Saturday was the big day for hiking into The Wave. First we had to negotiate an 8.5 mile nasty dirt track to the Wire Pass Trailhead. No mention of The Wave is anywhere, but there is a sign saying “permits only.” After we won the lottery we were told to stick around for our introduction, safety lecture and directions. They handed out a colored flyer with 11 pictures of the route in and out to The Wave. There is no trail. The Ranger said it would take 2 hours out and 2 hours back and to take a gallon of water per person, food for 24 hours, and enough warm gear in case we had to spend the night; i.e.. in case we got lost. No GPS, or cell coverage. We had to rely on a compass and the pictures with landmarks. It is supposedly 6.6 mile roundtrip hike. The Ranger advised that most people take 2 hours in and two hours out. (plus add in the time you spend at The Wave.) We left at 9 AM and got back at 5 PM. ummmmmmm? Why is that you ask? It was hard hiking. Lots of ups and downs, slabbing over rocks and slogging through sand and the fact that we are a bit older than the average Wave visitor!!!
It was a high desert area with temps in the 90’s. There was a nice gentle wind that sometimes increased to the sand blast stage. On the way back I rolled my shirt sleeves down and put on the pants legs to my convertible pants. Our Osprey hydro packs worked really well and we both carried a gallon of water each and consumed at least 3 litres each. The maps for going out were easy to follow as the physical features seemed to be very evident. Coming back was another ball of wax as the pictures didn’t show many features. Going out we looked back constantly to memorize where we had been, and even took pictures. But despite that we got off track coming back several times, but since there is no real trail, our compass helped us stay pretty much in the area in which we needed to be.
There was a nasty, with a capital “N”, final slog up two steep slopes of sand dunes to enter The Wave. They make you earn your lottery pick to go to The Wave on that last slog. The sand dunes are reddish rather than the typical sand color that might come to mind. We got in some shade as soon as we arrived and sat down and ate and refreshed before exploring the actual Wave area. Pretty amazing geology, striations, colors and work of natural forces of wind and water. It is truly a special place and unfortunately is being degraded by even the 20 people allowed in on any given day. Not only were there linear color changes in the rocks but each color change is weathered more or less than the next line, so that it was truly a wavy walking surface.
I took both my iPhone set on “Chrome” and a regular Canon point and shoot. Tony had a new Canon with a great telephoto lense.
The foot way we covered was exposed rocks and sand. The kind of sand that you take a step forward and slide 1/2 way back. There were all kinds of desert growth and a few lizard type creatures. Luckily, no snakes!!! Even though it was desert there were some small stunted trees and they provided the only shade we could find along the way. You can’t go out to a place like The Wave if it is or has been raining. The water runs off so fast rather than seeping into the desert that it creates torrents of raging water and impassable red mud. The road in to the trail head went down in and across some dry stream beds which would have been raging rivers if it had rained. Being spring we were lucky to see a myriad colors of cactus in bloom - yellow, fuchsia, orange, red, blue, white and pink.
It was very quiet except for the wind and our heavy breathing. We were up above 8,000 ft so it makes your heart work much harder than at sea level.
When we got back and took showers we were rubbing off layers of salt from sweat evaporation and red sand stone grit. Well worth the trip but at this age I think this will be the last time we attempt such a strenuous hike and conditions. A truly once in a lifetime experience. It is a place that most people will never get to see so we feel lucky that we won that lottery and completed the adventure.
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