the wave - secret location?

[Tom Monego]

this is from a yahoo "snapshots - best photos of the week ending feb 17th"

http://news.yahoo.com/photos/snapsho...329423423.html

"Photographer Simon Byrne was one of the lucky few given the secret location of a stunning sandstone formation called The Wave. Simon needed a special permit before he was given "rough guidelines" to find the phenomenon in a remote area of Arizona. Located somewhere in the 112,500 acre Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, the Wave is near the Arizona and Utah border on the slopes of the Coyote Buttes. (Simon Byrne/Rex USA) "


I've never been there, and I know there are a limited number of permits per day, but is this really a secret location?

The folks at the BLM Paria station say it is easier to get in via the morning lottery, but may take 2-3 chances. Also have a four wheel drive vehicle, the road into the hiking trail is nasty. As it has been said just applying on the web has a small chance of succeeding but some do. They also recommend you have a hiking GPS, they will give you the coordinates. We went down to the campground by the ranger station, even there the rocks are interesting. We met the caretaker and he said there were a lot of hikes in the area that have interesting rock formations.

Tom

[Chris Wong]

In case anybody is thinking about going to the old location near Big Water to try to score some walk-in permits, the year round location is now in Kanab, across from the Wendy's in town. The information is on their website. I think they just moved there in the last few weeks.

[Dave Jeffery]

I was there on Thanksgiving day. A woman I met hiking at another park gave me a permit - I just couldn't believe it! She had been trying to get a permit online for 3 years. I just couldn't believe I had a permit handed to me.

I have gone to the ranger station two days in a row previously and not had my number drawn for one of the ten daily walk in permits. There have been over 110 people gathered there for the drawing. I allotted three days of my last vacation to line up for permits but the smoke from the fires in Arizona was drifting north so I turned around and drove to Moab instead.

The first time I went there around 11 years ago I was lucky enough to be able to just grab a permit and get in as a lot less people knew about the area. While hiking I met people that had been looking for the area for 16 years and a couple of women that had been trying to get permits for five years. The location is well know now but good luck getting a permit.

A lot of people get lost at the Wave. On my last hike a family of Europeans arrived at about 3pm and they were asking for directions to the Wave. After shooting the sunset I hiked out in very low light, lost any sign of a worn trail, and ended up crossing the ridge too early and had to scramble a little to get back to the trail.

I didn't see the other group on the way out and when I got back to the parking area well after dark there was a rental car still parked there. There were small sandals in the back and it looked like the family that had been asking for directions had not made it out.

I called 911 and a sheriff responded and he said that there was nothing they could do and that people that get lost just get left out there overnight. It was hot in the afternoon and the group did not look well prepared and they didn't seem to have much clothing so hopefully they were OK. The sheriff said that a lot of people get lost there. It is a wilderness area and I am glad that they haven't plastered the area with signs and trail markers and I hope it stays that way.

It was dark when I hiked in and I ended up backtracking a little to make sure I was on course as the map I had was not detailed enough to show one bend in the creek.

The most spectacular part of the day for me was hiking into the area in the dark. There was a beautiful white frost that lightly covered the pink sand on the trail. There was also frost on all of the surrounding sage brushes which are a nice light blue grey color and the leaves are so small that the frost covers a lot of small areas and edges, which creates a lot of tiny reflections. The reflection of the light from my headlamp made the frost light up like millions of small diamonds. As I was walking down the pink trail it was like walking through a huge tiny diamond display covering all the elevated round sage brushes. This was one of the most beautiful things I have ever experienced.

Having backtracked to check the trail and underestimating a little how much time I needed to get to the Wave and set my camera up I ended up having to run the last mile and grind up the hill into the Wave. I was sweating so hard the ground glass kept fogging up.

This was my first and only day shooting where every single picture was exposed and focused properly and I just couldn't believe all the pictures had turned out when I got them back.

It would be very very easy to get lost hiking in the dark so don't try it unless you know the area very well.

Epic day!

There is a camping area past the parking area on the Utah / Arizona border and it is the only place I remember being where there was no noise at all - none! There is absolutely nothing out there. You can't hear even on bug buzzing around or chirping, no wind through any trees, nothing but absolute silence which is so unusual everywhere now it seems.

[ROL]

So secret that a government agency permits it restrictively, books and calendars feature it, and nearly every shooter I encounter has been there.

It is however, worth the somewhat unstructured hike out there if you're in the area, camera or not. The wave itself is a very small area, and many of the images shown are, as they should should be, composed as to focus on the geometry of the wave formations themselves, rather than the general landscape.

Many years ago, I was "lucky" enough to walk in on a whim the day of a lottery (name on paper in hat) and win one of the 10 spots, pissing off several who had been waiting for days. It was my "tourist" day, basically working my way back home after 3 weeks in the Southwest. By noon I was back at my car, motoring off to the Antelope Canyon to complete a final day of iconic SW landscapes.

BTW, I met a gentleman at the wave from Kanab, who was guiding photographers. I believe, as I barely recall the name, that he is sporadically active here on LFPF.

[Drew Wiley]

They only allow twenty photographers there a day. That's how "secret" it is! The lemming
mentality. Can't anyone find their own compositions? Wonder how long it will be until permanent foot grooves are worn into the sandstone.

[Drew Wiley]

Why??? I can get unique photographs all kinds of places. I grew up a short distance from
Yosemite, owned property there for decades, and have probably taken less than six photos
in Yosemite Valley itself my entire life. The backcountry is a different story. I just don't like herds, and twenty people a day is a herd. But I am damn sick of seeing pictures of
"the Wave". It's become a cliche. A friend of mine wanted me to take him there because I
won a 4WD and sometimes travel the southwest. I told him I would do my best to locate
every famous photography and postcard site in the area, then once there, head in exactly
the opposite direction! I've spent weeks at a time in remote SW canyons with incredible
photo potential without seeing another person. I won't say where.

[Vaughn]

When I was a wilderness ranger for 10 years, people would ask me where I worked and what it is like. I usually told them all the things it did not have (granite peaks, lakes, large creeks, high elevation, etc). It worked -- I'd go out for ten days on the trails and maybe see two or four people the entire time.

[Drew Wiley]

Yeah .. I'll admit I'm an ole hillbilly. When we wandered off into the high country we never
saw anyone unless is was a neighbor out themselves. In the hot deep canyons you never
ever encountered anyone else, but can be really rugged country. I'm not anti-people; I
just prefer solitude for view camera work. Even around here I can find complete solitude
on certain coastal trails or back in the hills if I want. I don't mind it when a few hikers or
trail bike types stop to ask questions or want to look thru the groundglass. They're always
very polite and never interfere until I'm done with the actual shot. Touristy types are a whole different species. I wouldn't mind shooting in Yos Valley this time of year, but the
one thing that would keep me from it is that I like the lower hill country so much better
in the Spring, and you never see other photographers around there - they're all too busy
rushing to the official scenic turnouts higher up.

[Vaughn]

I have photographed a lot in Yosemite Valley -- why? Well, for about 20 years I had a very good friend who lived in a nice-sized house in the Valley (right behind the AA Gallery). He loved having me visit -- even if I brought my three boys (how many long-time bachelor friends welcome three 5-yr old kids into their home?!) He is a great cook and fed us very well. I did even have to pay the $20 entry fee at the gate since I was visiting a friend in the Valley.

So I could visit in the off-season without having to worry about weather. I could wander about and go where the masses were not. We even took a backpack trip from the Wawona Tunnel to Glacier Point, seeing people only the first and last days..while looking down at the bumper-to-bumper Memorial Day Weekend traffic down in the Valley. Camping on top of Sentinal Dome is pretty sweet.

Alas, he is no longer there and my trip there last week meant that I had to camp -- but the campground was only 1/8 full at most and the $100 for five nights is not too bad...after all, they do heat the bathrooms.

Vaughn

[goamules]

I've been to a lot of wavelike sandstone formations, hoodoos, and balancing rocks. But not in places that are advertised secret. Notice the oxymoron? Here is where my daughter and I hiked to last weekend, where I seldom see people or even signs of them. Boulders galore. In another part of Arizona: