The Wave, North Coyotte Buttes, Utah

The Wave, Paria Canyon - Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness Area

Labor Day weekend was a perfect reason to escape the hot humid weather of Houston, for a few days of hiking and camping in the Southwest, near Page.
North Coyotte Buttes, in the Paria Canyon area,  is a very protected wilderness area managed by the Bureau of Land Management. They only deliver 20 permits a day, 10 four months in advance, and 10 the day before, both by lottery. Each group under 6 people can submit an application and hope for the best as applications are randomly drawn until the ten permits are delivered. I was one of the lucky ones.

One of the beauties of camping in a wilderness area at the border between Utah and Arizona is that you can admire an amazing sky at night, with billions of stars in the milky way. Another advantage is that you can start walking the trails at dawn, alone. Exploring North Coyotte Buttes is a blast, for those who like desert, photography or rocks. The Wave is certainly the highlight of this place as erosion has carved through a fossilized dune. Indirect lightning of side canyons creates beautiful colors and effects.




This unique location is perfect to compose with curves. One of the main challenges I have faced is to compose pictures in complex lighting. I had to wait hours so shadows would go away. On the other hand, by coming early, I had the chance to observe the variations of colors in this sandstone when the light is reflected by an adjacent wall.