The Wave (Coyote Buttes North)

The Wave is perhaps the most heavily photographed and tightly regulated natural attraction in the American Southwest. Situated in the Coyote Buttes North Special Management Area of the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, it is a magnificent, surreal basin of swirling, intersecting U-shaped troughs of Navajo sandstone. The rock is fiercely striated with vivid red, orange, yellow, and white banding, formed by Jurassic-era sand dunes compacted over millions of years and then eroded by wind and water. Because the landscape is incredibly fragile, access is strictly limited by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to a tiny number of lucky lottery winners per day. There is no marked trail; hikers receive a pictorial map and GPS coordinates to cross wild, trackless slickrock and deep sand to locate the formation.

The Great Ocean Walk is a 104km point-to-point coastal trekking route in Victoria, Australia. Connecting Apollo Bay to the Twelve Apostles, the trail follows the Shipwreck Coast within the Great Otway National Park. The route traverses mixed terrain including Mountain Ash forests, coastal heathland, and tidal beaches. It serves as a terrestrial alternative to the Great Ocean Road, providing access to remote cliff-top vantage points above the Southern Ocean. Surface composition consists of managed forest tracks, purpose-built boardwalks, and segments of uncompacted sand and rocky littoral platforms.