TWENTY.
That’s how many humans get to walk The Wave each day, lest hiking boots erode in decades what took wind and water hundreds of millions of years to create. And while it can be tempting to try to hike The Wave without a permit… I wouldn’t recommend it!
Try wrapping your head around this: more people visit the Eiffel Tower in an hour and the Grand Canyon in a day than hike The Wave in an entire year.
Those 20 permits are scarcer than water in the desert, so when I got an email on April 1 telling me I’d won the lottery I thought it was an April Fool’s joke.
3 months later there I was, ripping a hot pink, Comic Sans-printed paper permit off my backpack (now sweat-stained, sunscreen-smeared, and bleached by the Arizona sun) as I stumbled back into #RubySuetheSubaru after the hottest hike of my life.
Sure, I’d won the lottery, but for the worst date possible: a Wednesday in the middle of July.
I wasn’t sure we’d make it: not everyone who gets that permit actually finds The Wave.
Summer monsoons and winter snows can turn the clay access road to liquid concrete impassable by even the most rugged 4WD. Ironically, you can miss seeing The Wave because it’s too wet.
And even if the weather holds, you have to find the damn thing — through 3 miles of quicksand, mirages, and unmarked slickrock in 100°+ heat.
Spoiler alert: we found it! 😁
This story originally appeared on Instagram. For more like this in real-time, follow me on IG @bonjourbecky and sign up for my newsletter here!
More on The Wave to come, including how to snag permits! Anything you’re especially curious about? Let me know below.
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