The Heart of the Wave

The end of a 3.5 hour hike through the desert and slick rock on the Arizona / Utah border brought it all into view. The months (years, actually) of entering the Wave lottery finally landed us backcountry permits to visit this special place. It's a difficult hike in 100+ degree temperatures and only a handful of visitors are allowed to attempt it each day.

We hit the road before sunrise, with about an hour drive down a rough dirt road, then the hike following only GPS coordinates. We reached the Wave late morning. Every angle of sandstone is literally flowing up and down this formation. After exploring all of it, we took a break to take it all in. We refueled on water and energy bars, snapped a few pics of ourselves to prove we were there, and made our way back in the afternoon sun.

Bucket list item: check.

See more photos of the Wave from an earlier blog post.

Hawaii - Waimea Canyon

It's only been 5 months, suppose I should post those Hawaii honeymoon pics! Here we go.

Our first trek was to Waimea Canyon, a bit bleary-eyed from the 3 flights we had taken the day prior. This place is incredible and known as the 'Grand Canyon of the Pacific.' You've probably seen some of the landscape in Jurassic Park. All of those movies had some filming on Kauai, either in the canyon or on the coast.

This part of of the island is a rainforest (Mt. Wai'ale'ale gets over 450" of rain per year!). While it was 80+ and sunny at the coast, the climb in elevation brought a 20 degree drop in temperature and increased clouds until we were essentially within the rain cloud with there was no visibility. So we later ventured back down a bit to get in a short hike and a better view of the canyon. What a view.