The main reason for our trip to Page: Marco won the lottery for a permit to The Wave again! It’s his 4th time winning, but only our second visit! Last time (in March) we couldn’t go because of the weather, but this time the conditions are perfect. It’s not too cold, the roads are dry and there is not a single cloud in the sky (as a photographer, Marco had wished for a few clouds to add some contrast to the photos though).

As we did 2 years ago on our first visit, we leave the hotel at 4am, get to the Wire Pass parking lot at 5:15am and start walking in the dark. It is magical to see all the stars so close and then watching dawn on our way.

We arrive at The Wave at 7:30am, the only other person, arriving just shortly after us, is a volunteer, who checks if we have a permit and is there to make sure everyone is safe.

We spend the whole morning walking around and shooting pictures and videos. This place is so magic, the colors and shapes are fascinating and the rising sun is constantly changing the light conditions. We soon realize that we will not have enough time (and energy) to walk around the mountain to get to Top Rock Arch, Melodie Arch and the Alcove. But that is not the end of the world, we are happy and satisfied with what we saw and will keep playing the lottery to come back. Even though the walk in and out is only about 3 miles (5km) each way, we walked almost 10 miles (16km) that day.

The volunteer we met in the morning told us that he saw a group of Bighorn Sheep a couple days ago on the way out. And, guess what, just before the last ascend on our hike back in the afternoon, Marco hears something, turns around and here they are! 15 female Bighorn Sheep divided into several smaller groups. They come down, close to the trail to eat some shrubs and only run back up the cliffs when another group of hikers appear. This is the icing on the cake making it a perfect day – we will be back!