Hiking the Wave

Over the past couple of years I have found so much joy in hiking and exploring areas here in Utah as well as outside of Utah. I have made so many friends and seen so many beautiful things by going on these hikes. 

A few years ago my good friend, Brad (who is now my husband) had been chosen to receive six permits to hike The Wave in Southern Utah. Because of the landscape of this hike they only allow 20 people to hike it per day and to get permits you have to enter a lottery. Brad had tried for three summers to get permits with no luck, so when he found out he was chosen this time it was a big deal!

So six of us hopped in the car on a Friday evening and made it to Kanab around midnight. We all squeezed into one hotel room where we had a short night of not so great sleep! Nevertheless we woke with excitement early to head to the bottom of our 6 mile round trip hike. It was the middle of June in Southern Utah and we were hiking across the border to Arizona, so even at 6:00 am IT WAS HOT!

We had plenty of water, a map and we were ready to go. This hike doesn't have a marked trail and you have to be very careful not to go off course. We had heard of hikers getting lost and suffering from heat exhaustion, but the map helped to point us in the right direction and we luckily had no trouble finding our destination.

The landscape that we saw while hiking was beautiful red rock but it did not prepare us for what we would see when we reached the Wave. It was like nothing we had ever seen before! It was so vibrant and so beautiful.

We stayed and explored the area for awhile before heading on our three mile journey back to our car. We took lots of pictures and we thoroughly enjoyed this (maybe) once in a lifetime opportunity.

I don't know if it was because of sleep deprivation or the heat or if we were just crazy, but instead of heading straight home we found another hike to do, because, I mean.....why not? We are young! We only live once right! Stay tuned for a post about our hike to Lower Calf Creek Falls.