The Wave

You've probably seen pictures of it. Microsoft has a shot of it in its stock art for screen savers on Windows 7: Wavy lines of sandstone with a blue sky. It's called, "The Wave." Image searches online will turn up lots of pictures of it.

The hardest part of seeing The Wave is getting a permit to hike to it. There's a lottery for the 20 passes per day. We applied months before our trip, hoping to win. We were fortunate to get passes for the four of us.

So we made our hotel reservations to stay in Page. We read about the treacherous road that leads to the trailhead. We read about the hike. Stories of people getting lost, overheated, dehydrated are out there. So we rented a four wheel drive car with high ground clearance and hoped for good weather. We packed plenty of water and snacks. I loaded the waypoints into the GPS. I brought spare batteries for it. And I packed a compass too. We laid out warm clothes, layers, hats, gloves.

We left the hotel at first light, crossing the Colorado River near the dam, and then we headed into Utah. We found the dirt road, House Rock Valley Road. I put the car into 4-wheel drive. We took it slowly, with washboard surfaces on much of the road. Fortunately, we had worried for nothing. The road was rough, narrow in places, with drop-offs and some curves, but it was hard-packed and nowhere was it dangerous or slippery. Had it been wet or icy, we would have had trouble. After eight miles of creeping along, we reached the trail head, with only one other car there. We put the parking permit in the windshield, signed the book, bundled up (it was 20 degrees F), grabbed our backpacks, and started walking. I used the GPS to navigate between waypoints while my daughter kept the written instructions handy and we walked from landmark to landmark. We took it slowly, stopping now and then to take photographs and sip water. After three miles of up/down on sand/slick rock, we climbed the last bit out of a sandy dry stream and were suddenly at The Wave. There was one person there, otherwise we had it to ourselves. We put our gear down, snacked, drank, and explored.

On the trail to The Wave

It was Cold!

On the Trail

Almost there (formation near the Wave)

The Wave

The Wave

The Wave

The Wave

The Wave

The Wave

On the trail back to the car

The hike was not especially strenuous. It's high altitude and there are some hills to climb and descend, sometimes on deep sand, sometimes on slick rock. It's a workout, but not tough if you're in shape and have good knees.

The BLM instructions to find it were spot-on. It's easy to retrace your steps back out by just following your GPS track.

The Wave itself is not large. It's about the size of a movie theater.

We made the hike at the beginning of Winter, near the solstice / shortest day of the year. We had plenty of daylight because we started early. There were people leaving the trailhead as we arrived back at our car. I think they likely finished the walk in the dark. One of them asked about getting to The Wave. I said, "The instructions you got with your permit should show you the way." He said, "What? You need a permit?" And then he started down the trail... So he (and his family) started late, without water, and presumably without a permit. Not good.

We had a great time. The trip back to Page was uneventful, and that hot shower and juicy burger were wonderful when it was over.

House Rock Valley Road was not difficult; just bumpy. I wouldn't try it after a rain; there are stretches of clay that are surely very slippery when wet. I wouldn't try it after a snowstorm; there are some deep ditches and steep hillsides that would not be fun to slide into.