Coyote Buttes South, Paria Canyon-Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness, near Kanab, Utah and Page, Arizona
Coyote Buttes South was made for experiencing nature in its most pristine form. As compared to the North Coyote Buttes, home of the world-famous Wave, the South has much fewer hikers seeking a permit. Yet the land in the South, with its rock piles (also known as teepees), arches, and fins, is visually stunning and completely enthralling. The chance of receiving a permit is drastically increased here, potentially ensuring a brilliant visit to the Paria Canyon-Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness from your base camp in Kanab.
Coyote Buttes South is remote and offers access to delicate features. Striped slickrock, painted over time by iron oxide, offers a fantastic array of reds, oranges, and yellows to feast your eyes upon. Walk among thin fins and arches, as well as the area’s iconic teepees. Note that there are no established trails. Some well-worn paths have been made by hikers choosing the same route over time, but you are free to roam as you please—and it is encouraged to do so.
A Coyote Buttes South permit provides access to exploration in two areas. The first is the scenic Cottonwood Cove that brings you to the Cottonwood Teepees and other attractions just .5-mile to the west. This area also has a number of free standing wind sculpted erosional statues, including “Turtle Rock”, “The Frog,” and “Dali Rock.”
The second area, Paw Hole, is, as mentioned, the spot to go if you only have time for one of the two areas. The colorful formations here sit on a ridge to the west of House Rock Valley. Because of the ridgeline that runs north-south, you can capture amazing light in your photographs at sunrise or sunset. Upon entering at the trailhead, you’ll see the large red rock piles and teepees. You can go through the large corral directly through the teepees, but you will eventually have to cross through barb wire to get to the west side (if you are trying to get pictures at sunset, you will want to be to the west of the formations with the sun at your back). Keep hiking anywhere you please, both around and on top of the rocks. You will see some of the best views and features no more than two miles in, but, really, it’s all good.
https://www.visitutah.com/Places-To-Go/Cities-and-Towns/Kanab/Coyote-Buttes-South
Friday morning, I met with Dreamland Safari Tours, guided by Orion, to hike through Coyote Buttes South.
It is our mission to connect guests with the desert Southwest by providing visceral experiences and education in a backcountry setting that can be challenging to access. We value humility, curiosity, passion, integrity, reliability, engagement, follow-through, and togetherness.
https://dreamlandtours.net/about/
Dreamland got the permit that is required to explore this area, so all I had to do was show up. The drive from Kanab to the trailhead was approximately 2.5 hours of listening to Orion discuss the history and geology of the region. His love for the area was evident in his language and his life story, and really set the scene for what he was about to show the 5 of us on the tour.
The majority of the drive was on rough road and deep sand. When we were about 30 minutes away from the trailhead, Orion took us to the West Bench Pueblo Archeological Site so that while he aired down the tires in preparation for driving through extremely deep sand we could explore. This site is thought to have been used by the Ancestral Puebloans around A.D. 1050-1150. By the time contemporary records of West Bench Pueblo began in the 1960’s, the site had been badly looted and vandalized, but archeologists still discovered over 3,000 ceramics and artifacts in this spot. Today, the foundation to the original structure used for selling and storing goods remains, as well and countless pieces of pottery and broken arrowheads. The site is unguarded and available for anyone who can make it through the drive, but it is illegal to keep anything found. History is meant for everyone, not just those who decide they have the right to bring it home. So I told myself repeatedly, rejecting the temptation to bring home something.
Coyote Buttes South requires a lot of hiking through sand. Soil is quite uncommon in this region because it is so dry. Between the sand trails being constantly swept away by the strong winds and the other terrain being sandstone, there is no clearly defined trail. Exploring the area requires one to pay close attention to each step because the area is so fragile. It takes hundreds of years for the smallest amount of soil to develop while it takes one footstep to destroy it. The rock formations are the results of thousands of years of history, and again, one footstep can destroy it.
The drive alone provides incredible views of the Vermillion Cliffs, but to be IN IT provides an entire new level of appreciation and excitement. We took the Cottonwood Cove trailhead because Orion said this side of the Coyote Buttes gives a more dynamic view of the ranges of colors on the terrain. The trailhead begins with hiking over a small sand dune and then we were were immediately faced with these vibrant mesas.
This is the Coyote Buttes South “wave.” Because the official wave is such a popular bucket-list item for hikers and travelers, the word “wave” is frequently used. Nonetheless, this wave was beautiful. It is incredible to consider how this may have looked like anything else, but millions of years of calcified sand being pummeled routinely by wind results in this geologic wonder. It is exactly as dramatic as it looks in photos. I landed in this spot for quite a while because the other people on the tour were very involved in taking selfies and having photos taken of them here. And everywhere. But, it seemed to take especially long here. I have a lot of feelings on that topic, but I guess I am learning to be a better person. Or something.
My favorite spot here was finding dinosaur prints! Dinosaur prints! You might remember me losing my shit over them the last time I was in Kanab or when I was in Colorado, but here I am losing my shit again. It is possible that the prints we found were not formed in this exact location, that lands shifting may have brought the prints from another region. Regardless, whenever this print was formed, it was formed on this specific piece of sandstone and HERE I AM. The tracks we found were three-toed, called tridactyl. These tracks are dated to be 190-200 million years old. Assuming we understand their foot shape, the tracks seem to lead to a huge sand dune, leading me to wonder what it beneath that dune!
In the end, we only hiked 3.3 miles and 1,247′ elevation gain. I had hoped for more, but I guess I always hope for more…which is where I know I need to grow. I allowed myself to be irritated by the time “wasted” by the other people and their selfies, but again…it is a space I need to grow. I was basically assigned to this hike because when I was talking with Dreamland I was asked if I would rather hike or sight-see. Of course I chose hiking. Hiking through sand is not a joke. When I went to hike the Olympic Coast I knew we would be hiking through sand, so I worked out in effort to prepare for that specifically. But, coastal wet sand is nothing like the sand of the desert, which has been dry for eternity, and deeper than any wet coastal sand. It was challenging at times, but more than the burn in the calves was the burn of how much growing I need to do. I was challenged by sharing my time with non-preferred people. I have friends in the area at the same time I am here, and they are the only ones I want to see. But, that is fucked. Haha butt fucked. Just kidding, that is not what I am saying. My whole jam is connecting people to one another and the outdoors, which means I also need to be able to be in uncomfortable situations with people and the outdoors. My difficulty is that the outdoors has been my safe space, and I need to learn to share that space to be the leader that people think I am. And so it goes in the wilderness. We learn our strengths and our weaknesses. We learn what we want and what we do not want. And the more time we spend in it, the less we are willing to compromise outside of what we learn. Even if it means discovering our own deficits and having to reconcile those.