The Wave

The Wave is a remote sandstone formation on the Coyote Buttes of northern Arizona near the Utah border, renowned for its sweeping colored bands, ribbed textures, and intersecting troughs carved into Jurassic-age Navajo Sandstone. Runoff first cut the troughs, but wind became the main force shaping the formation as local drainage declined. Its layered rock preserves evidence of ancient desert dunes, and some deformed laminae may record trampling before the sand hardened, while nearby areas have yielded dinosaur tracks and arthropod burrows. Because the fragile site is easily damaged, access is tightly limited by permit, and hikers must navigate an unmarked desert route to reach it.

Arizona · United States