I don’t remember how I knew about The Wave, but I was immediately attracted. Every day, only twenty people can go into that secret place. Ten permits are given out through the online lottery, and the other ten are drawn in the visitor center in Kanab. Out of our eight days’ travel, I decided to try three days. And if we could get the permit, we would give up any other plans! In fact, because of The Wave, we rented a 4WD jeep instead of a standard car.
Comparing to The Wave, White Pocket has some similar features, but is probably not as carefully crafted (could be intentional though!) by nature. Nevertheless, White Pocket is White Pocket – it has some unique features, and it does not require special permit. We were afraid that we would not be able to go to The Wave, so we decided to try White Pocket first! But to be honest, later I thought that even if we could see The Wave, White Pocket would still be as worthy! White Pocket is not a second choice or a backup. It’s the best choice we made in our Grand Circle trip!
We drove from Page with 3/4 tank of fuel. We thought there would be gas stand on the way, but, we were wrong! So we have been worrying about running out of gas for the whole day!!! The route to White Pocket can be found online. It’s not very difficult, but it’s nothing like following google map. We have had doubts a couple of times. And we actually got lost once! The road condition was not too bad that day (be sure to check with the visitor center in Kanab). However, there’s one deep ditch we had to cross. We stopped in front of the ditch, and was checking out the condition. Interestingly, there’s another jeep parked not far away. One old man, who perhaps has sensed our hesitation, said to us that our jeep should be able to do it. With that encouragement, we jumped into our car. My husband switched it to 4WD. Slowly and carefully, he did it! (I don’t think I can do it.)
Shortly after crossing the ditch, we passed a small parking lot – several cars parked there. It looks like a trailhead. Later we knew that it’s the trailhead for The Wave! There are restrooms, and even bottled water, which are left there to save people’s lives! Because The Wave requires more than 3 hrs’s hiking one way. No wonder that people started their trips early when it’s cooler. Anyway, we kept driving to our destination. For White Pocket, the driving is long ~ 3hrs, but no hiking.
As I said, our gas was low. Therefore, we turned off the AC, and left the windows open. The road is rocky, but not as sandy as we thought… We have met only one car… If we ran out of gas, we would not be able to get any help! I have never been to a place as wild as this! Oh, maybe the volcano island in Hawaii is comparable, but there seem to be more people around. When we got closer to White Pocket, the road turned more sandy. Our jeep got a small stuck once. Overall we were lucky to have missed spots with deep sand.
Finally we reached White Pocket! We saw a group of three were leaving. They said us that it’s worth it, and it’s all yours now 🙂 Yes, after they left, we were the only human beings there.
Now it’s the difficult part of writing, because White Pocket is non-describable. If I can only compare it with the volcano land in Hawaii, I would say that I can imagine and understand the volcano land, but I cannot imagine or understand the formation of White Pocket! It’s like nothing else in this planet. And of course, the feeling of being alone in this amazing place was … amazing!
My photos show some views of White Pocket, but being inside of it is totally different. White Pocket truly awaits you to discover with your own eyes.
That day, it’s the thunderstorm dragged us out of White Pocket… otherwise it’s difficult to notice the time!
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