Arizona
It’s best to capture the Wave in midday light, when there are no shadows to obscure the spectacular display.
In a landscape littered with bizarre sandstone formations, the Wave stands out as downright psychedelic. Sitting on the Arizona side of the Arizona–Utah border, these colorful petrified sand dunes have been sculpted into fantastically undulating waves. An aerial perspective reveals bright orange, red, and yellow stone formations, crisscrossed by taffy-like lines.
During the Jurassic Period, this part of Arizona was buried under an immense sand dune field. Periodic changes in the direction of the prevailing winds led to irregularly inclined angles of sand layers (cross-bedding), as the dunes migrated across the landscape. Over time, these layers were lithified into bright orange Navajo Sandstone more than 1200 feet thick.
The thin ridges and ripples preserved at the Wave are evidence of millions of years of shifting wind patterns. Called wind ripple laminae, these lines are part of what make the Wave so photogenic. From the air, the lines highlight the now-frozen movement of the ancient dunes. Nearby checkerboard patterns are created by freeze-thaw weathering of the petrified dunes, resulting in crosshatching of the sandstone. Dinosaur footprints have also been identified in the rocks near the Wave, relics from ancient travels across the dunes.
Changing wind patterns at the time of deposition helped create the Wave’s ropey patterns. Iron oxide accounts for the technicolor hues.
The Wave is located in the Coyote Buttes region of the Paria Canyon–Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, on the edge of the Colorado Plateau.
Cross-bedding such as that displayed at the Wave occurs when layers of sand are laid down in changing wind conditions, forming dunes with irregularly inclined layers. When the dunes are lithified into rock, the colorful patterns are preserved.
The Wave is located within the Coyote Buttes area of the Paria Canyon–Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, toward the bottom of the Grand Staircase that descends through canyon country. Hidden in the backcountry several miles from the nearest dirt road, the Wave was virtually unknown until the 1990s, when it was featured in German travel brochures of the U.S. Southwest and in the 1996 German nature documentary, Faszination Natur. Popularity among Europeans soared and the site soon became one of the most sought-after photography spots for foreign travelers visiting the United States.
Photographs taken here are so coveted that the park service imposed a unique permit lottery system to keep the delicate area from being overrun by snap-happy tourists. Only twenty people a day are allowed to visit. Ten permits are awarded through an online lottery months ahead, and ten permits are given out the day prior at the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument visitor center in Kanab, Utah. During the summer, more than a hundred people a day vie for the ten in-person permits.
You’re only likely to fly over the Wave on a specially chartered scenic flight. The formation is located on the Arizona side of the Arizona–Utah border, about thirty-five miles east of Kanab, Utah.
