OBSESSED WITH THE WAVE
For many years I have been longing to hike The Wave in Southern Utah. I have participated in the Advanced Lottery in which you try to get a permit 4 months in advance. Even with several people trying we lost. I knew that we might have better luck with the daily lottery so I scheduled three weeks in Kanab, Utah, where my husband and I would apply daily until we succeeded.
February 25-28:
Road trip…Omaha, Nebraska…Oklahoma City, Oklahoma…Albuquerque, New Mexico…Kanab, Utah…
26 hours of driving!
-entertained Doug with 70’ trivia, listening to a book about an inept guy hiking the Grand Canyon and listening to Dateline episodes
-entertained myself with entertaining Doug, embroidery, making a list of truck names, looking up random stuff when we had questions, playing games on my iPad
HIGHLIGHTS: good driving weather, singing with the oldies, Spam Museum, looking for postcards in tacky gift shops, trying to find Route 66, discovering Foss, Oklahoma and visiting the Foss Cemetery, buying a UV light to look for bark scorpions, eating sopapillas and discovering that Albuquerque is one of the most crime ridden cities in the United States (proven by the number of guards and patrol seen in our immediate vicinity)
March 1: Recovery from driving and orientation to the Kanab area
– Amazing rental! Tons of space and interesting decor. Doug gave me the bedroom suite with the giant bathtub!
– Great sleep!
– Tasty breakfast at Jakey‘s, stop at post office, lots of places closed on Sundays here!
– Groceries are about 30% costlier than at home
– Sitting on the front porch now with a wide view and perfect weather, I needed an escape from Minnesota!!!
Made a little investigative trip to Tilted Mesa Park…walked a bit to review which paths we might bike and hike tomorrow. I was filled with wonder at the rock formations and forbidding dryness.
March 2nd-Applied for the second time to The Wave lottery. I wonder if we will lose every day for three weeks!? Then we went back to Tilted Mesa for a hike and a bike ride. My walk was easy peasy and the scenery was quite striking. Doug’s ride was less straightforward. He took a wrong turn ending up in treacherous terrain so there was some walking of the bike! He returned to the car frustrated. I returned to the car happy!
March 3- Returned to Tilted Mesa. This time I took a wrong turn after changing route in order to see Chocolate Canyon! It was a wonderful walk. I am in OK shape! Doug had a much better ride today.
In the afternoon we tried to go to The Great Chamber, a cool land formation. I had a bit of difficulty with the definitions of OHV, 4WD and AWD so I assumed our Subaru was good to go! I was wrong. On one hand, Doug is foolish to trust me but on the other hand, he has little speed or aptitude for planning. Our first problem was a wide, deep channel in the road that had to be carefully straddled. After plowing through deepening sand, we turned around, barely, one mile in.
March 4-Applied for permits again! Such losers! The deal is that it is protected land and only 64 people total are allowed to be in the area of the trail each day. I think that is wonderful except for when I am one of the people trying to get on the trail.
We ventured to a different place, about an hour away, near Page Arizona. They are billing it as the NEW Wave hike. It was splendid! So many ripples of texture and millions of lines etched into the rock… Wonderful shapes and colors… It was a simple 2 mile walk and didn’t cost us a dime! When we returned from there in the evening, we checked our lottery and I lost again. The good news is, I am married to somebody who won! I love him so much!
March 5-today has been a lazy day after waking up early for our permit pick-up and the orientation for hiking The Wave tomorrow. I am so psyched!!!
It is very nice that it rained and was a bit chilly today because I have lots of stuff to catch up with! We are headed to Kanab to ride and bike in Dry Canyon now that the rain has stopped. I am afraid that Dry Canyon might be DAMP CANYON now!
