The Wave, Natural sandstone formation in Coyote Buttes, Arizona, United States

The Wave is a sandstone formation of intersecting U-shaped troughs eroded into Navajo Sandstone. The main trough measures 62 feet wide by 118 feet long, and a second is 7 feet wide by 52 feet long. Thin, alternating grainflow and windripple laminae create sweeping bands of pale sand, tan, rust red, and dark brown across rounded mounds and blocky outcrops.

The Wave is carved into Navajo Sandstone laid down during the Early Jurassic, roughly 190 million years ago, when migrating dunes built up cross-bedded layers of sand. Runoff along joints first cut the two U-shaped troughs, then the feeding drainage shrank and wind became the main eroding force. The formation stayed little known until the 1990s, when a German travel brochure and the 1996 documentary Fascinating Nature publicised it.

The Wave became widely known through a German travel brochure and the 1996 documentary Fascinating Nature, and it draws many European visitors. Its name comes from the wave-like curves of the eroded Navajo Sandstone. Visitors photograph the formation around midday, when shadows leave the center.

Visitors must secure one of 64 daily permits through an online lottery system or an in-person drawing at Kanab visitor center, with applications accumulating months in advance. The hike of approximately 6 miles roundtrip requires navigation without marked trails through desert terrain with limited shade. Essential equipment includes multiple liters of water, navigation tools, and appropriate footwear for uneven sandstone surfaces that can be slippery.

After rainstorms, pools form in the rock and can hold hundreds of tadpole shrimps (Lepidurus apus), which appear for several days before the water goes. The same Navajo Sandstone holds deformed laminae, likely churned by dinosaurs before the sand hardened, plus fossil burrows of desert beetles and insects.