Arriving back at the car after four hours in Buckskin Gulch, we were tired and we spent quite a while rallying ourselves to get moving again. Sitting in the car for the rest of the evening was tempting, but we had permits for South Coyotte Buttes good for that day only, and so we drove our two-wheel drive car as far down the sandy, washed-out road as we dared and then took off on foot to the trail-head.

It was a slow slog across a couple of miles through deep sand to even get to the beginning of the hike, which made for tired legs and left us feeling glad we hadn’t attempted to drive. We never would have made it. Then, we got to wandering the playground of sand and slickrock that makes up the Buttes, glad we’d made the time to come.

Though the rock formations don’t make such a startling wide wave formation as the North Butte, the rock formations are beautiful and in the evening light they glowed a deep purpley red. The scenery was good enough to put some energy back into our steps as we ran up and down the rocks and hills of sand, pointing and marveling at nearly everything. The rocks look liked they’d been hand sculpted. If you’re in the area and without a Wave permit, the South Butte is certainly worth a half day, even if you’ve only got a two-wheel drive vehicle.

And then, when we’d finally had enough, we trudged  back to the car, tired and feeling satisfied at the estimated 13 miles of hiking we’d put into the day. Time to find a place to camp.

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