The Wave

From Wire Pass Trailhead, the route leaves House Rock Valley Road and follows the open desert toward Wire Pass, crossing sandy washes and sparse high-desert flats before entering the remote backcountry of Coyote Buttes North, a permit-only section of the Paria Canyon–Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness known for its fragile sandstone scenery.

Beyond the first wash corridors, the itinerary turns across pale slickrock, low ridges and sculpted Navajo sandstone, with the Vermilion Cliffs landscape opening around the route; Plateau Rock appears as a useful landmark before the terrain becomes increasingly marked by rounded domes, shallow bowls, fins and striped stone.

The final approach reaches the celebrated formation of The Wave, where flowing bands of red, orange, cream and pink sandstone create a natural amphitheater of cross-bedded rock, surrounded by the quiet desert textures of Coyote Buttes North and the broader Vermilion Cliffs wilderness.

#Hiking #Nature #Rock #Wilderness #Desert #Sandstone #Slickrock #Canyon