USA/UT & AZ: Back to the Wave at Coyote Buttes
The Wave! In my humble opinion, this is the most spectacular natural sight in the USA, if not in the world! Only 20 people are allowed per day – 10 selected by lottery the day before and 10 booked online many months in advance. A strenuous hike up and down a sandstone ridge without any trail and very unsure footing takes about 2-3 hours one way. The Wave is beyond stunning to the point of otherworldly and surreal – as if a magic wand froze the ocean and turned it into stone. Geologically, these are petrified sand dunes of soft Navajo sandstone, eroded and sculpted by wind and rain and water torrents over centuries. You can stand on the wave, lie, jump, walk. Or you can climb one of the buttes above the wave for a truly panoramic view – my head span as I climbed up as the scenery totally gets you dizzy. The buttes look like stone ice cream cones! The Wave gets me gasping in awe every time I see it (6 times now), and I can only imagine what it feels like for somebody to see it for the first time.
