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"Blowing Sands" The lines, patterns, and textures of Coyote Buttes North make the area seem almost magical.
"Melting Pot" Morning light penetrates a hidden canyon in the Coyote Buttes area of Arizona.
"Sandstone Ribbon" Morning light accentuates these ripples in the canyon wall as a lonely tree begins it's daylong drink of life giving light.
Coyote Buttes North, The Wave
Snow on the Wave
Snow on the Wave
Surf's Up! The Wave Coyote Buttes, Arizona After spending 3 days in Zion it was time for another one of our most anticipated parts of the trip: a hike to The Wave! I had been here a year before but the weather conditions weren't ideal for photography here. Hoping that this trip would turn out better Willie, Yan, and I had been monitoring the weather rather closely and kept praying that the clouds and rain from the past couple days would finally leave and give us some blue skies. I think we checked the weather forecast perhaps every 20 minutes to see if we would be in luck! Several months earlier I had applied for and been lucky enough to get a permit for 4 of us to visit the Coyote Buttes North, which includes the Wave. This section of Pariah Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness is on the border between Utah and Arizona. As we hiked the several miles to The Wave we could see the clouds disappearing. We got really excited! It only took us 1.5 hours to reach The Wave and we got here just in time. We were the first to arrive after passing several other groups along the way. We had the entire place to ourselves for about 20 minutes before the others showed up. We also arrived just before the shadows started to creep in. Most people photograph this during the summer, when the sun is overhead and creates less shadow and our early arrival gave us a shadow-free window. A half hour later and the sun dropped huge black spots into the wave. I absolutely LOVE this place. Photographs make this area seem larger than it is, but it's actually quite small. Still, the sweeping lines, beautiful texture, and wind-swept sandstone rock make for an amazing scene. We didn't want to leave, and I'm sure you can see why! I tried a number of different angles but as always, the classic shot is always the best! Later on we found the "Second Wave", a "Brain", and some other interesting rock formations! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S: 17mm, f/16, 1/100 sec, ISO 100 B+W Circular Polarizer
Little Brother The Second Wave Coyote Buttes, Arizona While doing research on The Wave I came across another photographers photo of the "Second Wave", the little brother to The Wave. This area is about half a mile from the main wave and also has some really interesting shapes and textures carved out of the sandstone. When I showed Willie and Yan the photo they both said "Wow, I want to find that!" We were the first group to arrive at The Wave but a group of 4 showed up later. They were very friendly, waited for us to finish, then setup for their shots. One guy had clearly been here before and had gone through the trouble of lugging FOUR cameras (and 4 tripods) so he could leave his cameras at various places and get a number of shots. Eventually we decided to leave and find the Second Wave. Despite having GPS coordinates we couldn't find it! While wandering around I bumped into the guy with his 4 cameras and started chatting with him. Turns out that he had been here 17 times and could take us to the Second Wave. Thanks to our new friend we found the spot! I pulled up the photo we liked on my iPhone and we spent the next 10 minutes trying to find out where exactly the photo was taken. The funny thing was, when we looked up from the iPhone, that our friend had been sitting on the EXACT SPOT the ENTIRE time! I think he must have been internally laughing at us. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S: 60mm, f/11, 1/640 sec, ISO 200
Pano near the wave
"Blowing Sands"

The lines, patterns, and textures of Coyote Buttes North make the area seem almost magical.
"Blowing Sands" The lines, patterns, and textures of Coyote Buttes North make the area seem almost magical.
"Blowing Sands"

The lines, patterns, and textures of Coyote Buttes North make the area seem almost magical.
See photo in original gallery.
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