We went to Kanab with hopes of visiting The Wave. A permit is required to hike to the formation and apparently these are hard to come by. The BLM allows 10 people to get online permits in advance (I guess only 4% of applicants get one) and 10 people to get permits from a lottery in Kanab for the next day. Turns out getting one of these permits is an ordeal. You have to show up at the BLM office and put your name on a list. Every party is assigned a number and they pull ping pong balls out of a lottery wheel until the 10 people have permits. I guess people wait years to win. On Saturday there were 100 people at the BLM office hoping to win. The first ball pulled was #33. We won!
We woke up Sunday morning to rain and wind but figured it'd stop shortly. An hour later at the trailhead it was still pouring, temps were in the 30's, and wind was gusting to 40 mph. Not the sunny desert we were expecting. We put on all the clothes we could find and started walking with an umbrella - not cool. Luckily the rain stopped and the otherwise tedious sand was firm and made for easy travel. The cloudy skies and lined red rock were brilliant. I thought The Wave was going to be a disappointment but I was wrong. It would be worth waiting for years to go.
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