Hidden Treasure of America: The Wave !
Replies: 53 - Last Post: Sep 2, 2012 1:25 PM Last Post By: ianw6705
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I've been to the trailhead a number of times, and I have been checked on several occasions. The other hikes from the trailhead DO require a permit, but not of the competitive lottery type - you sign in and pay a daily use fee. Unless you are through-hiking the Paria River, in which case you need a different somewhat less hard-to-get permit.Max, you're a cute troll so I'll play with you.
Look, your friends and neighbors may not have heard of the Wave, and it may not be as famous as the several major national parks down the road, but still. I don't know what the exact criteria for "hidden treasure" status should be, but I can think of several things that would be instant dis-qualifiers. Things like a permit system so competitive that you pretty much have to cheat the system to beat out the thousands of tourists from all over the world trying to snag a slot. Things like being featured for over a decade on the cover of one of the most popular and ubiquitous local hiking guidebooks (Hiking Arizona by Stuart Aitcheson, Falcon Guides). Lonely Planet may not feature it, but rest assured every single hiking guide to the region does. Frankly, showing up any given day and encountering a bunch of foreign tourists pretty much disqualifies a place from "hidden treasure" status in my book. Or perhaps it's like Yogi Berra said: "Nobody goes to that place anymore, it's too crowded".
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Not many people go there without a permit. I work there and spend most of my time in the Vermilion Cliffs. Getting busted by the federal govt is no party. A non us citizen gets booted out for 10 years with a fine and banned from us nat'l parks and us citizens get the fine. The permit costs $5. If you don't win one there are 7 other great places in the park to go to17
LP USA guide book, "the bible", does not mention it.
The notion that something not having been included in a LP for any country is a valid metric for what constitutes a "hidden treasure" is comedy gold. The reverse, however, may be true: anything included in any LP has almost certainly been "discovered" to death. Nor is any place that merits its own Wikipedia page exactly a well-kept secret.
However, just out of curiosity, I went to Amazon and used their "Look Inside the book" feature to see if their regional guide to the Southwest USA (as opposed to the ridiculously superficial guide to the entire USA) really didn't mention it. But, sure enough, there it is, on p. 446: "Day hikers fight like dogs to get a North Coyote Buttes permit. This trail-less expanse of slickrock includes one of the Southwest's most famous formations--the Wave. The nearly magical sight of slickrock that appears to be seething and swirling in waves..." etc.
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Ok, sure, you knew about it , fine, but take a look at the selection of people answered in the thread? One works at the site, the other lives just down the road in Flagstaff, etc. You have heard about it, of course. Ask a backpacker from California or Oregon, and I can guarantee you it is NOT a known place. Just to prove my point, and please this is NOT meant to brag, but I am a one of the more traveled members in this branch having been to 33 US states plus Puerto Rico and USVI, visited countless national parks and driven tens of thousands of miles cross the US. I've also been a member here for almost a decade and helped thousands of posters in this very branch to enhance their vacation. Yet I had NOT heard of the Wave until June 22 this year as proven by this post, how could that be? Well, I'll tell you how, because it is not a well known place. If such a remarkable place manage to elude a person like me during ten years of traveling the world, I have the full right to declare it a hidden treasure.19
How interesting, the only people getting permits are foreigners, yet the only people who know about it are locals. Weird how that works.Notice that nobody said "I've heard of it, so it's not hidden", which is the straw man you're knocking down. I pointed out that it is visited by thousands of people every year, from all over the world no less, and many thousands more try to get a permit and don't. I pointed out that it was right there on the freaking cover of a popular and widely read guidebook to the region (as well as being featured in many, many others). Others pointed out that it has it's own wikipedia entry, and is, in fact, in an LP guidebook (which also makes mention of the competitive permit system). Heck, the second sentence of the Wikipedia entry begins: "It is famous among hikers and photographers for its colorful, undulating forms...". It may have by some happenstance escaped your notice... but unknown? Sorry, that's just not the case.
Hey, look, at the end of the day if you made a personal discovery and feel like you stumbled upon a hidden gem, that's great. I really mean that. Truly. I guess we're each entitled to our own ideas about what constitutes a "hidden" treasure.
Edited by: FlagStuff
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but I am a one of the more traveled members in this branch having been to 33 US states
lol. Only 33? I've been stuck at 49 for fifteen years or so, for what its worth. And I happen to be "a backpacker from California," so there goes that theory as well.
Your logic is really something else. The only thing conclusively demonstrated by the fact that you didn't know about the Wave until recently is that you didn't happen to know about it...and that there's an interesting disconnect between your own perception of your expertise, and reality as experienced by most of the posters on this thread (as well as the LP, which, above, describes it as "one of the most famous formations...")
You are, of course, free to call it a "hidden treasure" if you like. Hidden treasures are in the eye of the beholder. But you shouldn't be surprised if others who have traveled in the area think you're nuts. (For the record, I haven't been there, but it's been on my bucket list for years and years.)
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Doesn't merit a competition. It's the other obvious one: Hawaii.25
Another Californian backpacker here. As noted above, I am quite familiar with the existence of the Wave and its permit system. Oh, and I've been to 48 states. You'll never guess the missing ones.26
This is getting ridiculous, your bragging and guessing states back and forth have nothing to do with the OP. Flagstuff, your post is belittling. As I said already, the wave can not be seen from any road, nor from quite close of a distance and is by any definition HIDDEN. You can not argue with this. Whether it's a treasure or not, take a look at the picture in the OP and formulate your own opinion.And sure, the wave is well known in the circles of people who do a lot of hiking in the area or have for some reason heard of it before, but outside of this, it IS unknown and I KNOW it to be so, argue as much as you wish. Others seem to agree with me. In this travel page, 'tigerlily2' describes the wave as "a well-hidden treasure".
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H Mad Max ... I'm an Aussie from beautiful Melbourne (the world's most liveable city, and a truly hidden treasure), and even we have about 33 states on the list ... not that it means very much - states are so small that you can go through three in a day.ADVERTISEMENT
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