The Wave - 8th Wonder of the World!

I still can't believe that, but we were there - in The Wave or Coyote Buttes North. This pristine and beautiful place is located in Paria Canyon - Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness Area - about 45 miles NW from Page. To get there you need to obtain some permit in advance (10 person a day limit!) or try your luck and get walk-in permit (another 10 person a day). Permits are available from BLM.
After getting to the WirePass parking we left our car and started short hike. Trail is not very well marked or even it's not marked at all, so we had to rely on our GPS device and maps we received from BLM. Maps are interesting, because they consists of 8 or 9 pictures of the trail and it really helps. Traditional maps would be useless here. After few hours of walking this short distance we finally arrived to famous Wave formation. It took us so long not because it's hard trail - its difficulty is average, sometimes you have to cross deep sandy paths, other times you go up on slippery rocks - we were just stopping very often to take another picture. The whole trail from the parking to The Wave has about 5 km one way.
What we've seen was breathtaking! Mix of twisted, colorful rocks - it looks like unsuccessful try of preparing dough for a cake by some giant! Unimaginable experience. I don't know how to describe it better, so would like to show you some pictures...

Safety in Sevilla, water shoes in Poland

This week I plan to begin my short trip to Spain. It means I'll finally reach Sevilla among others. Browsing the internet I came across very interesting link about safety in this old city. You may also consider this link interesting, so I decided to mention it here:

Sevilla Safety

And getting back to my US phototrip I still have a lot to arrange. One of such thing are water shoes. Till yesterday I was sure it's not possible to find such shoes in Poland, but it appeared that's not true anymore! You can find two models in Intersport chain - they've Salomon Techamphibian and Merrell Gauley. Of course my first choice was Teva, but we don't have a serious Teva dealer in Poland. It seems that I'll have to stick to Merrell. Salomon Techamphibian doesn't look well and my first impression was neutral. Or the other choice is to wait and buy water shoes in US - the only problem is time. We'll arrive late evening and the next day we've to get to Page - over 500km. It means time for shopping is very limited.
And what's all the buzz about water shoes? The problem is with two expeditions - one to Subway part of Zion NP and the other to Beaver Falls (see picture on the left) in Havasupai - never been in the first one, but lack of proper shoes was the main problem in the last one during my recent visit. Trail from the Hilltop parking to the campground is rather dry and you can use plain hiking boots until you want to take few pictures of famous Navajo Falls. The only way to get close to the waterfall is to wade through the water, put your tripod on the bottom of it and start taking pictures. You've to stand on very stony bottom all the time and if you're barefoot, it can be a bit tricky. I know it's much better to have some shoes that'll allow you to feel more comfortable. Of course you can't just use your hiking boots. You need something more specialized. One of the answer are water shoes.
The other trail, where water shoes are the must, is the path from the campground to wonderful Beaver Falls. To get there you have to cross creek many times and take your shoes off and putting on all the time. This is very time consuming and annoying process, so I definitely don't want to get through it again! With water shoes you just go and take pictures. Moreover you are on the not so easy trail, so you must have water shoes and hiking boots in one. I hope that with Vibram sole I'll feel safe and stable on the trail and in the water.

it's closer and closer

I mean our trip is closer - less than 50 days left to departure Warsaw Airport. We fly to Phoenix thru Paris and Atlanta. There we'll take a car and go north to Page. And there we have something that most can only dream of - we have a permit to get to Paria Canyon - the famous Wave formation.
As you may guess this is not the place for everyone - you need to win the lottery to get there - only 10 people a day are permitted based on the advance lottery and 10 people based on on-site lottery on the day of entry. Fortunately one of us was lucky enough to win and we have a permit! If you also need one, please try BLM.
After the day in Wave we plan to visit Antelope Canyon Lower and Upper, Horseshoe Band and Page area in general. This is really interesting part of Arizona.
And please don't forget why we go there - to take some amazing pictures. I hope we will have the weather and everything to have a really good pics.
I'll be back soon to write what we gonna do after departing Page - it's also something not for everyone!