May 30 – Rest Day

SUCCESS!

I went to The Wave lottery this morning and there were 36 groups totalling about 85 people. I was the third number called. At the end there were 3 spots left and a family of four was called. I think the mom or dad bit the bullet because they accepted and the kids were not old enough to stay on their own.

Those of us that won got the “secret” map and a talk from the ranger about of the landmarks to look for to help get us there. It is 5 km each way with a portion of it quite sandy and another across unmarked slickrock. It is a tough hike.

Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and very hot with a high of around 36 C / 94 F. We will try to get up really early to start just after sunrise and make at least the trip out a bit cooler.

I think we will want to be there a long time. The ranger recommended taking at least 1 gallon of water per person. That is a lot of weight along with whatever food we will take.

One of the people that won was an astro photographer that wanted to stay there all night to get pictures of the Wave with the Milky Way in the sky.  He initially thought that he could drive there. He talked about needing to take his tripod, automatic panorama tripod head, camera and all his accessories plus food and water. He was a bit shocked to find out it was a 3 mile hike. We’ll see how he does tomorrow.

We were going to go to the north rim of the Grand Canyon today but I think we will wait until Sunday. Today we just did some chores and will try to get to bed early.

We went out to lunch at this great pizza place just around the corner.

You can’t beat the price. $5 for all you can eat pizza with a selection of 9 different pizzas and 3 dessert pizzas, all very good. The salad bar had a good selection and there was tasty chili and soup. Since today is the only day we will be here at lunch so we had to go.

Off to the Wave!