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The centerpiece to the trip.
We started early with a quick breakfast at the hotel, then back to the Coyote Buttes road. Through the mud puddle again and to the parking lot to find the same silver PT Cruiser. We had wondered if it had gotten through the mud puddle. Now we knew. The driver was a photographer from Huntsville, AL. We wound up following him in to the canyon.
Coyote Buttes main attraction is a formation called The Wave - a sandstone formation that looks like ripples of taffy. I’d been there before (about four years ago) and had wanted to return, now that I know more about photography.
The Wave is about 3 miles or so from the parking lot and the trail isn’t really marked. It’s hard to mark a trail to it. Between the slickrock formations and stretches of sand, any trail will disappear the next time the wind blows. We had some good directions, however, and hiked straight to it, taking a couple of rolls of film along the way. The photo to the left is one of the formations we saw on the hike towards the Wave.
We spent a couple of hours in the vicinity of the Wave, pausing to eat lunch and admire the view.
Carl kept trying to stretch out and take a nap, but I’d interrupt him with requests for this or that. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day.
The three photos above show some of the interesting patterns the sandstone in this region contorts itself into. And there were small plants growing just about anywhere dirt could collect, like the crack in the rock in the photo on the right.
The three photos above show three different views of The Wave itself.
The photo to the right shows some ridges of sandstone, standing vertically, with blown sand trying to cover them up.
We got back to the car about 5 pm with only one slight detour from our route in. The GPS came in handy. Oh, and it was an absolutely perfect day - clear, blue sky and warm enough to shed jackets, yet cool enough to be good hiking weather.
On our drive out, we encountered a small car contemplating the mud puddle. The man had crossed the stream on foot and was trying to determine the depth of the puddle. After talking with them for a while, we got them to move back a ways so we could get out (just in case). The woman behind the wheel was laughing like crazy when we pulled up next to her. The sight of mud spraying all directions as we charged through must have been quite something! She shifted into gear and charged through herself. Made it! With that, we returned to the hotel to clean up.
Dinner that night was at Stromboli’s for an excellent pizza and beer. We both fell asleep early.