The Wave permit

Do you need a permit to see The Wave?

Yes, every hiker does, including babies carried in a pack. Permits come only from the BLM, through two lotteries on recreation.gov.

The Wave sits in Coyote Buttes North, a permit area inside the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness. The BLM issues up to 64 permits a day: 48 people (up to 12 groups) from the advance lottery and 16 people (up to 4 groups) from the daily lottery, whichever limit fills first, per the BLM's Wave FAQ.

Tours don't change this. A commercial guide can only take you if the guide's company itself wins a lottery slot, and then the guide counts toward the group limit. A private group that already holds a permit may hire one authorized guide, who doesn't count. The tours sold on this site go to White Pocket instead, which is the point: no permit, no draw.

How does the advance Wave lottery work?

Apply during any calendar month for a date four months ahead. The draw runs at 9 a.m. on the 1st of the next month, and winners must confirm and pay by the 15th.

The advance lottery is the one to enter from home. Here is the cycle for the next few draws, worked from the rules on recreation.gov:

The rules that trip people up:

• One application per person per draw. A second one gets you disqualified, so friends who travel together should each apply with different dates, not the same ones twice.
• Alternates must be named on the application, hold their own recreation.gov account and accept the invite within 3 days. If neither you nor an alternate turns up, the permit is void.
• Permits are non-refundable and can't be moved, even for snow or flooding.

The month-by-month dates for 2027 are in our Wave lottery calendar.

How does the daily Wave lottery work?

Apply on your phone two days before the hike, between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Utah time, from inside a geofence around Kanab and Page. Results come out that evening.

The daily lottery replaced the old walk-in draw at the Kanab visitor center in March 2022. It runs on recreation.gov and only works from a mobile device with location turned on: a laptop in your motel room won't do. The geofence covers about 3,272 square miles along US-89 and Highway 389, from around Kanab to Page.

Times are Utah and Navajo Nation time, which keeps daylight saving. Most of Arizona doesn't, so from March to November Page clocks run an hour behind the lottery. That catches people out every summer. The timeline above follows Kane County's daily lottery page.

Plan two or three spare days in Kanab or Page if the daily draw is your main shot. Each day you lose, you can fill with something that needs no luck: the other things to do in the monument.

How much does a Wave permit cost, and how big can your group be?

$6 to apply, then $7 per person and $7 per dog if you win. Groups are capped at 6 people, infants included.

The application fee is charged when you enter and is never refunded. The $7 recreation fee is only charged to winners. For a group of four that wins, the total is $6 + $28 = $34. Compare the other permits in the area:

Group rules: 6 is the hard limit, and two permits can't merge into a bigger party on the rock. Dogs go on the permit, pay $7, and don't count toward the 6. It's day use only: no camping, no drones, no bikes. A 2024 BLM draft plan proposed raising the Wave fee; it was not in force when we checked in October 2026. Background in our post on the BLM fee proposal.

No lottery, no permit, no cap: White Pocket on a small-group 4x4 day from Kanab, with a guide on the rock.

★ 5.0 · 8 hours · from $183

Explore the small-group White Pocket tour → Tour details

How do you get to The Wave?

From the Wire Pass trailhead in Utah: 37 miles east of Kanab or 36 miles west of Page on US-89, then 8.3 miles south on House Rock Valley Road, which is dirt.

Here is the twist most people miss. The Wave is in Arizona, but the trailhead isn't. Wire Pass sits just north of the state line in Utah, and the walk crosses into Arizona on the way.

• From Kanab: US-89 east for 37 miles, past the Paria Contact Station, then right onto House Rock Valley Road (BLM 1065).
• From Page: US-89 west for 36 miles to the same turn.
• The dirt road: 8.3 miles of maintained dirt to the trailhead. A high-clearance 2WD often makes it when dry. When wet, the clay turns slick and the BLM says it can be impassable for every vehicle.

Winners get a route description and orientation with the permit. Use that, not an app: the BLM warns that user-made routes on third-party apps have got hikers lost and hurt. Phones mostly don't work out there, though 911 sometimes connects. The free Stateline Campground is about 10 miles down the same road if you want to start at first light; more in where to stay.

How hard is the hike to The Wave?

The BLM calls it strenuous: 6.4 miles round trip, about 3 miles each way over sand and slickrock, with no trail, no shade and no water.

The route leaves Wire Pass along a sandy wash, then climbs over open slickrock and a sand slope to The Wave at about 5,200 feet. There are no signs. You navigate with the BLM's route photos and landmarks, and you come back the same way, often in the afternoon heat.

• Summer: from May to September there is extreme heat and no shade, and the BLM says this, with too little water, has killed hikers. Start at dawn and carry at least a gallon each.
• Monsoon: late summer storms bring flash floods and close the road.
• Winter: ice on the sandstone and cold wind. Short days, too.

Spring and autumn are the comfortable windows. Our pick for a winter attempt is a dry spell after a cold snap, with microspikes in the pack. The Paria Contact Station closes for the winter on November 15, 2026, and the seasonal changes are covered in our winter post.

What can you do if you lose the Wave lottery?

Go to White Pocket, which needs no permit, or try for Coyote Buttes South, which has its own smaller and less contested draw.

With 64 places a day, plenty of applicants go home without one. Here are the realistic consolations, best first:

1. White Pocket. Swirled white and red domes, polygon cracks and, after rain, mirror pools. No permit and no fee, per the BLM, but the last stretch is deep sand that needs a high-clearance 4x4. That is what the small-group tour from Kanab sells. Some photographers prefer it to The Wave. Full comparison in our White Pocket tours guide.
2. Coyote Buttes South. Same sandstone, different shapes, such as the orange teepees at Paw Hole and Cottonwood Cove. 20 permits a day: 10 on an online calendar that opens four months ahead and 10 in a daily geofence lottery, $5 a person (BLM). The catch: two of the three trailheads need 4WD in deep sand.
3. Wire Pass and Buckskin Gulch. No lottery at all. Pay $6 at the trailhead and walk 1.7 miles into one of the longest slot canyons in the Southwest, from the same parking lot as The Wave.
4. Enter again. The advance lottery runs every month, and the daily one every day you're in range.

A small-group White Pocket day from Kanab with time to hike the domes: the plan B that needs no luck.

New · 8 hours · from $430

Explore the White Pocket tour and hike → Tour details

Is The Wave worth it?

If you win, yes, and go. If you're planning a whole trip around winning, no: build it around White Pocket and treat The Wave as a bonus.

The Wave is as striking as the photos, and 64 people a day makes it quiet. But it is a 6.4-mile desert hike to a fairly small area, and you can't choose your date's weather. Honestly, the travelers who enjoy it most are the ones who also had a plan that didn't depend on a draw.

Our pick for a three-day stay in Kanab: enter the daily lottery each morning, book a White Pocket tour for one of the days, and hike Wire Pass on another. If you're coming from the Page side and want a famous slot without any lottery, read The Wave vs Antelope Canyon.

Frequently asked questions