Coyote Buttes
The Arizona–Utah border's fluted Navajo Sandstone slickrock — home of The Wave — where fossilized Jurassic dunes erode into curling, rhythmic troughs and fins.
Also known as: The Wave, Coyote Buttes / 'The Wave', Coyote Buttes / The Wave
Coyote Buttes is a maze of fluted, banded slickrock on the Arizona–Utah border, and its centerpiece — The Wave — is one of the most photographed rock formations on Earth. It is all Jurassic Navajo Sandstone: fossilized dunes whose sweeping cross-beds have been eroded by wind and water into smooth, rhythmic troughs and thin ridges that curl like breaking surf. Access is famously rationed by permit to protect the fragile fins.
Geology
Formation: Wind and water erosion of cross-bedded Jurassic Navajo Sandstone (a fossilized erg, or dune sea) into intersecting U-shaped troughs and thin fins; differential erosion of the rhythmic dune laminae produces the banded 'wave' surface.
A world-famous exposure of Navajo Sandstone cross-bedding, where the internal architecture of an ancient dune field is laid bare on a sculpted, walkable surface; trace fossils and possible dinosaur tracks are documented nearby.
Primary formation: Navajo Sandstone
Age: Jurassic (190 Mya)
Fragile; access is limited by a competitive BLM permit lottery.
History
The Wave is named for its curling, surf-like ridges of banded sandstone.