Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness: The Wave

Blog Post by: Samantha

For the third day in a row, we awoke at half-light to drive down a secluded road, a rocky and haphazardness obstacle to our next hike. We clung to our rare and sought after permit (the Bureau of Land Management only gives permits to 3% of the requests) and began our journey to The Wave, a formation compromised of a rainbow of red rock, like a rainbow streaming out of the desert’s desolation. However, up to 30% of people granted permits are not able to find The Wave, and simply experience an unforgiving desert. Luckily, Dad loaded GPS waypoints so that we had an easier time finding the elusive formation. As we tracked through the sand next to mesas and searched for the waypoints, our legs burned from our hikes the previous days, making this one more challenging. When at last we climbed up a mesa to see The Wave we were thoroughly flabbergasted by the walls of the formation and its pristine pop of color in the midst of the desert. The Wave is truly a geological marvel; and even though we were on the brink of exhaustion, I will forever be glad we made the hike to see this psychedelic rainbow hidden among the mesas.