The Wave Formation / Coyote Butte Dinosaur Tracks

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North Coyote Buttes - The Wave
The Wave is located on the Colorado Plateau, near the Utah and Arizona border. The area is a gallery of gruesomely twisted sandstone, resembling deformed pillars, cones, mushrooms and other odd creations. Deposits of iron claim some of the responsibility for the unique blending of color twisted in the rock, creating a dramatic rainbow of pastel yellows, pinks and reds.

Paria Canyon contains the spectacular Coyote Buttes Special Management Area. The notorious sandstone buttes sit at the bottom of Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and the upper section of Arizona's Paria Canyon -Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness area.

Permits: From mid-March to mid-November permits will be issued at the Paria Contact Station. From mid-November to mid-March, the Paria Contact Station is closed and permits are issued at the Kanab Field Office. Ten walk-in hikers are allowed and ten daily hikers will be selected through the lottery via online or mail application. With the online/mail permit system you choose three possible dates and submit the request along with a $5 non-refundable fee. Reservations can be made four months in advance. Once received, properly submitted applications will be entered into a computer and then at the first of each month the requested dates will be randomly drawn. If one of the dates you chose is selected, you will be notified. If you opt to use that date, then a permit will be issued for the number of people entered on the original application. The submitted $5 will be applied to the total permit cost

The Wave
36°59.7386N
112°00.3583W
Elevation: 5200'
Distance from parking lot: 2.75 miles

Dinosaur Tracks
From the Wave: The small reptile tracks are on the other side of the wash, opposite of the Wave. To locate them, cross back over the wash and travel up to the level ground on the north side of the wash. Rather than retracing the return path back to Wire Pass parking, hike to the west. Stay against the steep slickrock mountain, as high as possible. The Wave can actually be seen from the tracks. The GPS coordinates given are to one track. Look around to locate many more, within 100 yards. Many of the tracks are found at the base of the steep slickrock slab to the north, and are in pinkish colored rock, just before the slabs become seemingly impossible to ascend. The footprints appear to be from small bipedal dinosaurs, most likely Grallator (Megapnosaurus) and Anomoepus.

Dinosaur Tracks
36°59.860 N
112°00.650 W.
Elevation 5200'

Coyote Buttes Special Permit Offices
Arizona Strip Field Office: 345 East Riverside Drive St. George 435.688.3200.
Kanab Office: 318 N 100 E 435.644.4600
Paria Contact Station: Located south of Highway 89 between mile post 21 and 22, between Kanab and Page, Az.

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Amazing photos!
I'm glad I found your blogs today.