The Wave Tour with Wire Pass Slot Canyon

Daytours include pickup and dropoff from local hotels, off-road transportation, natural history narration, guided hiking, photo advice, snacks, water, and lunch on tours of 6 hours or more. Our multi-day tours include all of this plus camping equipment, camp management, three excellent meals, stargazing, sunsets and sunrises for the photographer, and lots more time outside.

This depends on several factors, but our best advice is to book as soon as you finalize your plans. We do fill up, and if you have a limited window of opportunity, you may miss out. The smaller your availability window and the tighter your schedule, the earlier you need to book in order to ensure availability. The larger your group, especially if it involves more than one of our trucks (>7 passengers), the earlier you need to book.

We reserve the right to fill the truck. There is always a possibility it will just be your group, but it is not guaranteed. Requests to make a partially filled tour private are considered on a case by case basis and are based on buying a flexible number of additional seats. Additional fees will apply. Customers booking standard fares and tours should never expect that the tour will be private. We can and will fill the seats to capacity if possible. The max is 5-8 depending on the truck and destination.

These policies are all found on our Policies Page. PLEASE NOTE: Because of the constantly changing weather, targets moving over the whole region (our trucks), unpredictability of weather forecasts, the complexities of different road surfaces in different areas, the variable nature of storms as far as coverage and volume in this area, and the fact that some of the best photography weather is often on days with a chance of rain, we do not reflexively cancel tours without solid information. However, as your safety is always paramount in situations where incontrovertible evidence leads us to believe that potentially dangerous situations are probable, we will cancel tours if necessary. We will assume tours will run until departure time. We do not cancel tours until departure time as the most relevant information is at hand. Also if we know of a particular area or time that will be a problem we will often consult with all parties on the tour as to how best to go about re-routing, postponement, or cancellation. Trying to manage this on the phone hours before the tour is nearly impossible. If a party decides to cancel prior to departure time for reasons of weather forecasts, the cancellation will be subject to the standard policy. Cancellations made by us at departure will be accompanied by a full refund if no other solution can be reached. Also the information we have at any given time is often incomplete. For example, we do not know if the Wave is covered in snow or if the route is hikeable, whether roads are impassable in a given location etc….as we do not have a webcam at these remote locations. We do try to network to get better information if we can. Sometimes incontrovertible evidence is only found once the tour has begun. Guessing, followed by reflexive cancellations, we have learned, produces more poor results for everyone involved, than the strategy we take. It is very, very complex making these decisions. We are always monitoring the weather and have many years of experience managing the logistics that are affected by weather in this area. Please trust us to act in both our best interests.

All of our tours are run in Chevrolet Suburbans or Crew Cab Silverados for comfort and safety. We do not offer ATV or Jeep Tours.

The biggest things you need to remember on a daytour are a small pack to carry your own water (essential especially on tours with more hiking), jacket for warmth and rain (essential), boots or high top sneakers (optional but optimal in sand), any essential medication, and camera. Other items include extra layers when cold, hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, chapstick, and other typical daytime sundries. For scheduled overnights bring all the same except an extra layer or two. You do not need a change of clothes. For overnights in April or October bring a warm hat and gloves. For custom multi-day trips just add a change of clothes or two. On all tours we provide water and snacks. On daytours of more than 6 hours and multi-days more than 24 hours we provide lunch. On scheduled overnights of 24 hours we do not provide lunch so please eat before you come.

You can find average monthly temperatures and precipitation for Kanab HERE and also read our BLOG POST on the topic.

Due to the remoteness of many of our tours, there is no practical way for us to offer tours with sunrise photo shoots. If you are interested in a sunrise shoot, we suggest one of our overnight tours, specially designed for photographers. Sunsets can be experienced on our Sunset Safari Tour or can sometimes be accommodated on a case by case basis by request usually during Winter or at locations near Kanab. Remote sunsets in Summer require tours not returning until midnight and remote Sunrises require departures of 3:30am, both of which are impractical.

In the United States tipping is not required, but it is the socially accepted norm. When a service has been provided to you, tipping of the immediate providing individual is customary. Tipping of tour guides is typically around 10% of the tour cost. Tips are never expected, but always greatly appreciated by our guides.

We pick up anywhere in Kanab for all tours. WE DO NOT PICK UP IN PAGE. Other meetups or pickup locations are possible depending on tour logistics and are determined on a case by case basis. Pickups, meetup locations, and exceptions are purely at our discretion. If you are staying in Page, and wish to avoid backtracking, and are doing a Wave, White Pocket, or South Coyote Buttes, or a variant of these tours, we often arrange to meet people at the intersection of House Rock Valley Rd and Hwy 89. For those staying in Kanab but travelling on to Page or other AZ destinations that evening, guests sometimes follow in their own cars from Kanab and park them at an appropriate place to avoid backtracking. Many people travelling through or who have just arrived opt to meet us at our location: 4350 E Mountain View Drive Kanab, UT 84741. Parking and Storage are available here.

Fit, experienced hikers would probably consider this a hike of moderate difficulty. There are long stretches of deep sand to trudge through and an elevation gain of about 500 feet on the trek. There are a few steep inclines with loose footing, and often you will be hiking on uneven sandstone with one foot higher than the other while you hug the side of a steep sandstone ridge. Folks with knee injuries may find the uneven footing and loose sand particularly challenging. Elevation is also a factor. Many visitors come from sea level. North Coyote Buttes is above 5,000 feet or 1,500 meters in elevation. Decent cardio fitness, leg strength, some amount of endurance and good balance are needed. Practice walking in deep, dry sand on a beach for at least 1.5 miles to get a sense of the difficulty of the sandy sections.

Wind and harsh weather are other factors. This is a particularly windy spot that makes the winter chill even colder. Ice and snow make the uneven hike quite slippery. Falls are common, even among the sure footed when it’s slippery. Summer heat really packs a punch. The sun is relentless, heating the ground until the radiant heat rises from the earth while the sun shines from above. There is little shade.

There are harder hikes in the desert Southwest, but because the Wave has become famous, it attracts all sorts of visitors, not just avid hikers who are used to cross-country travel where there are no signs or marked trails. Stories of rescues in North Coyote Buttes of those who got lost, ran out of water or showed signs of heat stroke are not uncommon. Cell phone service is spotty and you can’t count on finding a park ranger around every corner like at the national park.