Winning the Lottery: The Wave Edition

I can finally say I won the lottery! Well, one type of lottery. I may not be a millionaire but my life these days is pretty rich. North Coyote Buttes only allows 20 people a day to obtain a permit for this desert phenomena. Months in advance, 10 permits are given away in a lottery with the other 10 permits drawn the day before. The lottery is everyday at 9am MT. 

We submitted an application at least 10 times before finally winning and technically, we didn't even win. Our new friend Jacob put us on his application on Sunday in hopes of winning a permit for Monday and guess what, HE WON! Are we his lucky charms or vice versa? We had just gotten cell service in Zion after hiking The Narrows when we got his text and immediately started freaking out on the shuttle back to the car. We couldn't believe that we finally won, truly a once in a lifetime opportunity. I tried calculating it out and there's less than a 4% chance of winning each time you enter. Of course there's a lot of variables at play here so my math could be completely wrong but you get the significance. Things have been working in our favor all month. Karma, is that you?

Jacob picked us up in his truck and we made our way to the trail head: Wire Pass trail which is down a washboard, sandy dirt road. This is the same trail head we started at for Buckskin Gulch but takes you a different route. I'm glad Jacob drove so I didn't have to put Alejandro (my Mazda3) through that trip again. The best part? There was plenty of room in his truck for the pups so we brought them with! He has a black lab so Harlie was thrilled to have a buddy.

When you win the lottery, the rangers give you coordinates to follow the trail route so we saved those on our downloaded Google Map and set off for our iconic destination. The trail takes you across the Utah/Arizona state boarder, through the Paria Canyon-Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness. We went the last of the afternoon, after work, and there was a storm rolling in so the cloud cover gave some relief from the sun and made for great photo lighting. We were definitely the last group out for the day, there was no one around making it even more epic.

The wave creeps up on you, you climb up the sandstone and then you're suddenly in the middle of it. It's AWESOME. The layers of sand pop and as you wind around each corner to find a cool new view. Harlie had a field day running around scoping out every corner.

It's safe to say this was probably my favorite view yet. It's just so unlike anything we've seen and such a hidden gem. Thanks to Jacob for being our lucky charm and keeping up with our sense of humor. We had a blast!