Coyote Buttes South, guided hike and bush-wacking route
When you hear the phrase “Coyote Buttes South”, the first thing that comes to mind is The Wave. Well, not quite. The Wave is within the North permit, but in the South area there are lots of weird stuff to see.
You need a permit to hike in the area (except at White Pocket, but that will soon change). The permit is first come, first served at the website and as of 2020 I can see the permits gone for fourth months in advance in about one hour.
I have made three completely trips to this area …………
Pawhole
I don’t want to drive on those sandy roads. I am comfortable driving in House Rock Valley road, so I drove up to Pawhole and started hiking uphill on a very sandy road until I got to the Pawhole area. This is the smallest area, very sandy.
I made the foolish attempt to reach Cottonwood Cove by hiking from there. It was early June and by the time I got there I was so tired that I just took a couple of pics and turned around.
Take a guided tour
I then gave up and decided to book a guide tour. I went there in February when it has recently snowed. The roads were horrible, but the guide was driving a gigantic SUV and had good practice. The snow made Cottonwood Cove look extra cool:
The guide was very knowledgeable but I just like exploring myself. The group even walked by this magnificent find:
These are called the harry potter rocks …………. get it ?
And lots more weird rock formations":
The control tower
The it was time to drive to White Pocket and it was all I was expecting it to be. The hike was short, we were running out of time, so there is a lot more to explore in there.
Here is a gallery of pics of the area ……………….. Enjoy !
The shortcut
I was still trying to figure out how to get to at least Cottonwood Cove and bypassing the dirt road and then I ran into a website that explained a path from House Rock Valley Road to the area. I decided to map it in Google Earth and there was a patch of dirt that took me over a rocky ridge.
There was no trail, so social trail, but as I was getting close to the ridge that I was supposed to go over I could see the sandy patch that gave me a foothold to cross it. I went over and immediately ran into nice rock formations.
I was fighting the sun, but I couldn’t get a nice pic of this arch.
I then had to get down to the valley below and after a false start, I found a break in the rocks to slip down.
There are a few nice hoodoos down there, even though I missed some (someone alerted me on Facebook after my visit).
The hike is about 3 miles and very sandy. You have to be careful when you get to Cottonwood Cove since if you just make a right, you will run against rock formations that you can’t climb. You have to go past the area, make a right and then properly enter it.
I took this pic at one of those spots where I couldn’t cross into Cottonwood Cove.
At that point, I have a mandate: take pics of the Chess Queen and the Weird Rock. I hiked (using GPS all the time, else you will get lost) to the Chess Queen first and took nice pics.
I then went to Cottonwood Cove next. I did hear a car in the parking lot but I didn’t run into any people. And found it !!!
see how the color “bleeds” into the ground and the rock beyond.
Since I got stuck, I was short on time so I decided to call it a day.
Conclusion: this is a valid trail to use, but never absolutely never in the summer. There is too much sand and full sun exposure is too much. I do plan to get back and fully exploring the area; now since there is less daylight during spring or fall I need to get there super early to take advantage.