The Wave is the rare landscape where the photograph is the easy part. The striped sandstone trough in Coyote Buttes North, on the Arizona side of the Utah border, sits inside a federal wilderness that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) limits to 64 visitors a day. There is no ticket booth, no operator who can bypass the rule and no way to pay extra. Every place is drawn by lottery, and most applicants lose. That is the reel hook, and it is also the planning problem: you need to win a lottery to stand here.

So the decisions come in an unusual order. Before a hotel, a hire car or a date, a first-time visitor must decide which of the two lotteries to enter, whether to build a wider south-west trip that can absorb a losing result, and whether the group is equipped for a 10 km route across unmarked slickrock with no shade and no water. This guide works through those choices using BLM and Recreation.gov rules as checked in September 2026.

Why 64 people a day is the whole story

Coyote Buttes North is a small permit area within the 112,500-acre Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, itself part of the wider Vermilion Cliffs National Monument. The BLM caps entry to protect the thin ridges of cross-bedded Navajo sandstone that give The Wave its lines. The cap is measured in people and groups: no more than 64 people or 16 groups per day, whichever fills first, with a maximum of six on any permit. Everyone counts, including carried infants, and two groups may not join up to exceed six.

Those places are split between two systems. Forty-eight people (or 12 groups) are awarded through an online Advanced Lottery run four months ahead, which anyone can enter from anywhere. The remaining 16 people (or four groups) go through a Daily Lottery that can only be entered from a phone physically inside a geofenced perimeter around Kanab, Utah and Page, Arizona, two days before the hike. Both run on Recreation.gov, both charge the same fees, and neither offers refunds, rain checks or date changes.

As checked in September 2026, the BLM allows a maximum of 64 people and/or 16 groups per day into Coyote Buttes North. The permit fee is $7 per person per day, dogs must be listed on the permit at $7 each, and no more than six people may be on one permit. [4]

A permit covers Coyote Buttes North only, not Coyote Buttes South, and it is not the self-pay day permit sold at the Wire Pass trailhead, which covers Wire Pass and Buckskin Gulch alone. No national park pass applies: the BLM states that America the Beautiful passes give no exemption or discount here.

The Advanced Lottery: four months out, from anywhere

If your trip is more than four months away, the Advanced Lottery is the sensible first move. You apply at any point during a calendar month for a permit in the month four months later: applications submitted during September 2026 are for hikes in January 2027. Each application ranks up to three preferred dates, and the draw runs on the first day of the following month at 9 am Mountain Time, with results emailed immediately. Winners must log back in and pay the per-person fee by the 15th of that month or forfeit the place.

Two rules trip people up. Only one application per person per monthly lottery is allowed; a couple who both apply have doubled their odds legitimately, but one person submitting twice is disqualified without refund. And the named applicant must be present on the day, with identification that matches the application. For a fallback, name an alternate permit holder when applying; the alternate must accept an email invitation within three days and cannot be added later. The physical permit is posted four to six weeks after the draw, so make sure your Recreation.gov address can receive mail.

As checked in September 2026, Recreation.gov lists a non-refundable $6 application fee for each Advanced Lottery entry, a $7 per person recreation fee payable only if selected, a draw on the first of the following month at 9 am Mountain Time, and a maximum of three trip dates per application. [3]

The Daily Lottery: how the geofence actually works

The Daily Lottery replaced the walk-in draw in Kanab in March 2022, when the BLM moved it onto a location-aware system in the Recreation.gov mobile app. To enter, one member of the group must be inside a geofence of roughly 3,272 square miles following the US-89 and Highway 389 corridors from around Kanab to around Page, using a GPS-enabled phone or tablet with location on. Desktop browsers are rejected, and the BLM warns that an out-of-date app can fail at payment, so install and update it while you have a signal.

The timing is the part to write down. Applications are accepted between 6 am and 6 pm two days before the hike date, not the day before. Results go out at 7:15 pm, and winners must accept and pay by 8 am the next morning. That same morning, the day before the hike, the named permit holder must appear at 8:30 am local time at the pick-up office chosen at acceptance, either the BLM visitor centre at 745 East Highway 89 in Kanab or the Page-Lake Powell Hub at 48 South Lake Powell Boulevard, for a mandatory safety briefing. Arriving late voids the permit.

In practice a Daily Lottery attempt costs three days: an application day in the Kanab-Page corridor, a briefing morning and the hike itself. Lake Powell and the slot canyons near Page sit inside the fence, and you need not stay within it after submitting; results arrive wherever you have coverage. You cannot hold two applications at once, so each losing day ends before the next 6 am window opens.

As checked in September 2026, Recreation.gov describes the Daily Lottery geofence as an area of approximately 3,272 square miles along the Highway 389 and 89 corridors from Kanab, Utah to Page, Arizona; applications are accepted from a GPS-enabled mobile device between 6 am and 6 pm two days before the entry date, and 16 people or four groups are awarded each day. [2]

Permits are issued for every day of the year, but conditions change: applicants should weigh the likely road and weather situation before entering, because a permit for an unsafe day cannot be rescheduled and the holder must simply decide whether to use it.

— Paraphrased from the Recreation.gov Coyote Buttes North permit conditions

Getting to Wire Pass: the road decides the day

The route starts at the Wire Pass trailhead on House Rock Valley Road, an unpaved BLM road that leaves US-89 between Kanab and Page and runs south towards the state line. Kanab and Page are the realistic bases, and both sit within the geofence. The Paria Contact Station on US-89, about 30 miles west of Page and 43 miles east of Kanab, offers face-to-face road information when open, seasonally from mid-March to mid-November.

The road undoes more Wave plans than the lottery. In dry conditions the BLM says a high-clearance two-wheel-drive vehicle can normally reach the trailhead. When wet, the clay turns to something closer to grease, four-wheel drive may be required, and after heavy rain or snow the BLM states the road can be impassable to all vehicles. Its recommendation for the section between US-89 and Stateline Campground is a high-clearance four-wheel or all-wheel-drive vehicle. If you are hiring a car for a permit trip, that is the line item worth paying for. Carry a full-size spare; mobile coverage is patchy to absent.

The BLM's road and safety notice states that House Rock Valley Road is impassable when wet, recommends high-clearance four-wheel-drive or all-wheel-drive vehicles, and tells visitors to carry and drink at least one gallon (3.75 litres) of water per person per day. [5]

The hike: 6.4 miles with no trail to follow

The BLM describes the suggested route as a strenuous 6.4-mile (10.4 km) round trip that crosses open terrain and requires wayfinding. There is no built trail, few signs and no cairns to speak of. Permit holders receive a route description with a map, photo guide and GPS waypoints, and this, rather than a downloaded track, is the document to trust; the agency warns that user-generated routes on third-party apps have led people into serious trouble. From the trailhead you cross the wash, climb onto the slickrock and pick a line over a broad sandstone shoulder before dropping into the bowl. Most groups take four to six hours, with around 300 metres of cumulative climbing.

The landscape is the reason for the rules. The Wave is two intersecting troughs of polished Jurassic dune sandstone, and the delicacy that makes it photograph well makes it easy to damage. Keep off the thin cross-bedded fins where you can, stay together as the permit requires, and pack everything out, including toilet paper. The area is day use only, camping is prohibited and drones may not take off or land anywhere in the wilderness. The permit covers the whole of Coyote Buttes North, so the smaller formations beyond the main bowl are open to you the same day.

  • Carry a minimum of one gallon (3.75 litres) of water per person; there is no water source on the route and no shade at The Wave.
  • Take the BLM route sheet, a paper map and a compass or GPS device with spare battery, and know how to use them.
  • Wear sun protection and a lightweight long-sleeved layer, plus footwear with grip for slickrock that can be slick in frost as well as rain.
  • Register at the trailhead on the way in and out, keep the permit and photo identification on you, and stay with your group.
  • Leave a plan with someone outside the party and pack enough to spend an unplanned night out; the BLM says 911 cannot be relied upon.

When to go, and when to give the permit back to the desert

Spring and autumn are the comfortable seasons and the hardest to win. From May to September the BLM's language turns blunt: extreme heat, no shade and no drinking water in the permit area have led to fatalities, and late-summer monsoon storms can flash-flood washes and close House Rock Valley Road within an hour. Winter is quieter and the odds are kinder, but a January permit may coincide with snow on the road or ice glazing the sandstone, either of which can make the day unworkable.

Because permits cannot be moved or refunded, the honest question is what you will do if the weather is wrong; the BLM's position is that you decide. Build the Wave day into the middle of a longer stay in Kanab or Page, so a washout still leaves you Lake Powell or the guided slots near Page. For light, the formation sits in a bowl: mid-morning to early afternoon sun reaches the floor and lights the stripes evenly, while low golden-hour light flatters the rims but leaves the lower curves in shadow. In hot months, earlier is better regardless.

Costs, guides and what to do if you lose

The money is modest, which is part of what makes the scarcity so pure. As checked in September 2026, each application costs $6 and is non-refundable whether or not you win; a successful group then pays $7 per person and $7 per dog, with dogs allowed but not counted against the quota. If your group holds a permit, one authorised guide can accompany you without counting towards the six-person limit; guides cannot get you a permit, because they compete in the same lotteries. For a group nervous about navigation, a guide is money well spent.

Losing is the most common outcome, so plan for it. The self-pay permit at Wire Pass gives access to Wire Pass and the mouth of Buckskin Gulch on the same road you would have driven anyway. Coyote Buttes South runs its own lottery with a rougher road but similar geology. White Pocket, deeper in the monument, needs no permit but does need a capable four-wheel-drive in deep sand. None is The Wave, but each is a fine day on the Paria Plateau, and each keeps you inside the geofence for the next 6 am window.

The Wave rewards travellers who treat the lottery as a season of planning rather than a single roll of the dice. Fold it into a wider Colorado Plateau loop and the losing days take care of themselves: pair it with the guided slots in our Antelope Canyon guide, add a second earned hike with our Angels Landing permit guide two hours west in Zion, or push north to the geysers on our Yellowstone and Grand Teton road trip. And if winning access has become its own kind of travel, there are more places that make you work for them in our adventure travel bucket list.

Sources & further reading

  1. 1. US Bureau of Land Management — Coyote Buttes North (The Wave) permits and lotteries
  2. 2. Recreation.gov — Coyote Buttes North Daily Lottery (The Wave), permit 4251909
  3. 3. Recreation.gov — Coyote Buttes North Advanced Lottery (The Wave), permit 274309
  4. 4. US Bureau of Land Management — Coyote Buttes North Daily Lottery FAQs
  5. 5. US Bureau of Land Management — Coyote Buttes road conditions and safety
  6. 6. US Bureau of Land Management — Coyote Buttes permits and regulations
  7. 7. US Bureau of Land Management — Vermilion Cliffs National Monument
  8. 8. Hiking Guy — The Wave hike, Coyote Buttes North