I don’t remember how I learned of ‘The Wave’. It might have been through a friend or researching sights around Grand Canyon. But having it on my ‘100 places to see before you die’ poster motivated me to get there.

It was extremely hard to get a hiking permit for Coyote Buttes North, popularly known as “The Wave’. 300+ people attempt to win permits through a daily lottery but only 2-10 people are successful. The odds were low but I decided to start trying every month for the price of a coffee ($5 entry fee). Some people reported they had tried every month for 6 years with no success but somehow on my second attempt, I won a permit for 4 people! I invited Yuliya and Adam as they told me they wanted to go during our Havasu trip last year. Of course, they jumped on the rare opportunity. Then, we all agreed to extend this trip to snowboard in Park City, Utah (about 5-hour drive from The Wave). 

Thursday March 14, 2019

We flew into Las Vegas after work, picked up a rental SUV, stopped for dinner and drove about 3 hours towards Kanab, Utah. It was a pretty late check in at the Best Western. We were all beat and passed out. 

Friday March 15, 2019

With 5 hours of sleep, we had a big breakfast at Kanab Creek Bakery. Then we drove another hour to Wire Pass, the nearest trailhead to ‘The Wave’. The clay dirt road (House Valley Rd.) truly does becomes impassable when wet. Luckily, it was not an issue for us.

Slow and steady, we drove through dried streams and in between tire-made trenches. The weather was cool (low of 0°C and high of 10°C) but it was sunny without a cloud in the sky. 

The actual hike was relatively easy, about 6 miles in and out but the trail is unmarked and you need to navigate with a GPS. We started our hike around 11:00am but made a wrong turn and ended up on the other side of sand hills. The way to correct our course was to turn back and go around or cut through the hill. Since we were worried about time, we decided to climb over the hill.

It was quite an adventure… where we were literally bouldering and climbing up steep rocks. My legs were exhausted but we successfully got back on the actual route. The added effort was not all for nothing. We did see a cool spot on the hill where it started looking like the wave and had a pond in the middle. 

As we approached The Wave, a ranger checked our permits. If we didn’t have one, we could be fined for up to $10,000! The ranger showed us a secret picturesque spot above a rock and told us to climb up a little further and walk around a small pond.  

Once we got to the Wave, it was to my surprise that it was much smaller than expected. Yuliya and I weren’t even sure if this was The Wave but the ranger confirmed it was. It was beautiful nonetheless. Our timing was perfect as well since the shadows were minimal and didn’t hid the patterns. 

We met a few more groups but everyone was respectful and we took turns taking photos without people in the background. The unique rock formations photographed so beautifully and vivid. I would even say it looks better on camera than it looks in real life. 

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We explored ‘The Second Wave’ for a paler version of the patterns. It was still beautiful and the views afar were astonishing. No one was here but us. 

We ate our packed lunch on top of The Wave admiring the red unique landscape. The shadows changed in our favor and we got to see another corner of the wave out of shade.

Then we hiked the proper trail back to our car. It was much easy compared to our route in and there was still lots to see. Despite getting lost at the beginning, it was a very successful hike in perfect weather. I couldn’t imagine how hot it would be in the summer —hiking without shade and potentially getting lost like us.

We had a long drive ahead of us as we were going up north to Park City. Utah for a snowboarding weekend. After driving for 5 hours,we returned our rental car at the Salt Lake City airport in exchange for a 40-minute uber ride to Park City Resort. We arrived around 12:30am and passed out like babies.

Saturday March 16, 2019

Our AirBnB was only a 15-minute walk to the Park City Resort ski lifts. It was so convenient. But first, we had a quick breakfast from Campos Coffee and the resort village. We then quickly got ourselves on the chairlifts and began exploring this mountain. 

This resort was huge. On our first day, we didn’t even make it to the edge of the resort. We finished the ‘Cloud Nine’ area and had to make our way back. The lifts were not particularly fast and you have to zig zag your way across the mountain to get to the other side.

With our late start, we powered through until the lifts started to close. We were rushing to make the quicksilver gondola and just made it on as one of the last people for the day. 

Our apres ski adventure led us to the Main Street village for an Italian dinner at Vinto. Main Street was very lively, charming and lots to see and shop. It reminded me a lot of Breckenridge in Colorado. We ended the night with our condo’s hot tub. It was a perfect day. 

Sunday March 17, 2019

Chi and I woke up earlier to explore the snowboarding shops that had “Blowout Sale” signs outside. I found a new jacket and Chi got new snow pants. We then met up with Yuliya and Adam at the same coffee shop for breakfast. We were ready for our second day on the mountain. 

This time we were not going to venture far and focus on the west side of the resort. We headed up near Jupiter’s Peak, at the top of McConkey’s Express for the best view I saw at Park City. While it wasn’t as beautiful Whistler or Banff, it was still nice and comparable to Colorado. On our way down the Georgeanna run, Yuliya and I collided into each other back to back. 

Chi and I ended up going down Powder Monkey and it was pretty challenging since it was narrow between trees with lots of bumps. It was memorable for sure. There were some blue runs that were too flat, some that were steep or a odd mix of both (e.g. Jupiter Access to Thaynes Canyon). It wasn’t consistent terrain for snowboarding. I would love the start of a blue run but then hate the rest because it was too flat…

We boarded down towards the Main Street and it’s town lift. It was convenient for people staying in the town and had a beautiful view of the city on the way down. 

Our last area was King Con express. For Chi and I’s last run, we wanted to take an easy blue out (Gotcha Cut-off) but never saw this exit. So we had to go back up and  take a black diamond run called Erika’s Gold to the main village. This black diamond was very steep and icy. I just leaf’d it down but slid and couldn’t stop sliding down the mountain on my bum. It wasn’t fun but it wasn’t painful or scary. I dug my snowboard into the ground as brakes and eventually stopped. This had to be the steepest run I’ve ever done. 

We headed back to the main village and recharged with hot dogs. We then hit the hot tub for a bit before a low-key cup noodles dinner before our flight back home. 

It was a short getaway but it felt really long given what we did. We had great weather. I liked Park City and would return to Utah for Snowbasin but Whistler and Banff still are the top of my list. I didn’t love the runs and there weren’t any unique terrain elements like open glades, a bowl etc. The views were nice but incomparable to Whistler when you’re above the tree line. We lucked out with bluebird day as apparently Park City only had five and we got two of the season.