Off-Roading to South Coyote Buttes

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than lucky.

Last week, when we visited the BLM visitor center in Kanab, Utah, to try to win a lottery for permits to hike in North Coyote Buttes to see "The Wave," or, failing that, South Coyote Buttes - but failed in the attempt - we happened by the Kane County Visitor Center in downtown Kanab.  There, we were fortunate to encounter a local volunteer who strongly recommended that we visit "White Pockets," a rock formation that, according to him, the locals think is more impressive than The Wave.

We asked him how to get there, and he advised that we needed to hire a tour guide, unless we had a high-clearance 4x4 vehicle to deal with the miles of deep sandy back roads we would have to traverse to get to the little-known formation.  We found a local guiding service, Dreamland Safari Tours, who booked us for a trip to White Pockets.

Two days before our trip, however, the guides called us to say that they had other guests who were trying for a permit for South Coyote Buttes on the same day as our trip.  They offered that we could be added to the permit application, and if they won the lottery, we could join the trip to South Coyote Buttes, as well as White Pockets, provided the others could join us.  We said "Of course!"

As fate would have it, the others won the lottery, and we suddenly had a 14-hour trip to TWO destinations, plus companions to share it with.  Here is our group (L-R):  Joanne, Ray, David, our guide Don, Kathy and Mikael, as we started our day's adventure on Sunday, November 1, 2015:

Don rove us down a very sandy, rutty, eroded House Rock Valley Road, past the trailheads for Buckskin Gulch and Wire Pass, past North Coyote Buttes, and around to the south of South Coyote Buttes.  As we headed east, our road rose quickly, giving us a panoramic view across House Rock Valley Road to the hills west of us:

As the road rose, the sand grew very soft and deep.  We reached the top of a hill and spotted an SUV stuck in the sand.  The drivers were two of the many we had overheard at the BLM visitor center who contended to the rangers that they knew how to drive their low-clearance SUV's on dirt roads and weren't concerned about the rangers' warning that they needed high clearance, 4x4, the ability to deflate their tires, and experience driving in deep sand.  Our guide Don told us that it is common to find these over-confident visitors stuck, and he asked us if it was okay for him to take some time to pull them out of the sand.  We replied, "Sure!" knowing that this was going to be very entertaining. Besides, we couldn't get past them until we pulled them out.

After maybe 15 minutes of rescue efforts, we were on our way again.  In due course, we reached our trailhead at South Coyote Buttes:

As we started out the sandy trail, we could see the buttes in the near distance:

Don is an excellent guide.  Soft-spoken and unassuming, he is nevertheless an expert back-country driver and knowledgeable about the geology and features of this area.  He was also game to take adventurous photos of each of us when called for.  Here he is snapping a shot of Mikael while others in our group look on:

It's impossible to describe the variety, color and drama of all the formations we saw.  Don explained that geologists are not entirely sure what forces formed each of the things we saw, but he was helpful in relating to us the various theories why different layers of sandstone are differently colored and patterned, and why they deform in such unusual ways:

As you can see, there were more patterns to see than we could ever share:

The colors were both brilliant and subtle, and we found layer deformations in adjoining structures echoing each other:

Mikael, being the youngest in our group, was by far the most adventurous, both in his photo-taking techniques and in the ways he explored the environment.  Here, Ray captures Mikael mid-leap across a pool left by rain in one of the sandstone pockets:

We could have sat and looked at this work of art all day long:

In some cases, the patterns in rock played out on huge canvases spanning several rock formations:

In other cases it was the colors spread across formations like a watercolor painting:

We called this one, "The Wave" (not to be confused with the famous one):

Don said the locals like to call this formation "Dali" after the painter whose images the formation reminds to them:

Kathy spotted this unique color pattern crossing layers of sandstone.  Don had no explanation for this one:

As we left South Coyote Buttes, we turned back and noticed five sentinels watching us and seeming to stand guard over their territory.  David dubbed them the "Presidents," because, from one angle, they reminded him of the busts of famous presidents gracing Mount Rushmore:

By the time we had finished our exploration of South Coyote Buttes, it was lunchtime, and we repaired to the nearest shade to enjoy a meal prepared by our guide-cum-chef Don!

Next: On to White Pockets!

If you are interested, you can find all our photos from South Coyote Buttes here.