dust and starlightUtah / Arizona
The Wave and Wire Pass
Coyote Buttes North and The Wave in late-October light, and the Wire Pass slot into Buckskin Gulch from the same trailhead on the Utah–Arizona line.
19 photos
When
Coyote Buttes North, The Wave included, in late October 2025, in warm late-morning and golden-hour light; Wire Pass on an April morning. Late October is simply when our permit landed: we'd applied 24 times before we got one. Spring and fall are the milder seasons out there; in summer the BLM asks hikers to plan for serious heat and carry at least a gallon of water per person.
Getting there
Coyote Buttes North is permit-only, and it's enforced: three different people checked our permit, and we saw a few parties hiking without one get turned around by volunteers who carry two-way radios to BLM law enforcement. As of 2026 the BLM lets in 64 people a day, in groups of up to six: 48 through an advance lottery on Recreation.gov four months ahead, and 16 through a daily lottery you enter on your phone two days ahead from inside the geofence around Kanab and Page. The suggested route to The Wave is a strenuous 6.4-mile round trip from the Wire Pass trailhead. Wire Pass itself needs only a day-use permit, $6 per person as of 2026, sold at the trailhead or on Recreation.gov.
About these photos
Coyote Buttes North came in late October 2025, built around a permit for The Wave — the sandstone swirl itself, a rain pool caught in its curve, the sky reflected in the pool, and hikers at the water for scale. Getting there and back crossed slickrock and a long crossbedded slope where we ran into a band of desert bighorn sheep, then a full herd working across the rock a little later in the day.
Wire Pass was a different trip: an April morning in 2025, the morning after Horseshoe Bend, walking the slot toward Buckskin Gulch past a wedged ladder and flood logs jammed overhead.