The Wave is a sandstone rock formation in Coyote Buttes North, a section of Paria Canyon-Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness on the border of Utah and Arizona. It is an exposed, 2.6 mile hike from the Wire Pass trailhead that you don't want to be doing in peak summer.
Before worrying about the hike, you have to worry about getting permits. If you try to go without a permit, a heavily armed employee of the Bureau of Land Management will be waiting to greet you on the trail.
How do you get permits, you ask? Well, you go to a gym in Kanab, Utah at 8 AM and enter a lottery with 300 other people. Then you pray to the gods of sandstone you are one of the 10 names selected that day. This is Sara and Matt grinning from ear to ear after winning.
The hike itself is short but not easy. There is no marked trail, but they give you printouts of important landmarks to help guide you. If you get lost, it means plenty of scrambling over rocks.
Like I said...it's a little exposed.
The money shot.
The Wave itself it an unreal place that needs to be seen to truly understand its other-worldliness.
Cowabunga.
The rest of Coyote Buttes doesn't get nearly enough attention. The whole place is a different planet.