How we didn't catch the Wave

This is the infamous Wave that I wanted to see in Vermillion Cliffs. Not our photo as we were stymied in our attempt. Credit Arizona Highways, a magazine my father sold lots of his photos to

Toasdstool section of Grand Staircase Escalante

Hike through Buckskin Gulch Vermillion Cliffs

Occasionally it does rain. Tomorrow or the next day this place will be hammered by Hurricane Rosa. No winds but all the slot canyons will be flooded

me

I liked the sun coming up over the rock

me again. Should have worn something else

our twisty winding walk to the Toadstools. Only a mile but with all the scrambling up and down, not easy

Steve and toadstool

water is rare

after lunch we backtracked over to the Arizona side of the Vermillion Cliffs. This is the Colorado River

lots of big rocks

Various shelters were made from them

this does not look stable

I was very excited about seeing the Wave section of the Vermillion Cliffs. However I did not do enough research in advance. The ebullient NYC born owner of our gourmet restaurant however had filled us in the night before. 

Step 1: Go to the Kanab office of the Vermillion Cliffs (fortunately we were in Kanab already) early in the morning. Fill out an application for a permit and pay some sort of fee. Stick around for the lottery at 9 am. Ten permits that day were drawn from 140 applicants according to the ranger we found in the Cliffs.

Step 2: Drive 40 miles to find the most obscure dirt path (we went by it) and drive 10 miles to the trailhead. (more about that cowpath later)

Step3: Walk 3 miles on an unmarked trail through gulches, snakes, what have you. They recommend a guide as getting lost in a desert with no cell service can be bad. They recommend satellite phones.

Step 4: walk back

The restaurant owner said the dirt path was not bad and told us that we should take it the 40 miles down to the state road in Arizona. Even with a 2WD vehicle we should have no problems. Ha!

We went to a different ranger station to get some advice on how to find the road. She told us about a different scenic path that had an area better than the Wave if we would just walk 3 or 4 miles. Again the trails aren't marked though there are washes to follow. She also told us about the Toadstools which I hadn't heard about.  So we did find the road. We just needed to go down 4.5 miles. Steve could not go faster than 10 mph and had to crawl more slowly through different sections. Some were sandpits and worse, big gas tank ripping boulders. We had a rental car and I am sure this would violate our agreement. If something happened, we couldn't even call anyone.  We went down the alternate trail which was pretty until I felt I couldn't retrace our steps. I did have my gps on in case we got lost. So we only went down 2 miles or so...long enough. It was pretty. Then backtracking on the awful path (no way would we take it to Arizona as originally planned)  The Toadstools were cool too.

Another opportunity we missed out is going into Antelope canyon. You have to make reservations in advance and pay lots and lots of money to a guide. The best times are in the morning when the sun hits the canyon the right way. Well we couldn't get there early and the slots were filled up. We couldn't even figure out what time it is there. Page Arizona where their offices are, is in Navaho Nation which has the same time as Utah. The canyon itself is in some non-Navaho Nation Island which has Arizona time. We passed on that.

We stopped at the Glen Canyon dam where the Colorado River is dammed up to form Lake Powell. Apparently the lake goes on for miles and is quite stunning against all the red rock formations, best seen from a boat. We ate at a crepe place in Page run by Navahos and then decided to attack the Vermillion Cliffs from the other direction. an interesting drive.

Back to Page where we stayed with dog rescuers. Lots of dogs leaping on us. The people were nice but the bed was lumpy...not ideal.