half-heartedly held up my hand. There was only one person who could go. Cara stands and smiles. "Upon special circumstances, the BLM has granted special permissions, so as this is a party of 2 with only one slot left, we will combine these two into one and Ron Nichols please stay to pick up your permit for two." Maureen and I could not believe it! We were in!
Thursday came early, but by breakfast and getting the dogs out and situated in the RV, we left for the parking area around 10am. It was a 35 minute drive to House Rock Valley Road, then another 30 minutes to traverse the 9 miles down the washboard, rutted road to Wire Pass Trailhead. So we were at the parking area about 11:15am. The hike started, down Wire Pass and then the marked and signed turn-off to The Wave. Not to be lost, I had a Garmin GPS, a Brunton compass, and a topographic map! It is not unusual for hikers to "find" The Wave but become lost on their hike out. (Happened to a party of 3 the day we visited!) Must not have ever taken Field Geology! Actually, Maureen and I were surprised at some of the people in the lottery process - we wondered how these people would even make the hike one-way!
Hiking out across loose sand (I hate trekking through loose sand!) for a half-mile to the first slick rock, then in a southerly direction to The Wave when fresh on the hike is not a problem. However, coming out that afternoon . . . that last half-mile of loose sand was torture! The rocks along the way are spectacular!
We sat under one off the few large juniper trees we saw and ate lunch. Then to the right of the twin peaks, and the goal was in sight!
There is a "crack", actually an eroded fracture that appears as a dark line - the picture does not do the actual sight justice - and The Wave is immediately under the crack.
But we still had a distance to go and plenty to see.
A two and a half hour hike, plus about 30 minutes for lunch, we reached The Wave about 2pm. But that is for the next post!
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