The Wave & Coyote Buttes North
Photography by Richard Rathe 2024
We got to the trailhead about 8:30 and signed the register. Frosty morning! The first third of the trail was easy, with marker posts along the way. From there the trail became more diffuse and we had to rely on visual landmarks. We climbed one last sandy slope out of an arroyo and we were there!

The entrance to The Wave is a long curved corridor of twisted stone stripes with no real floor. The stripes vary in both color and indentation. It’s a remarkable visual/tactile surface! The actual Wave is tulip-shaped, looking a bit like a skateboard park designed by Dr. Seuss. There was an ephemeral pool at the lowest point.
After taking it all in we walked up and out of the central bowl and on to a plateau with frozen ponds and fantastic stone shapes that looked like giant cauliflower. The Second Wave is just beyond this—a single long fluted wall of striped stone.
At that point we sat down on some pillow-shaped rocks and ate lunch.
The Coyote Buttes are part of the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument in Arizona.